On Tue, Dec 24, 2019 at 6:37 PM Richard Owlett <
rowlett@cloud85.net> wrote:
Exactly which ISO file did you download?
That paragraph describes what you would see if you ran the netinst.iso
WITHOUT an active network connection.
IOW, for whatever reason, the installer does not have access to a
repository.
It's the debian-10.2.0-amd64-netinst.iso
I did ran the .iso without an active network connection, because it refused to connect to my wifi. It asked for the ESSID (?), which I assumed is the same as SSID, so I typed in the SSID and the password, but it just would not connect.
Wireless adapters are typically not well-supported with Free software; I believe what you're running into is the lack of appropriate hardware drivers for your wireless NIC, because the drivers in the default Debian are not Free.
You'll need to add the "non-free" option to your "/etc/apt/sources.list", like this:
# go from this:
Then you'd "apt update" and then install the non-free drivers for your wireless NIC, with a command similar to this:
apt install <wireless driver package>
where "<wireless driver package> is the name of the package you need (which you'll probably have to ask the list which package you need depending on your equipment)
Of course, for this to work, you'll need access to the Debian repository, which means one of the three solutions already suggested: 1) different (non-free) installer, 2) a wired connection, or 3) a fuller CD/DVD/local repository.