Bug#986123: installation-reports: missing firmware (wifi AX201) does not load from USB stick + workaround (D11)
Package: installation-reports
Severity: normal
Tags: d-i
Dear Maintainer,
I used the "Graphical rescue mode" to check the network connection.
Everything went fine until "Detect Network Hardware".
Loading missing firmware from removable media (USB stick) failed permanently.
Therefore No network hardware could be installed.
Removable media like USB sticks should be autodetected and readable.
Hints on possible formats (ext4,vfat,???) would be helpful.
I could find a workaround described below
-- Package-specific info:
Boot method: USB
Image version: https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/daily-builds/daily/current/amd64/iso-cd/debian-testing-amd64-netinst.iso 2021-03-29 10:56
Date: 2021-03-29
Machine: Dell Inspiron 17 7706, Intel i7-1165G7, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, wifi Intel AX201
Base System Installation Checklist:
[O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it
Initial boot: [O]
Detect network card: [E]
Configure network: [O]
Detect CD: [ ]
Load installer modules: [O]
Clock/timezone setup: [ ]
User/password setup: [ ]
Detect hard drives: [O]
Partition hard drives: [ ]
Install base system: [ ]
Install tasks: [ ]
Install boot loader: [ ]
Overall install: [ ]
Comments/Problems:
No matter what kind of format I used (ext2,vfat,ntfs) or exchange with boot-USB
the second USB stick with the missing firmware files could not be read in the network hardware detection process.
I could find a workaround:
- execute a shell
- # mount <usbstickdevice> /mnt
- # cp /mnt/<firmwarefiles> /lib/firmware/
- # modprobe -r iwlwifi
- go back to debian installer main menue
- "Detect network hardware" again -> success
- go back to debian installer main menue
- "Configure the network" -> success
So it is technically possible to mount and read the second USB stick and install the missing wifi firmware.
It's just failing in the default process. At least a hint on failure to this workaround would be helpful and save a lot of time.
--
Please make sure that the hardware-summary log file, and any other
installation logs that you think would be useful are attached to this
report. Please compress large files using gzip.
Once you have filled out this report, mail it to submit@bugs.debian.org.
-- System Information (different debian system only sending, does not apply to report)
Debian Release: 10.9
APT prefers stable-updates
APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386
Kernel: Linux 4.9.0-7-amd64 (SMP w/1 CPU core)
Kernel taint flags: TAINT_OOT_MODULE
Locale: LANG=de_DE.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=de_DE.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=de (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
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