Bug#352758: -- installation: "etch" installer fails to detect/configure PC card NIC
Hi,
Chris Jones <cjns1989@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 15, 2010 at 03:58:03PM EST, Holger Wansing wrote:
> > To investigate, if this problem still exists in the recent installer
> > and to help fixing it (if it still exists), you could try a daily
> > build of the installer for squeeze:
>
> > http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/
>
> Downloaded the netinst and it behaves the same, with a screen that
> prompts for external media to provide the non-free firmware.
>
> I'm speculating that for some reason, since the firmware is non-free it
> does not ship with the installation media.
>
>
> I was under the impression that I had found this particular firmware in
> the pcmcia package, which as far as I know is not in the non-free repos,
> so I'm a bit confused.
>
> Or is it the renaming from 3CCFEM556.dat to 3CCFEM556.cis?
This whole problem can be splitted in two parts:
1. the debian-installer cannot use the device since the needed firmware is
not provided.
2. why is the firmware not in the current debian archive while it was contained
in the archive in the past?
To 1.
Non-free firmware is not included in the installer iso!
The installer provides the possibility to use such firmware, but you have to
provide the particular file by hand.
The process is documented in the debian installer manual.
See http://d-i.alioth.debian.org/manual/ for the development version of the manual.
Chapter 6.4 is what you need.
You get a link there, where a file with several firmwares can be downloaded.
Try if the needed firmware is contained in that archive file.
(There is one firmware file for 3Com included, it is named "typphon.bin" or
something like that. Maybe this file works for you?)
If no firmware from this archive file is working for you: do you have the needed
3CCFEM556.dat file somewhere at your harddrive or similar? Then copy it to a
usb stick and provide it to the debian installer that way. Try if the debian-installer
can use the network device then.
If you don't have the 3CCFEM556.dat file anymore, you can download an old version
of the pcmcia-cs package from a debian mirror (for example here:
http://ftp.ee.debian.org/debian/pool/main/p/pcmcia-cs/pcmcia-cs_3.2.8-9_i386.deb).
It contains the needed file (as you already wrote).
Try if you can get the network device to work with debian-installer.
To 2.
Could you try to find out if the firmware is non-free?
Could it be included in the debian-archive?
It was included in the past, but maybe that was indeed not correct from the
DFSG point of view.
The pcmcia-cs package is no more available in the debian archive.
Maybe some firmware that was included in pcmcia-cs can still be included in
debian, but was simply forgotten and removed with the whole pcmcia-cs package?
Holger
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