How to install Debian via net-install using Linksys WUSB11 v2.8 USB network adapter
I am trying install Debian via net-install using a Linksys WUSB11 v2.8
USB network adapter. I'm using the beta-4 Sarge installer.
This network card is not recognized (by linux24 or linux26), and the
drivers listed on the network hardware detection screen do not seem to
include one of the various available Atmel AT76C503A drivers, which
appear to be the relevant ones, based on some googling.
How can I use the installer with a network driver that's not included?
I'm guessing that this is what I need to do:
Get the sources for the kernel used by the sarge installer; compile an
appropriate driver, following instructions at, e.g.
http://at76c503a.berlios.de/; copy the driver onto a floppy; navigate to
the (well-hidden) screen in the installer allowing loading of modules
from floppy; and hope the sarge installer will know what to do with it.
Sound OK? (Doing 'uname -a' at the shell prompt in the installer
indicates it is using 2.4.25 and 2.6.5).
Let me know if this is not a good idea.
BTW, here were my experiences with the installer (I also submitted these
as an installation report):
At the top of the "Detect network hardware" screen, it says, "If the
correct module is not listed, you may need to load additional modules
from a driver floppy. In that case, choose the option which indicates
that your module is not listed."
I chose "none of the above", at which point I get a warning dialog that
precipitates me to the "Debian installer main menu", which says nothing
about loading additional modules from a driver floppy. *** This
warning dialog should give pretty specific instructions about how to
load drivers from floppy (including kernel version?), but it doesn't. ***
The closest option is "Load installer components from CD". (*** Note:
this should probably say "... from CD or floppy. ***) This produces a
menu of interesting but (to me) irrelevant components. I choose "Go
back", and to my surprise, instead of going back to the main menu, it
goes to the "Load installer components from CD" menu (which has not
appeared before), which gives me the choice of cdrom- or
floppy-retriever. *** There should be two buttons, one saying "Go
back", and one saying, "Load from floppy instead" ***
Anyway, I can now see how I might be able to load Atmel AT76C503A module.
Thanks,
Kevin Murphy
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