Bug#1112138: Missing syslog.

In further debugging efforts, I was able to manually, through a shell (on CtrlAlt-F2) join a network by writing a wpa_supplicant config file using nano, execute wpa_supplicant on the correct interface, run udhcpc, and then ping an external name on the internet successfully.

So in my case, I’ve proven that the drivers and network stack are altogether functional.

The problem seems to be in d-i, using the automatic install option.

I also found a few other bug reports that seem oddly similar…

https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=999771

https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1034072

I also tried setting kernel cmdline arguments in the bootloader, for both `interface=<iface>` and `BOOTIF=<iface>`, and these had no observable effect on the problem. (Obviously with “<iface>” replaced with the applicable device…)

To reiterate, using automatic install mode, it appears to select a wireless network interface, select an SSID, and attempts to join without a PSK. At no time am I (the user) prompted to select an interface, a network, or enter a PSK. The process stops with the error message:

‘’’

The WPA/WPA2 PSK passphrase was either too long (more than 64 characters) or too short (less than 8 characters).

‘’’

The option “continue” appears to retry the same loop, continuously failing.

Again, advice appreciated.

- Sam B

(Sent from my mobile phone)

On Wed, Nov 19, 2025 at 21:16 Sam Briesemeister <sam.briesemeister@gmail.com> wrote:

Was there a solution found for this?

I'm experiencing the same problem, with Debian 13.2.

The host in my case is using a MEDIATEK Corp. MT7922 wireless adapter.

I notice in the system log that after activating the interface and scanning for networks, it reports:

"netcfg[7643]: INFO: Network Chosen: [REDACTED]. Proceeding to connect."

The network it chooses appears to be the one with the strongest signal -- which happens in my case to be an extender of another network.

I attempted to retry this by changing the extender network to require no PSK; that did not seem to help.

The same error message appears, reporting that the PSK is invalid, even though I was never asked to enter one.

In this case the onboard wired ethernet device also doesn't have native support in the mainline kernel at this version, so it appears I can't use a wired connection directly... I'll have to somehow bundle the DKMS drivers for this one into a remastered ISO, if I can't get the wireless approach to work.

Advice would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

-- Sam B

On Thu, 28 Aug 2025 12:28:41 -0600 Charles Curley <charlescurley@charlescurley.com> wrote:
> Attached is the syslog I mentioned in message # 20.

>
> --
> Does anybody read signatures any more?
>
> https://charlescurley.com
> https://charlescurley.com/blog/