Dear Maintainer,

Installing from debian-7.4.0-amd64-netinst.iso

check-missing-firmware does not work with a USB drive that
contains a partition table. When a USB drive with a single partition
containing the firmware is inserted, it reports that the firmware was
not found. The firmware is on partition /dev/sdc1. From the log I can
see that the function is attempting to scan drives and partitions
detected on the system, and mount them as FAT file systems. The
problem is that it does not try the USB drive partition 1 at
/dev/sdc1. It does try /dev/{sda sda sdc sdc sda1 sda1 sda sda sdc sdc
sda1 sda1 sda2 sda2 sda3 sda3} in that order. So it is trying to mount
/dev/sdc (the USB drive) but not /dev/sdc1 (the actual partition).

   - Workaround is to format the USB drive without a partition table,
     e.g. "mkfs.vfat -I /dev/sdc" (mkfs.vfat actually expects a
     partition table, -I override forces it to use the entire device)

Thank you for posting this, and your work around.  My usual install
involves 2 USB drives, one with the install image and another with the
firmware.  This has always worked well in the past, but did not work today
with my 7.4 amd64 DVD.  I could not get the installer to recognize my
firmware until I used your workaround.

Firmware: The necessary files that are requested byy the installer are
"iwlwifi-6000g2b-5.ucode" and "iwlwifi-6000g2b-6.ucode".
Setup: I downloaded a Debian netinstall iso (version 7.8.0 on the
23/02/2015) for my architecture from the official Debian website. I
created the install media on a usb flash drive with the "dd" command
like I do usually with GNU/Linux distributions. On another usb flash
drive formatted both as fat16 and fat32 with GParted using an msdos
partition scheme (as suggested per
https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/ch06s04.html.en) I tried on
different occasions to used the ".ucode" firmware files on the root
directory of the usb flash drive and on a "/firmware" directory (on the
secondary flash drive) as well as both at the same time.
If I opened another tty, there were a few entries in dmesg, which read
"iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: no suitable firmware found" and other lines with
similar content.
I knew that this firmware works, because I have had to install it in the
past, but I used to have an ethernet link during install or a complete iso.

Lastly, I tried loading the firmware files manually, by copying the two
".ucode" files to /lib/firmware (I had to create this directory
manually) on a separate tty and then attempting to have the installer
search for the drivers and I was met with success. The wireless networks
were found and I was able to input my password, but I just got
redirected to the wireless network list without an error message. Note:
when the I used the method described by Chris Bainbridge
<chris.bainbridge@gmail.com>, the installer would show a window titled
something like "attempting to exchange keys with the network device",
before connecting successfully, which wasn't the case for the manual
loading of firmware.
Note2: After loading the firmware manually during the installer, a
message shows up in dmesg with the appropriate time stamp:
"ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready" and on /var/log/syslog,
for every entry that reads "authenticate with <router_mac_address>"
there is an entry "deauthenticating from <router_mac_address> by local
machine (reason=3)", when I tried to connect to my wireless network.

Hi,

Marcos Madeira <tempaccount325@outlook.com> wrote:

At first:
My Thinkpad T60 needs the "iwlwifi-3945-2.ucode" firmware file for WLAN.
And:
I use a usbstick with msdos partition table and one vfat partition on it.

The issue is somewhat difficult:

The Jessie RC1 installer for i386 can successfully obtain the firmware
from my usbstick, when I place the firmware packages from
http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/firmware/
into /firmware on my stick (unpack the zip file into /firmware ).
This method works simply like "plug in the stick when prompted to do so,
press "Continue" in the installer, firmware gets loaded".
Please note: there is no need to mount the stick by hand or something
like that. Only plug in and go on.

But when I place only the direct firmware file (in my case
"iwlwifi-3945-2.ucode") in /firmware or in the root directory of the
stick, the installer fails to load the file, unless I help him:
when I mount the stick by hand on the second virtual console, then go
back to the installer UI and press "Continue" to load firmware, it
successfully finds the file.


Maybe the documentation should be changed in the installer manual somehow?

Hmm, I already noticed that WLAN connection does not work for me with
Jessie RC1 installer, but my thought was, that the problem lies on the side
of my router or similar ..


Holger

Sorry, later on I have noticed that the mail from Marcos Madeira was
not a new bugreport (as I thought in the first run), but Marcos replied
on an existing bugreport from Chris Bainbridge. So forwarding my answer to
Chris, too.




Forwarding my last mail against this bug:
================================================================================


Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2015 20:38:18 +0100
From: Holger Wansing <linux@wansing-online.de>
To: Marcos Madeira <tempaccount325@outlook.com>
Cc: 740503@bugs.debian.org
Subject: Bug#740503: debian-installer: check-missing-firmware does not work with a USB drive that contains a partition table


Hi,

Marcos Madeira <tempaccount325@outlook.com> wrote:

At first:
My Thinkpad T60 needs the "iwlwifi-3945-2.ucode" firmware file for WLAN.
And:
I use a usbstick with msdos partition table and one vfat partition on it.

The issue is somewhat difficult:

The Jessie RC1 installer for i386 can successfully obtain the firmware
from my usbstick, when I place the firmware packages from
http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/firmware/
into /firmware on my stick (unpack the zip file into /firmware ).
This method works simply like "plug in the stick when prompted to do so,
press "Continue" in the installer, firmware gets loaded".
Please note: there is no need to mount the stick by hand or something
like that. Only plug in and go on.

But when I place only the direct firmware file (in my case
"iwlwifi-3945-2.ucode") in /firmware or in the root directory of the
stick, the installer fails to load the file, unless I help him:
when I mount the stick by hand on the second virtual console, then go
back to the installer UI and press "Continue" to load firmware, it
successfully finds the file.


Maybe the documentation should be changed in the installer manual somehow?

Hmm, I already noticed that WLAN connection does not work for me with
Jessie RC1 installer, but my thought was, that the problem lies on the side
of my router or similar ..


Holger

Hi,

Holger Wansing <linux@wansing-online.de> wrote:

Now that I know the whole history of this bug (sorry that I did not noticed
earlier), it seems that the bug title is not exactly true:
when you place firmware packages (debs, not the ucode firmware files itself !)
in the /firmware dir of the stick, then the installer is able to install the
firmware from that stick (out of the firmware deb), even if it is a stick with
a partition table and with a vfat partition.


Holger

Dear Customer,

This is to confirm that one or more of your parcels has been shipped.
Shipment Label is attached to email.

Yours trully,
Shane Mccullough,
Station Manager.

Notice to Appear,

This is to inform you to appear in the Court on the July 12 for your case hearing.
Please, do not forget to bring all the documents related to the case.
Note: The case will be heard by the judge in your absence if you do not come.

The Court Notice is attached to this email.

Sincerely,
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Court Secretary.

Dear Maintainer,

I'm currently running an installation from 8.0.4-amd64 CD and can
confirm that this bug still exists. I had to apply the workaround
described above to make installation work.

BTW, information in Debian Wiki <https://wiki.debian.org/Firmware> is
outdated. The text talks about tarballs, but
<http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/firmware/> only
holds .deb files.

Now watching 8.0.4 install on my venerable X61s...

Cheers

Jan

Hi Jan,

You say 8.0.4; I assume you actually meant 8.4.0?

I'm looking at

http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/firmware/jessie/current/

and it definitely holds a tarball (along with a zip file and a cpio
archive). Are you not seeing that?

Hi Steve,

Am 28.04.2016 um 23:42 schrieb Steve McIntyre:

Yes, typo
http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/firmware/jessie/current/

Yes, I can see the files and they all hold deb packages inside. I was
expecting a tarball holding firmware files. It took a while until I
figured out that I had to put these deb files into /firmware on my flash
drive. Probably my fault.

Everything works fine now except for ctrl-del in Nautilus driving me
nuts...

Have a nice weekend

Jan

Dear Customer,

This is to confirm that one or more of your parcels has been shipped.
Shipment Label is attached to this email.

Yours faithfully,
Alex Adams,
FedEx Delivery Manager.

Dear Customer,

This is to confirm that one or more of your parcels has been shipped.
Please, open email attachment to print shipment label.

Regards,
Allen Huffman,
FedEx Delivery Agent.

Dear Customer,

We could not deliver your parcel.
Delivery Label is attached to this email.

Sincerely,
Bradley Haas,
Delivery Agent.

Dear Customer,

Courier was unable to deliver the parcel to you.
Please, download Delivery Label attached to this email.

Yours faithfully,
Everett Swenson,
Sr. Operation Manager.

Dear Customer,

We could not deliver your item.
Shipment Label is attached to this email.

Regards,
Peter Ziegler,
Sr. Operation Agent.

Dear Maintainer,

   * What led up to the situation?

I followed the steps at
https://www.debian.org/releases/testing/amd64/ch06s04.html.en to put the
required firmware for installing over wifi.

   * What exactly did you do (or not do) that was effective (or
     ineffective)?

I put the USB stick containing FAT filesystem on its 1st partition, with
a firmware/ directory containing the contents of
http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/firmware/testing/current/firmware.tar.gz

   * What was the outcome of this action?

The isntaller fails to load the firmware and proposes to try again over
and over.

   * What outcome did you expect instead?

The firmware to be loaded to continue installation over wifi.

Please note that the right firmware was there as unpacking it and
placing it in /lib/firmware manually worked.

Dear Customer,

FedEx courier was unable to contact you for your parcel delivery.

You can find more details in this e-mail attachment!

Sincerely yours,
Pedro Jarvis,
Office Manager.

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