Hello, I'm thinking of setting Debian up on a dual boot with slackware on my laptop, as I've heard nothing but good things about it and want to try it out for the first time. However, I'm going to need to do a net install to keep the size a bit small, (limited space left on my hdd) but I don't have a wired internet connection available at the time. So, on to the question: Do any of the net install images from the debian website support WPA2 wireless internet connections during the installation? The page for installing over the internet says that wireless is supported - but "wireless" doesn't neccesarily mean "WPA2 protected wireless"
I would just burn the disk and test it myself, but I'm running low on CDs and would rather not burn the image then find out I wasted one of my last couple blank disks on a distro I can't install for a while.

Thanks in advance.

I would suggest you burn CD1 rather than the netinst image, the media you use has no bearing on the size of the install. When you get to tasksel during the install process you will see the options for "standard" system and "desktop environment" (or something to that effect), just uncheck both and you will have a (very) minimal install.

By default Debian does not come with the non free kernel firmware, which depending on your wireless chipset could be a problem. It's available in the repos but scattered over several packages. lspci or lsusb output would help.

If you do need firmware, you can provide it on a disc, or if I recall correctly there are some CDs knocking around with firmware included.

As for installing with a WPA2 connection, I'm not sure as I've never done it.

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Okay, thanks.

I will need the non-free firmware for my wireless it seems, I just looked it up. So looks like installing just from wireless will be a problem.
If I can get a rough, basic system up I can probably download a couple things on the slackware partition, mount that, then move them over though I guess. A little bit more work but it should work I think, just going to have to handle all the deps myself. Oh well, Shouldn't be too bad for the CLI wireless tools.

I'll take your advice and install from CD1 I think, then get the packages I need to get my wireless running and move them over once the minimal install is done.

You will need to select "Advanced Options" "Expert Install" & the link that I provided Has firmware included. As far as wpa during wireless setup you enter network name & password, if router is wpa the installer will already detect the setting.

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