Bug#740503: Fw: Bug#740503: debian-installer: check-missing-firmware does not work with a USB drive that contains a partition table
Sorry, later on I have noticed that the mail from Marcos Madeira was
not a new bugreport (as I thought in the first run), but Marcos replied
on an existing bugreport from Chris Bainbridge. So forwarding my answer to
Chris, too.
Forwarding my last mail against this bug:
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Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2015 20:38:18 +0100
From: Holger Wansing <linux@wansing-online.de>
To: Marcos Madeira <tempaccount325@outlook.com>
Cc: 740503@bugs.debian.org
Subject: Bug#740503: debian-installer: check-missing-firmware does not work with a USB drive that contains a partition table
Hi,
Marcos Madeira <tempaccount325@outlook.com> wrote:
>
> Hello,
> I was trying to load the firmware during the debian-installer and I was
> just getting prompted over and over again for the firmware without success.
> Hardware: The device is a Samsung NP530U4B-S02 laptop with the Intel®
> Centrino® Advanced-N 6230 802.11a/b/g/n .
>
> Firmware: The necessary files that are requested byy the installer are
> "iwlwifi-6000g2b-5.ucode" and "iwlwifi-6000g2b-6.ucode".
> Setup: I downloaded a Debian netinstall iso (version 7.8.0 on the
> 23/02/2015) for my architecture from the official Debian website. I
> created the install media on a usb flash drive with the "dd" command
> like I do usually with GNU/Linux distributions. On another usb flash
> drive formatted both as fat16 and fat32 with GParted using an msdos
> partition scheme (as suggested per
> https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/ch06s04.html.en) I tried on
> different occasions to used the ".ucode" firmware files on the root
> directory of the usb flash drive and on a "/firmware" directory (on the
> secondary flash drive) as well as both at the same time.
> If I opened another tty, there were a few entries in dmesg, which read
> "iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: no suitable firmware found" and other lines with
> similar content.
> I knew that this firmware works, because I have had to install it in the
> past, but I used to have an ethernet link during install or a complete iso.
I just did some testing and can confirm this problem with loading firmware.
At first:
My Thinkpad T60 needs the "iwlwifi-3945-2.ucode" firmware file for WLAN.
And:
I use a usbstick with msdos partition table and one vfat partition on it.
The issue is somewhat difficult:
The Jessie RC1 installer for i386 can successfully obtain the firmware
from my usbstick, when I place the firmware packages from
http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/firmware/
into /firmware on my stick (unpack the zip file into /firmware ).
This method works simply like "plug in the stick when prompted to do so,
press "Continue" in the installer, firmware gets loaded".
Please note: there is no need to mount the stick by hand or something
like that. Only plug in and go on.
But when I place only the direct firmware file (in my case
"iwlwifi-3945-2.ucode") in /firmware or in the root directory of the
stick, the installer fails to load the file, unless I help him:
when I mount the stick by hand on the second virtual console, then go
back to the installer UI and press "Continue" to load firmware, it
successfully finds the file.
Maybe the documentation should be changed in the installer manual somehow?
> Lastly, I tried loading the firmware files manually, by copying the two
> ".ucode" files to /lib/firmware (I had to create this directory
> manually) on a separate tty and then attempting to have the installer
> search for the drivers and I was met with success. The wireless networks
> were found and I was able to input my password, but I just got
> redirected to the wireless network list without an error message. Note:
> when the I used the method described by Chris Bainbridge
> <chris.bainbridge@gmail.com>, the installer would show a window titled
> something like "attempting to exchange keys with the network device",
> before connecting successfully, which wasn't the case for the manual
> loading of firmware.
> Note2: After loading the firmware manually during the installer, a
> message shows up in dmesg with the appropriate time stamp:
> "ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready" and on /var/log/syslog,
> for every entry that reads "authenticate with <router_mac_address>"
> there is an entry "deauthenticating from <router_mac_address> by local
> machine (reason=3)", when I tried to connect to my wireless network.
Hmm, I already noticed that WLAN connection does not work for me with
Jessie RC1 installer, but my thought was, that the problem lies on the side
of my router or similar ..
Holger
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