>> on / and on /firmware/ of both an SD card and a USB stick. I've >> extracted the files and placed the loose files it calls for by name >> (rtl_nic/etc) in both / and /firmware on both the SD card and USB >> stick. >> >> In short, I've followed with the documentation says to do, yet the >> installer does not seem to "find" the files. > > Which documentation is that.
http://www.debian.org/releases/wheezy/i386/ch06s04.html.en >> >> I've switched to tty2 (Ctrl-Alt-F2) and activated it, and created >> /mnt/sdcard and /mnt/usb and mounted both filesystems, and verified >> that the firmware exists in both places on both devices. The >> installer can't seem to "find" it even with them manually mounted. >> >> >> Is there some other place the installer is looking? there appears to >> be no way to specify a mountpoint or location to find these files. >> >> Anyone got a clue? I'm tapped out.. >> >> >> Thanks! > > It reads like you are using not using the non-free-firmware version of > the installer *and* you are trying to add the firmware-linux-free-*.deb > to the installation process - if that's the case skip to the last two > paragraphs. I made a CD from http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/7.3.0/amd64/iso-cd/debian-7.3.0-amd64-netinst.iso I booted my EeeBox. At some point the installer said : " [!] Detect Network hardware Some of your hardware needs non-free firmware files to operate. The firmware can be loaded from removable media, such as a USB stick or floppy. The missing firmware files are: rtl_nic/rtl8168e-2.fw If you have such media available now, insert it, and continue. Load missinfg firmware from removable media? <Yes> <No> " Based on this, I'm not seeing where I'd know that I'd need a special non-free version of the installer. The above text, and the above linked-to debian document indicated to me that I should be able to put the firmware on some media, either in / or /firmware on said media, insert it, let the thing detect the insertion and do some auto-mount magic behind the scenes, find the files needed, and continue installing. This didn't happen, obviously. Is what you're suggesting using one of these "unofficial" install images specifically including non-free firmware? http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/cd-including-firmware/7.3.0/amd64/iso-cd/ > If you've already installed Debian *and* down-loaded the non-free > firmware image but for some reason don't wish to use apt/aptitude:- > # dpkg -i $pathTo\firmware-linux-free-*.deb > > (replace $pathTo with actual path to the package, you can leave the > wildcard in the debian package name) > > If you've already installed Debian and you can use apt:- > # apt-get install firmware-linux-free > > > If you have *not* already installed Debian you need to use the files > from either the > *.tar.gz* or the *.zip* package. I'm not familiar with the process of > trying to manually extract the drivers from the .deb package. > > Those packages are here:- > http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/firmware/wheezy/current/ > See 6.4.1. Preparing a medium:- > https://www.debian.org/releases/wheezy/i386/ch06s04.html.en > Thanks- going to shove the above (so far) into my debian install evernote. I'm sure I'll come across it again. Screen picture of the dialog: http://grab.by/tu4s Thanks so far! I appreciate the information! I know we can figure out what is the 'preferred' method to proceed through the installer once encountering the above message.
