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[SOLVED] Debian Installer does not recognize Atheros WLAN

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nadebula1984
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[SOLVED] Debian Installer does not recognize Atheros WLAN

#1 Post by nadebula1984 »

I use jigdo to update Debian (testing) Installer every week. The weekly build images I use are here: https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/week ... jigdo-dvd/

However, recent weekly build images (updated on Jun 25th or Jul 2nd) do not recognize my Atheros WLAN adapters which work perfectly under Trisquel. On some computers, the installer doesn't even recognize the wired ethernet adapters. The problem is reproducible on a variety of desktop/laptop computers, ranging from first generation 64-bit Intel Core2 platform to latest.

Now I am currently using the Alpha 3 release (updated on Jun 12th) and have to update a lot of packages during installation.

UPDATE: It seems that the latest image updated on July 23rd resolved this problem. Let me test this image on more platforms...
Last edited by nadebula1984 on 2018-07-23 07:14, edited 1 time in total.

Wheelerof4te
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Re: Debian Installer does not recognize Atheros WLAN

#2 Post by Wheelerof4te »

Try searching for bugs related to the installer. If you can't find any that describes your problem, file a bug yourself if you want.

emariz
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Re: Debian Installer does not recognize Atheros WLAN

#3 Post by emariz »

Why exaclty do you need the latest version of the installer? What features does it have that older versions do not? One can install any version of Debian using the stable installer.
Is it because you do not have Internet during (or after) installation and you need to install Debian to multiple machines?

Was the Atheros device identified by previous versions of the installer? What is its description (lspci -nn)?
In my case, the Atheros wireless device in my ThinkPad is not identified and I have either to install the system using ethernet and then install the appropriate firmware package, or I use the installation image that contains proprietary firmware. [1] (It is under 'Misc and "unofficial" stuff'.)

1. https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/

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cds60601
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Re: Debian Installer does not recognize Atheros WLAN

#4 Post by cds60601 »

I have to admit, I wanted to give Testing another shot so the past two weeks I DL'ed the weekly testing (non-free) ISO since my wireless nic is a
Panda 300Mbps Wireless N USB Adapter that apparently used a rt2800 driver. Prior to the past 2 weeks of weekly builds, the adapter worked just fine on booting
the Testing install media. Something definitely changed 2 weeks ago with Testing.

Just an observation of course.

UPDATE: I ended up getting Debian Buster DI dated 6/12/18 and that did the trick for me.
Link: https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/bust ... 64/iso-cd/


Cheers
Chris
Last edited by cds60601 on 2018-07-07 09:23, edited 2 times in total.
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nadebula1984
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Re: Debian Installer does not recognize Atheros WLAN

#5 Post by nadebula1984 »

I always desire the latest Debian Installer image because this will minimize downloading during installation. Internet connection availability and speed are still big problems in my country. Furthermore, I don't install Debian testing just for myself. I install them for local community members and different desktop environments are used. Apparently the first DVD image doesn't hold all packages required for all desktop environments. This is why I need internet connection during installation.

The problem is reproducible on different computer models. On some computers, even wired ethernet cards are not recognized. And I'm not prompted to load firmware (if needed), since no network adapters are detected at all. I'm looking forward to the next weekly build image and will test it as soon as I finished updating using jigdo.

BTW, Atheros-htc USB adapters require no non-free firmware. But according to one of my community member's testing results, they are not usable in (one of the) Debian Installer builds (The free firmware is placed under the "firmware" directory on another USB disk, as most users who need non-free firmware do). I hope one day I can use my Atheros-htc during installation.

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Re: Debian Installer does not recognize Atheros WLAN

#6 Post by sunrat »

nadebula1984 wrote:BTW, Atheros-htc USB adapters require no non-free firmware.
You can't say that definitely for all adapters. I have one that uses ath9k_htc and also requires firmware-atheros.
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nadebula1984
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Re: Debian Installer does not recognize Atheros WLAN

#7 Post by nadebula1984 »

UPDATE: It seems that the current Debian Installer (updated on July 23rd) recognizes both wired ethernet and WLAN adapters well.

Next time when I update Debian Installer, I'd like to keep the previous version for a while, until I'm sure that the new image is okay.

Thank you very much for your replies.

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