Richard Owlett wrote:
Brian wrote:On Thu 26 Jul 2012 at 09:27:44 -0500, Richard Owlett wrote:Brian wrote:A possible failure to associate with the wireless access point. What does lspci (or lsusb) say the card is?03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR5212 802.11abg NIC (rev 01)Encouraging. The Debian Live connection was set up and established after the OS had been booted?And happily connects after full install from liveCD - always has.The AR5212 doesn't require non-free firmware so, at the 'Detect network hardware' stage, eth0 and wlan0 should be found and presented to you when the network is configured. You'll have chosen wlan0, put the type of wireless network as 'Managed' and input an ESSID and WPA/WPA2 PSK. When next you do this switch to console 4, where you should see 'authenticated', 'associated' and 'SUCCESS' as part of the output log. If this succeeds you can look at console 4 while DHCP is set up. Watch for ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE) and 'Got IP . . .' from udhcp. Reported failure to get an address should have the log information with it.I usually choose expert mode more to expose what's happening than specifying non-default option {EXCEPT always choose manual partition due to other experiments on that laptop]. Yesterday circumstances had me choosing the more fully automated path that would be used by a casual user. This time the install went to completion. Unfortunately I did not keep a record of what choices I made so I don't now exactly what was done differently. I've a gut feeling the problem may be more a "man-machine interface" than "software" problem. "Operator error" is not ruled out ;/ It could take me a half dozen trial installs to verify where actual and potential problems lie. Due to logistical constraints, successful installs will occupy a day. If my gut is correct as to the root problem, I should be able to have as many as THREE failures per day ;)
Did another install yesterday, again using the more fully automated path. [I didn't like the result of which packages I had chosen to install.] It _apparently_ ran to normal completion. I say "apparently" because on rebooting there were error messages saying:
something had not been properly unmounted
several problems being "fixed"
I then got the grub rescue prompt :{
Conclusion: the path which would be followed by typical user
(the 1st menu item on netinst boot screen and choosing
default options) works.
I've also discovered that the WiFi hotspot at one end of the library is more reliable than the one at the end I normally use (served by different hardware).
I've ordered a complete set of DVD's. I'll set up a network at home where I monitor both ends. I'll also take a long look at script(s) controlling the install process. With the full DVD set I'll be able to set things up to match MY definition of a useable install.