On Wed, Feb 24, 2021, 10:09 AM Robbi Nespu <robbine...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I have another laptop which dual boot with Fedora and Windows10, it is not > my primary laptop since 9 months ago and I haven't used it since then. I > plan to fully install Debian testing on this machine because this laptop > has dual graphic cards (optimus) and theoretically, with Debian 11 (or > newer), special configuration shouldn't be needed and offloading should be > available as soon as you've installed the proprietary drivers[1]. This > machine has a faulty LAN port and only 1 of 3 USB ports are usable. So I > can only use 1 USB per time and only WIFI for the network connection. > > Since Debian provides an unofficial netinst image for i386/amd64/powerpc > with the non-free firmware, I go and download the ISO[2] and make a > bootable USB installer. > > But when I during the installation process (on "detect network hardware" > phase), debian-installer dialog asked me to load 2 firmware which is > iwIwifi-2030-6.ucode and iwIwifi-2030-5.ucode .. I feel perplexed about > this. So I checked the USB, it already have the firmware but with deb > package format: > > /firmware/firmware-iwlwifi_20201218-3_all.deb > /pool/non-free/f/firmware-nonfree/firmware-iwlwifi_20201218-3_all.deb > > Seems this firmware load on the next stage which is after network setup > and after do the partitioning stuff. I wonder why, since this is netinst I > need network working from the during installation process, not after that. > > Question : > a) Is it possible to do self modification on the installation script so > the wifi chip will be available and working during the installation process > so I can pull the packages that I want during installation from Debian > mirror. If yes, how and if no, please suggest me some solutions that don't > need me to fix LAN port, buy cable and router (since I use wifi hotspot > from my phone) > When I had a situation like that, my workaround was to install without the Network (but with the netinst CD), stopping at the "minimal system". It actually gives you a bootable system. And then, use the external media to get WiFi working, and go from there. > > The precompile firmware are available here[3] and here[4] > > TLDR; I want firmware-iwlwifi already loaded and working during Debian > installation phase, not after install. > > [1] https://wiki.debian.org/NVIDIA%20Optimus#PRIMEOffload > [2] > http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/images-including-firmware/weekly-builds/amd64/iso-cd/firmware-testing-amd64-netinst.iso > [3] > https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/_media/en/users/drivers/iwlwifi-2030-ucode-18.168.6.1.tgz > [4] https://github.com/OpenELEC/iwlwifi-firmware/tree/master/firmware > Kenneth Parker > >
