Just got a Thinkpad T410 and downloaded the debian netinst cd.

During installation, Debian does not recognise the wireless (Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 ) and the ethernet controller (Intel 82577 Ethernet Controller).


First time got throw out for installing Debian to a thinkpad
Cause most of the time wireless is not recognise but ethernet always works.


Any advise how I can proceed with netinst?

Hello,

No idea if this will help you out but I recently installed the same onto a server that had two FibreOptic cards QLogic 2300 that were not recognized at boot/install. However I could load the drivers I got from the internet (bin format) using a usb stick and they got installed correctly. I honestly don't remember at what stage that was but it's worth looking at it. That way if you have the possibility you can load the correct driver so that your NIC is recognized.

Kind regards,

Eric

For the wireless device, it looks like a kernel version (and also firmware) issue. It seems the driver is not in the Debian kernel prior to version 2.6.27. I think the lenny installer has kernel 2.6.26. Please see http://wiki.debian.org/iwlagn
I'd suggest you download the relevant debs from backports on another machine and then move it across to your thinkpad with a usb stick and then install with dpkg.


From a quick google search on the wired device, it seems you need a kernel version 2.6.31.

Just install what is on the netinst disk itself. I should give you a working system, but with no X. Then you can get the wireless working
as described above and then you can install X, etc using tasksel or aptitude. This will give you a "full" working system, bar the wired device.
After that you can consider what to do about getting the wired device working.

Cheers,

Evo2.

Thanks for the advise.

If I remember correctly, once Debian installer noticed that there's no working wireless/wired connection, it will ask if you want to install drivers through usb or something like that.

Did thought of that but is wondering how to recognise (/dev/sdf or /dev/sdb or ....) and mount the usb drive.
Once wireless is working, the rest should be manageable.


Thanks in advance for the help.


Edit:
Just downloaded Linux Mint LiveCD to test and confirmed that this laptop is supported.
I should be able to get Debian working on this laptop (eventually)

Hi,

I just encountered a similar problem with my first (successful) build of LFS, network cards were not detected. Although I was sure that I included support when compiling the kernel, they (both interfaces) didn't show at boot. I was able to solve it like this:
to check if your card is detected by the kernel. If it is, then create (if it doesn't exist) the file
and add the following line(s) to it:
(for me it was 8139too). Then reboot.
If you were able to boot from Linux Mint, then in a terminal you can user dmesg to find out what driver your NIC is using.

Kind regards,

Eric

For Debian Lenny installers with up-to-date kernels, see http://kmuto.jp/debian/d-i/

Or follow the Installation Guide:
6.4.*Loading Missing Firmware - http://www.debian.org/releases/stabl...h06s04.html.en

For the Ethernet you need firmware-linux-nonfree, for wireless I an not really sure without the chipset.
Could be anyone of:
firmware-intelwimax - Binary firmware for Intel WiMAX Connection
firmware-ipw2x00 - Binary firmware for Intel Pro Wireless 2100, 2200 and 2915
firmware-iwlwifi - Binary firmware for Intel Wireless 3945, 4965 and 5000-series cards
firmware-qlogic - Binary firmware for QLogic IBA7220, QLA1xxx, ISP2xxx and SP2x2

Identify the chipset with lspci then search http://wiki.debian.org for the proper driver and firmware if needed.

You can work out what the device is by looking in /dev/ before and after inserting the device, or perhaps from dmesg or lsscsi etc. Lets assume it is /dev/sdb. Then you can mount it with

Or perhaps
depending on how the sub stick partition table is set up.

HTH,

Evo2.

Got it.

Pipe dmesg (or /dev listing) to file before and after inserting the usb.
Did a diff and between the 2 files and should be able to see the device specific info.

Thanks.

After trying the methods below, still couldn't get debian working


Method 1.
Installed debian lenny and later download the relevant packages like :
firmware-linux-nonfree, firmware-iwlwifi, wireless-tools, wpasupplicant and all its dependencies as suggested here.
Rebooted and still my wired/wireless is not recognised.


Method 2.
Download netinst for Debian Squeeze and install together with the above packages ready in another usb for use during installation. Still my wireless is not recognised.


One of the saddest day of my (linux installation) life !

Did you install the packages?

In both these cases, what do you mean here by "not recognised"? What are the ouputs of the following commands after installing everything?
Evo2.

Hi Evo2,

Yup, dpkg -i package_name.deb


Recalling from memeory,

ifconfig returns only lo.

while modprobe iwlagn returns FATAL: module not detected (or something to that effect)

Not giving up though,
just slowing down the pace to find time to pull my hair

After going round in circles, finally found this site http://wiki.debian.org/DebianInstaller/CustomImages

- followed the first link to Kenshi Muto's site

- downloaded lenny-custom-0116.iso

and is now installing Debian .. phew


Re-read the post above and suddenly noticed that craigevil had actually mentioned the same site.


Anyway, thanks to everyone for the support.

Hi,

Glad you got it working!

Kind regards,

Eric

An update to future users who faces the same problem and come across this thread.

Debian now provides a (unofficial?) net-install CD including most common firmware that new computer needed and are available from:
http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/un...ding-firmware/

Hope this info