[SOLVED] Install Debian on HP Notebook

[Wheelerof4te]

I have followed this wiki page:

https://wiki.debian.org/wl

Here it said broadcom-sta-dkms driver supports my wi-fi card. But it failed to build the module when I ran:

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install broadcom-sta-dkms

I even tried the command as described in the wiki page. It does not load the wl module. I tried nonfree image, same result.

Maybe this driver can't build on kernel 4.9. Maybe I need to restart in order for wifi to work. I don't know, and I don't wanna risk it. Since live image can't get the Wi-Fi to work, there is nothing else for me to do.

I will try your suggestions, but it's better to keep this image for some other computer (maybe a bit older).

If someone with the same HP model as me gets Debian to work with wifi, he/she is free to post it here.

EDIT: Thank you for really trying to help

[Wheelerof4te]

Here is the full output from

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install broadcom-sta-dkms

Code: Select all

user@debian:~$ sudo apt-get install broadcom-sta-dkms
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  broadcom-sta-dkms
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 2,211 kB of archives.
After this operation, 14.5 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/non-free amd64 broadcom-sta-dkms all 6.30.223.271-5 [2,211 kB]
Fetched 2,211 kB in 1s (1,127 kB/s)            
Selecting previously unselected package broadcom-sta-dkms.
(Reading database ... 184736 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../broadcom-sta-dkms_6.30.223.271-5_all.deb ...
Unpacking broadcom-sta-dkms (6.30.223.271-5) ...
Setting up broadcom-sta-dkms (6.30.223.271-5) ...
Loading new broadcom-sta-6.30.223.271 DKMS files...
Building for 4.9.0-3-amd64
Building initial module for 4.9.0-3-amd64
Done.

wl:
Running module version sanity check.
 - Original module
   - No original module exists within this kernel
 - Installation
   - Installing to /lib/modules/4.9.0-3-amd64/updates/dkms/

depmod.....

Backing up initrd.img-4.9.0-3-amd64 to /boot/initrd.img-4.9.0-3-amd64.old-dkms
Making new initrd.img-4.9.0-3-amd64
(If next boot fails, revert to initrd.img-4.9.0-3-amd64.old-dkms image)
update-initramfs........(bad exit status: 1)

-------- Uninstall Beginning --------
Module:  broadcom-sta
Version: 6.30.223.271
Kernel:  4.9.0-3-amd64 (x86_64)
-------------------------------------

Status: Before uninstall, this module version was ACTIVE on this kernel.

wl.ko:
 - Uninstallation
   - Deleting from: /lib/modules/4.9.0-3-amd64/updates/dkms/
 - Original module
   - No original module was found for this module on this kernel.
   - Use the dkms install command to reinstall any previous module version.

depmod...

Backing up initrd.img-4.9.0-3-amd64 to /boot/initrd.img-4.9.0-3-amd64.old-dkms
Making new initrd.img-4.9.0-3-amd64
(If next boot fails, revert to initrd.img-4.9.0-3-amd64.old-dkms image)
update-initramfs.........(bad exit status: 1)
Warning: There was a problem remaking your initrd.  You must manually remake it
before booting into this kernel.

DKMS: uninstall completed.
Error! Problems with mkinitrd detected.  Automatically uninstalling this module.
DKMS: Install Failed (mkinitrd problems).  Module rolled back to built state.
dpkg: error processing package broadcom-sta-dkms (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 7
Errors were encountered while processing:
 broadcom-sta-dkms
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Also:

Code: Select all

sudo modprobe wl
modprobe: FATAL: Module wl not found in directory /lib/modules/4.9.0-3-amd64

I am posting it here as a future reference. I also built broadcom driver from source using module assistant. Nothing happened, no Wi-Fi.

[stevepusser]

Something is going wrong with updating your initramfs after the successful build, see this line

Code: Select all

Error! Problems with mkinitrd detected.  Automatically uninstalling this module.

Unfortunately, I cannot tell why from my end.

Did you try and install the deb file that the build command performed? If you want to try and have it do so automatically with terminal output, uninstall broadcom-sta-dkms and run

Code: Select all

m-a a-i -t broadcom-sta-source

a-i means auto-install, and -t is for the terminal output.

[Wheelerof4te]

Building the package broadcom-sta-source and installing using

Code: Select all

m-a a-i -t broadcom-sta-source

did the trick! I maybe even could get it to work simply by installing broadcom-sta-dkms since I noticed doing that didn't install broadcom-sta-commom package. Installing it via module assistant pulled in that dependency.

I also see wi-fi is unstable and is loosing signal sometimes. Nevertheless I am glad it worked

Many thanks stevepusser and orythem27. Debian 9 works with this little Notebook.