Bug#694934: Installer hangs at detect network hardware

[Brian Potkin <claremont102@gmail.com>]

On Sun 02 Dec 2012 at 17:00:40 +0000, R.M. Thomas wrote:

> On 02/12/12 15:30, Brian Potkin wrote:
> 
> >Please look at #694582 and see if it helps.
> 
> In my case, the stall at "Detect network hardware" may not to be a firmware
> issue.  After I had set up the configuration files /etc/network/interfaces and
> /etc/resolv.conf the commands ifdown and ifup successfully controlled the eth0
> port with no need for me to install manually any packages (drivers or firmware).
> I did need the package firmware-linux-nonfree in order to get the video card
> working, but I assume that was a unrelated problem.

Being able to set up networking without non-free firmware after the
installation would seem to be possible in some cases. From the
Installation Guide at

   http://d-i.debian.org/manual/en.i386/ch02s02.html

     If the debian-installer prompts for a firmware file and you do
     not have this firmware file available or do not want to install
     a non-free firmware file on your system, you can try to proceed
     without loading the firmware. There are several cases where a
     driver prompts for additional firmware because it may be needed
     under certain circumstances, but the device does work without it
     on most systems (this e.g. happens with certain network cards
     using the tg3 driver). 

You did not get the prompt, of course.