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Wifi drivers missing in Debian 9?

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kerryhall
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Wifi drivers missing in Debian 9?

#1 Post by kerryhall »

Hello,

Currently running Debian 8 on my netbook.

Trying to upgrade to Debian 9, tested with the live CD before trying to do an install.

Used the live cd with the firmware included, mate version.

I cannot connect to wifi, I get "device not ready (firmware missing)"

The closest thing I can find is:
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?t=82716

But why wouldn't that package be included in the firmware version of the live cd? How am I supposed to install that package if I can't get a wifi signal?

Is there a version of the live cd that does have all the firmware included?

Will I be able to install over wifi if I use the firmware version of the netinst iso?

Thanks!

arochester
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Re: Wifi drivers missing in Debian 9?

#2 Post by arochester »

You are running Debian and you (currently) have 110 posts but you don't know about installing wifi?

https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unof ... -firmware/

kerryhall
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Re: Wifi drivers missing in Debian 9?

#3 Post by kerryhall »

Let me try to explain. My question is not "how to get wifi working" rather, I have a very specific question: why is the "firmware-realtek" package not included on "live cd with firmware"?

Seems like an oversight to me, who do I talk to to get this corrected? My goal here is improvement of the Debian project in general. :)

I doubt that the intention is to force the end user to repack the iso themselves with that deb included...

Thanks!

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RU55EL
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Re: Wifi drivers missing in Debian 9?

#4 Post by RU55EL »

kerryhall wrote:[...] why is the "firmware-realtek" package not included on "live cd with firmware"?

Seems like an oversight to me, who do I talk to to get this corrected? My goal here is improvement of the Debian project in general. :) [...]
Keep in mind that the Unofficial non-free images including firmware packages are, well, unofficial.

You might try contacting Debian CD teams.

[edit] Disregard this post. See next post...[/edit]
Last edited by RU55EL on 2017-12-07 00:04, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Wifi drivers missing in Debian 9?

#5 Post by 4D696B65 »

debian-live-9.2.0-amd64-mate+nonfree contains firmware-realtek_20161130-3_all.deb
https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unof ... e.contents

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GarryRicketson
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Re: Wifi drivers missing in Debian 9?

#6 Post by GarryRicketson »

Note: I see a couple of other replies have been posted, while I was writing,..
But any way, I am still going to post this. Even if it is some what redundant.


Did you not read the reply by arochester ???
by kerryhall » Seems like an oversight to me, who do I talk to to get this corrected? My goal here is improvement of the Debian project in general. :)
The Debian developers use mailing lists, mostly to communicate, you would be best off to start at the http://debian.org , it is pretty straight forward,
but to help you start:
https://www.debian.org/contact
================

https://www.debian.org/devel/
==========================

https://wiki.debian.org/Community
============================
https://wiki.debian.org/HelpDebian
=================
As for this question,:
by kerryhall »why is the "firmware-realtek" package not included on "live cd with firmware"?
it is answered in the Debian wiki, and documentation, and is easily answered by doing some search, and reading foo,.. Example (to help you get started):
why is the "firmware-realtek package not included on live cd with firmware?
One hit, but you really should read some of the others as well,...
https://wiki.debian.org/WiFi
Non-free drivers and firmware are produced by companies refusing or unable to cooperate with the free software community. With non-free drivers and firmware support is often unavailable or severely strained. For instance features are often left out, bugs go unfixed, and what support does exist from the manufacture is fleeting.
By encouraging good social practices the community is able to support end-users. Complex installation procedures are no longer required and support continues long after a product has been discontinued.
Currently there are only a few modern wifi chipsets readily available that work with free software systems. For USB wifi devices this list includes the Realtek RTL8187B chipset (802.11G) and the Atheros AR9170 chipset (802.11N). For Mini PCIe all cards with an Atheros chipset are supported.
Wifi has always been a problem for free software users. USB Wifi cards are becoming less free. With the older 802.11G standard many USB wifi cards had free drivers and did not require non-free firmware. With 802.11N there is only one chipset on the market from Atheros which is completely free.
To break it down into more plain , simple language, all though it is available,
It also is a non-free, firmware,..
In this: (another hit in my search)https://wiki.debian.org/Firmware
Devices/Drivers Firmware

Many devices require a firmware to operate. Historically, firmware were built-into the device's ROM or Flash memory, but more and more often, the firmware has to be loaded into the device by the driver during the device initialization.

Some of these firmware are free and open-source, and some of them are non-free, which means that you need to add the non-free and contrib components to /etc/apt/sources.list; see sources.list(5) and Debian archive basics (Debian Reference) for more information.

Firmware during the installation

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. This can happen, for example, with wireless network cards which often require non-free firmware to function (see ipw2200 for an example).

A suggestion, especially while installation on hardware unfamiliar to you, is to download the firmware archive for your platform and unpack it into a directory named firmware in the root of a removable storage device (USB/CD drive). 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. You can find firmware downloads for your Debian version at http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unoff ... /firmware/.
If you read the documentation, BEFORE installing, you would know , to download the non-free firmware, put it on a usb device, and have it ready
to use, when you start running the "live CD", and it prompts you for the device
with the firm ware.
Sadly, very few, almost nobody bothers to read any of the documentation before they start trying to install,and thus they end up here, not having a clue as to why they have problems. But that is another topic.

I agree with Arrochester,
arochester wrote:You are running Debian and you (currently) have 110 posts but you don't know about installing wifi?

https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unof ... -firmware/
I find it difficult to understand , why after 8 years of being a member of this forum, assuming you have been using Debian 8 years, and you still do not know even some of the most basic things that are in the documentation,.. ???
Before trying to contact the developers directly, I can say they appreciate people that have researched, and searched for the information before just jumping into a mailing list , and start ranting about your "goal", and how you are going to improve the Debian project in general, when you don't have a clue as to how the teams of developers, etc. work
My goal here is improvement of the Debian project in general. :)
Please don't take this wrong, I am not trying to be rude, I understand maybe after 8 years, you have just now decided to try to help with the project, and that is great, I am sure it will be appreciated,..the best way to help is start with reading all the documentation you can, then decide which mailing lists would be best, join one, and introduce your self, impress them with the fact that you have a in depth knowledge about the project, and are willing to try to help any way you can,...
So any way, as you can see by the link provided by Arrochester :
Some Debian developers have started a project, to provide these:
from:https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ Who are we?

debian-cd is a small team of people working on creating, testing and distributing Debian images for you. For more information about the team and how it all works, see the Debian wiki page about us.
If you really are serious about helping to improve the Debian project, and particularly are interested in the "cdimage" and live CD's, you should contact
them, and see what you can do to help.
https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unof ... -firmware/
Unofficial non-free images including firmware packages

Here are some extra images, equivalent to the normal images we produce regularly except in that they also include non-free firmware to make things easier on some systems requiring proprietary but redistributable firmware. See http://wiki.debian.org/Firmware for more details.

There are three types of image here:

"netinst" installer CDs that also include firmware to make installation easier
installer DVDs that also include firmware to make installation easier
live images including firmware packages pre-installed

The current and current-live directories contain images that match up with the latest stable Debian release.

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Re: Wifi drivers missing in Debian 9?

#7 Post by kerryhall »

GarryRicketson wrote: ...
Non-free drivers and firmware are produced by companies refusing or unable to cooperate with the free software community. With non-free drivers and firmware support is often unavailable or severely strained.
...
You clearly did not read MY post.

I asked
kerryhall wrote: why is the "firmware-realtek" package not included on "live cd with firmware"?
There is an entirely separate iso that INCLUDES the firmware...at least, it is supposed to.

In the 30 or so laptops I've installed Debian on for friends, that iso is the only option, just simply due to what hardware my friends have.

So my question stands. Why is that one particular piece of NON-FREE firmware missing from the NON-FREE installer iso?

Understand now?

The best answer so far appears to be: "Well the iso that includes the firmware is unofficial, so errors are more likely to crop up there"

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Re: Wifi drivers missing in Debian 9?

#8 Post by kerryhall »

4D696B65 wrote:debian-live-9.2.0-amd64-mate+nonfree contains firmware-realtek_20161130-3_all.deb
https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unof ... e.contents
Interesting...so the package should in fact be there, but it is not showing up currently.

Let me see if I can find that package on the live cd image I have.

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Re: Wifi drivers missing in Debian 9?

#9 Post by kerryhall »

Hmm, the iso I have is labeled as nonfree, yet it doesn't have any firmware in it at all.

That would be the problem right there.

Nuking and redownloading.

Thanks!

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Re: Wifi drivers missing in Debian 9?

#10 Post by GarryRicketson »

by kerryhall »You clearly did not read MY post.
Actually I did, several times,... but now it is clear to me, this is total
nonsense,
Post by kerryhall » 2017-12-06 20:11
Hmm, the iso I have is labeled as nonfree, yet it doesn't have any firmware in it at all.
Should have checked it before even starting this nonsense:
just clicked, YES and now, Bye!

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Re: Wifi drivers missing in Debian 9?

#11 Post by cds60601 »

This may be of some help - I too had the similar issue with the Realtec USB nic. It showed working (of course using the non-free firmware ISO). The thing that I have found out that after the install from the media, the nic works during the install upto the reboot. after that, the nic failed to connect to my wifi network (even though it could see it). Now what I mean is; it fails to auth to the network thus never making a valid connection but it DOES see my network and other wifi networks.

I did some Googling and found a thread that alludes to the name of the network device is too long. Thus causing my nic to auth and not connect.
What I ended up doing is running this:

ln -s /dev/null /etc/systemd/network/99-default.link

Unplugged the nic, plugged it back in and bingo - it authed and connected. Here is the thread I got this from below:

https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/20 ... 01045.html

I don't know if you are having this same issue, but maybe it may help.

Cheers
Chris
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