Bug#1112138: debian-installer: WiFi setup with automated installation.
On Wed, 27 Aug 2025 16:27:33 +0200
Philip Hands <phil@hands.com> wrote:
> Charles Curley <charlescurley@charlescurley.com> writes:
>
> > At no time do I get the opportunity to configure the WiFi interface
> > manually, all of which is in my preseed file.
>
> How are you providing the preseed file?
>
> (I presume not via url=... (with a network URI) as that would mean
> that it would only be available after the network comes up, which
> would be too late to configure the wifi.)
Your presumption is correct. "file:///media/<hostname>.cfg" The file
being on a USB stick.
>
> I forget the exact details of the wifi settings that need to be
> preseeded, but it sounds like the use of Automatic install (which sets
> auto-install/enable=true and debconf/priority=critical for you) is
> preventing the prompt for the passphrase from appearing, and as a
> result of that it's then effectively complaining about an unset value.
>
> I'd suggest that you try again, while adding 'DEBCONF_DEBUG=5' on the
> kernel command line, and when you get to the point where you'd hope to
> be able to set the wifi settings, flip to the console on Ctrl-Alt-F4
> to see what the syslog is showing regarding the questions it's not
> asking you -- you can see the same thing on e.g. Ctrl-Alt-F2 and
> editing the /var/log/syslog (with nano or maybe vi), which has the
> advantage of letting you search and move about.
Well, going to the Automated install menu entry and hitting "e" to edit
it didn't work. So instead I went to the Help menu and entered:
expert DEBCONF_DEBUG=5 auto=true auto=true file=/media/jhegaala.cfg
That got me to "Network autoconfiguration failed". I hit "continue",
then "Retry network autoconfiguration". That also failed. I then went
to "Configure network manually". That then prompted for an IP address,
leading me to wonder if WiFi had been configured. It looks like it had
not been. This is probably because the firmware failed to load.
The device is an rtl8192ce, and its firmware is in firmware-realtek,
which I see in the file /var/log/firmware-summary, and which is
installed. The kernel tries to load rtlwifi/rtl8192cfw.bin
Continuing, I gave it an IP address, and it set up the Ethernet IF,
which was not connected. At that point, installation continued to the
disk partitioner, which I do not preseed. I then aborted the
installation.
I will attach the syslog to this bug.
>
> That should allow you to see if my guess is correct, and will
> hopefully provide clues on how to get it working for you.
>
> Cheers, Phil.
--
Does anybody read signatures any more?
https://charlescurley.com
https://charlescurley.com/blog/
Reply to: