squeeze install hangs at network detection

[carex]

Hello,

I was trying to install squeeze on my laptop HP NC6000
On this laptop I had no problem with etch & lenny. (lenny is still running)
I used Debian-6.0.1a-i386 (CD1) to install squeeze.

At the step of "detect network devices" it hanged.
I had to power off the laptop to regain control.

When I tried a fresh install with Lenny I got:
eth0: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5705M
wlan0: Atheros Communication Inc AR5212/AR5213 Multiprotocol
And the installation goes on successfully.

My solution was to install Lenny (a very minimal installation) and then update to Squeeze.
And so I finally got squeeze running on my laptop.

My question:
I did try to install Squeeze from various source (netinstall CD, Debian-6.0.0, Debian-6.0.1) without success.
Are my network devices not supported by the new kernel ?? Is my laptop too old for Squeeze ?

Thanks for your time.
carex

[carex]

some extra infos:

I did retry a few minutes ago (debian-6.0.1a-686)
The step "Detect network hardware" is still failing

I did open a second window and I saw the following jobs:
/bin/sh /bin/ethdetect
/bin/sh /bin/check-missing-firmware eth0 wlan0

I killed the job "/bin/ethdetect" and the I got the prompt back in my install window.
It was reporting:
Installation step failed
The failing step is: Detect network hardware

I went further in the install process but got the same problem with the "detect disk"

carex

So still no luck with the install of squeeze on an HP-nc6000 laptop

[epp]

Same here. I have Broadcom wired Ethernet along with Intel 2915ABG wireless Ethernet in my laptop and a Squeeze new install also hangs while detecting the network hardware. I started a separate thread on this.

The LiveCD image loads fine and I can get online with it using the wired Ethernet, but that's it.

[lewulff]

I seem to recall that some of the broadcom network adapters are in the non-free repositories, and are not normaly avalible to the standard Debian installer.

[carex]

hello,

So how do I install Debian squeeze on a laptop equipped with a broadcom BCM5705 and an Atheros AR5212/AR5213 ???
I just installed Ubuntu 11.04 with success but I don't like it at all.
I would like to stick to Debian. (I am using it since Potato)

Best regards,
carex

[keithpeter]

Hello All

Same issue here when attempting to install from the Debian live Xubuntu iso, both graphical and text based installer, onto a T42 thinkpad that uses ipw2200 drivers for intel wifi.

How do we just skip this step? Would a netinstall image be better to work from?

Again, live cd works fine on wired and wifi (latter with downloading drivers and tweaking broken wicd configuration)

Cheers

[bw123]

epp had a similar issue, the installer seemed to crap out on network detection, but he solved it by disabling the floppy controller in the bios.

[keithpeter]

Hello bw123 and all

+1 for disable floppy support in bios, I've just done that and was able to complete installation from the XFCE live image burned to a dvd.

Cheers

[dustyn]

+1 for disabling the floppy controller.

I was hanging at network detection. Will edit post and supply hardware information for other possible affected users.

Thanks for this thread!

[ira]

+1 for disabling the floppy controller

Given the opportunity, I would like to express my enthusiasm for the Debian Squeeze release. Having tested so long many debian-based distros like Mint LMDE, that promise a stable-as-debian system where everything works out of the box (and they are doing a great job indeed), Debian Squeeze not only "simply works" but also dominates in term of performance. This is my personal view that simply I would like to share. Really great job!

I would like also to kindly ask the Debian developers to fix that problem soon, since it's really a pity if people who want to try Debian are discouraged from the installation process, before even having the pleasure to use this great distro.

[ivanovnegro]

Simply add the non-free wireless drivers after the Install process from the non-free repo, really easy.

[nagud]

When installing sqeeze on a T42. I experienced the same problem with hang at network hardware detection. The problem was cured by disabling the floppy disk controller in the Bios.

[nobody1one]

ran up on this problem while installing wheezy.
this seemed odd, because once i had it installed without any problems, so i tried the suggested solutions, but i still had the problem.

solution for me: booting into live environment, activating the wireless card there, reboot and starting installation again.
this time, everything worked

[thungsten]

There is a workaround found here http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=681656.
I quote: "
Workaround
=========
The bug possibly seems to be in /bin/check-missing-firmware which is
called by /bin/ethdetect

I performed the following Installer commands as a workaround
$ Advanced options/Expert install
$ "Execute a shell"
$ nano /bin/check-missing-firmware
Inserted “exit 0” directly after “#!/bin/sh” line
Save file
$ exit
I then ran the Installer steps as normal and the whole installation
proceeded perfectly fine. Since then Debian Wheezy has running fine
and I am able to perform daily tasks and connect to the internet as
normal ie. the workaround has so far not hindered the daily usage.

Info
===
It seems like a similar bug exists here since Debian Lenny
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=509238
"

[bitmonki]

+1 for disabling floppy in BIOS. (Its under 'Device security', btw.