Package: debian-installer
Version: 20250809
Severity: wishlist
Tags: d-i
X-Debbugs-Cc: [email protected], [email protected],
[email protected]
User: [email protected]
Usertags: amd64
User: [email protected]
Usertags: amd64
Dear Maintainer,
The new automated install option is great; thank you. I believe there is a
defect which should be repaired.
The target hardware here is a Lenovo T-520, manufactured in 2011 or so. The
WiFi is:
root@jhegaala:~# lspci -vs 3:0
03:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8188CE
802.11b/g/n WiFi Adapter (rev 01)
Subsystem: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Device 8195
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17, IOMMU group 12
I/O ports at 5000 [size=256]
Memory at f2500000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [50] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
Capabilities: [70] Express Endpoint, IntMsgNum 0
Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
Capabilities: [140] Virtual Channel
Capabilities: [160] Device Serial Number 01-91-81-fe-ff-4c-e0-00
Kernel driver in use: rtl8192ce
Kernel modules: rtl8192ce
root@jhegaala:~#
After booting d-i, and going to the Automated installation (Advanced ->
Automated) and launching that, the system proceeds as usual through a number of
steps, one of which is to get a network link. I get a prompt for the two
network interfaces, Ethernet and WiFi. I select the WiFi. I then get "Invalid
passphrase: The WPA/WPA2 PSK passphrase was either too long (more than 64
characters) or too short (less than 8 characters).".
I hit Continue and get the same screen several times.
I hit "go Back", and get the main menu. I hit "Configure the Network", and I go
through the same song and dance as above.
At no time do I get the opportunity to configure the WiFi interface manually,
all of which is in my preseed file.
I can start d-i for a manual expert installation, and successfully set up the
WiFi interface. However, since that offers no option to use the preseed file,
that doesn't really help.
Possible solutions:
Option 1: Allow the user to manually set up the WiFi interface: SSID,
passphrase, et cetera, during the network setup.
Option 2: Allow the user to specify and "download" a local preseed file which
presumably includes WiFi setup, e.g. "file://".
Option 3: Allow the user to provide the WiFi setup as a command line option
prior to booting d-i.
Obviously I can (and did) use the Ethernet interface. But not all users will
have that option.
-- System Information:
Debian Release: 13.0
APT prefers stable-updates
APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable-security'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Kernel: Linux 6.12.41+deb13-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE not set
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled
