[SOLVED] Installing via USB, non-free drivers won't load

[shewhorn]

Arrrghhh this is so frustrating, you'd think something so simple would be a little easier... I know I've solved this problem before but I can't for the life of me find the solution again.

I'm installing the testing version of Stretch on a Dell XPS-13 9350 (Skylake). I've removed the Broadcom WiFi card and installed an Intel 7265D. When it gets to "Detect Network Hardware" it says:

Some of your harware needs non-free firmware files to operate... blah blah blah The missing files are iwlwifi-7265D-13.ucode through iwlwifi-7265D-21. Load missing firmware from removable media?

So I insert the USB stick (ext4 format) which has these files on it, and it can't find it. All the documentation I've found says it should just work. This has never been the case, it's never found the stick. I've tried various suggestion such as naming the stick "firmware" and putting the files in the root level, and I've also tried putting the files in the path /lib/firmware/ on the stick as well. That never works.

The way I solved the problem before was to somehow exit to a terminal, umount the stick, put the stick with the firmware in, mount it, and then go back to the gui. I believe the exit sequence for this is ctrl alt f2 (which I can't find anywhere in the actual documentation, at least not by searching, found that in a stackexchange post) but when I get there, it won't let me unmount the stick, and I also can't find any way to get back into the gui.

Am I on the right track here?

[GarryRicketson]

I think you would do well to take a look at all the most recent bug reports involving testing
and packages for testing, such as 'apt-get', and 'synaptic', 'GTK3' (things may have changed, since the last time I looked, I do not really follow it that closely since I do not use the testing versions)
I will assume since you are using testing and stretch you
all ready know how to do all that.
If you don't, then I suppose this is as good a place as any to start:
https://wiki.debian.org/DebianTesting
A small part,...

How to use Debian (next-stable) Testing

First thing is to assess the current state of testing. Have a look at the recent topics in the debian-testing mailing list archive and the Status/Testing Wiki-Page. Besides using these specific resources you can also use the general debian-user and debian-devel mailing lists, IRC channels #debian or #debian-next, and of course the debian bug tracker. You may also have a look at the DebianDesktopHowTo.

===edit=== note:
I do realize this might seem to have nothing to do with installing stretch via usb,
however, last week there was a lot of things (bugs) going on, related to apt-get, and
synaptic, and they were also effect a lot of other packages, upgrades,etc,..
So if you recently downloaded , or installed packages, etc,... it could effect
what you have on the USB stick, and also when you install, especially if you
are trying to install additional packages.
Anyway, my apology if it seem "off topic", it is just a suggestion and if you don't
feel it is of any use, just ignore it.

[shewhorn]

Thanks, I believe my mention of Stretch testing is a red herring as I've experienced this before trying to install the release version of Jessie.

Okay... here's the exact process that worked (for anyone else looking to solve this). I should note that I'm using the blueray installer iso for Stretch testing:

CTRL+ALT+F2 gets me into the command line terminal.
umount /cdrom
remove Stretch testing installer USB stick
Insert USB stick with firmware-iwlwifi-[version].deb package
fdisk -l
In my case the stick was on /dev/sdb and the partition was /dev/sdb1 so...
mount /dev/sdb1 /cdrom
CTRL+ALT+F5 (the function key is needed as well since it's a laptop with multi-function keys)

From here it sees the files and loads them. I am now connected to the network and can continue with the installation. Eventually it will complain that it can't find the installer disk. Just go through the process above to unmount the firmware stick and mount the installer stick again.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

https://www.debian.org/releases/stretch ... 04.html.en

[sunrat]

Okay... here's the exact process that worked (for anyone else looking to solve this).

So this is solved? Please edit the title in your first post and add [SOLVED].

Note that there are unofficial Debian images available that include non-free firmware.
http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unoff ... -firmware/

[shewhorn]

Good points... wrote it all down in my notebook (note taking... perhaps that will help me better commit all of this to memory when I have to do it again in 8ish months ).

Thanks all for the suggestions, links, etc. The wisdom and help is much appreciated.

[carex]

I would just download the firmware.zip from:
http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unoff ... e/current/
Then I would untar this file and copy the resulting files to the root of some fat32 formatted usb key.

Then when installing Jessie on the new machine and when prompted for missing software I would mount the usb key to /media
I did this a few time with success.

Note that I always had to mount the usb key manually: mount -t vfa /dev/sdx /media
Hope this can be usefull to somebody.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

The installer *asked* if I wanted to include non-free

Was this an official image?

I don't like that -- the non-free "dance of shame" is an important rite of initiation

[Head_on_a_Stick]

there's no such thing as an official installer with firmware, is there?

No, there isn't -- hence my surprise

[sunrat]

there's no such thing as an official installer with firmware, is there?

No, there isn't -- hence my surprise

It's the "official" unofficial installer.

[Horizon_Brave]

there's no such thing as an official installer with firmware, is there?

No, there isn't -- hence my surprise

Hi HoaS! Fancy seeing you here!

If the debian installer doesn't have 'firmware' options, then what's this about?
https://wiki.debian.org/Firmware

specifically:

In some cases the installer detects the need for non-free firmware and prompts the user to make the firmware available to the installer to complete the installation, see ipw2200 for an example.

Before starting the installation process on hardware unfamiliar to you, a suggestion is to download the firmware tarball for your installation and unpack it into a directory named "firmware" in the root of a removable storage device. When the installer starts, it will automatically find the firmware files in the directory on the removable storage and, if needed, install the firmware for your hardware. The link to the firmware download for your Debian version is http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unoff ... /firmware/.

[pendrachken]

The installer *asked* if I wanted to include non-free

Was this an official image?

I don't like that -- the non-free "dance of shame" is an important rite of initiation

The official installer has asked that (I think only for expert installs ) for quite some time. At least I have seen the dialog box pop up right before configuring APT, and it says all the blah blah non-free, but can make some hardware work but can't see or modify sources like the rest of Linux, blah blah.... do you want to enable contrib and non-free in your sources.list Y\N? This was either on the wheezy or jessie installer, I don't remember which. It's been a while since I have had to install on anything.

Normally users won't see it, as they don't select the "expert install" option at boot time.