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Minimal Debian Installed; Stuck At CLI

I just finished a netinstall of the latest Debian version. I wasn't able to connect to the Internet during the installation, so all I have is a minimal install and I don't know how to set up my system from here.

I'm using wi-fi at a public library (I'm typing this from Ubuntu on my second HD) and don't have network details, so I doubt that I can connect from the command line to download packages. How can I get a desktop environment for my Debian system? Once I get that, I can get online and download other packages. I hope...

You will have to do it the other way around, to get a desktop you will need to have a working Internet connection.
So we should work on that first. To help you with that we need to know which WLAN hardware you use, please post the output of

Code:

lspci

You can run that command on your Ubuntu system, no need to reboot.

This site does not work for me. Please post the output here using code-tags.

Code:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family DRAM Controller (rev 09)

00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200/2nd Generation Core Processor Family PCI Express Root Port (rev 09)

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)

00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 (rev 04)

00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 (rev 05)

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 05)

00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev b5)

00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 2 (rev b5)

00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 4 (rev b5)

00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 5 (rev b5)

00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 6 (rev b5)

00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 (rev 05)

00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation HM67 Express Chipset Family LPC Controller (rev 05)

00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family 6 port SATA AHCI Controller (rev 05)

00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller (rev 05)

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation Device 1246 (rev a1)

03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Centrino Wireless-N 1030 (rev 34)

04:00.0 USB Controller: NEC Corporation uPD720200 USB 3.0 Host Controller (rev 04)

0a:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 06)

Centrino Wireless-N 1030

TobiSGD
feel free to take over any time

according to that hw, your Ubuntu should have a kernel module loaded called iwlwifi

so

Code:

lsmod | grep iwlwifi

should also work when you boot into debian

http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/iwlwifi

https://wiki.debian.org/iwlwifi

but you also need the firmware....(software to enable the hardware).... which is called firmware-iwlwifi
http://packages.debian.org/search?ke...rmware-iwlwifi

so if you don't already have your apt setup for non-free repo you should be able to download the file on Ubuntu as per
http://packages.debian.org/wheezy/al...lwifi/download

pick your country but if aussie you can try a direct link (or even not aussie) as per
http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/d...i_0.40_all.deb

use root powers to copy into hard drive for mounted debian

boot into debian
takes you to console login
login

Code:

sudo dpkg -i /pathway2file/firmware-iwlwifi_0.40_all.deb

sudo apt-get update

or su to root if you have disabled sudo daemon

if it works firmwware is unpacked and module has loaded

report back if I have failed

next you need a small graphical environment I suggest you install fluxbox
and then choose a bigger one, if you need it, from a running WM environment

https://wiki.debian.org/FluxBox

Quote:

Originally Posted by aus9 (Post 5093347)

Code:

lsmod | grep iwlwifi

should also work when you boot into debian

This command gives me no output on Ubuntu.

I'm confused about terminology. I need both firmware and a driver, correct? So what is a module, something else? I have installed the firmware, but I don't know how/where to get the driver.

Drivers on Linux (unless compiled directly compiled into the kernel) are loaded as modules into the kernel, so a module and a driver usually are the same. The firmware is loaded by the driver after the module was loaded into the kernel.
The iwlwifi driver should be installed by default, so if you have the firmware installed, too, you should see your WLAN device when running iwconfig.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TobiSGD (Post 5093736)

So...what exactly do I have to do after installing the firmware? Does all this loading happen automatically?

Quote:

The iwlwifi driver should be installed by default, so if you have the firmware installed, too, you should see your WLAN device when running iwconfig.

I've tried using iwconfig previously. It is apparently not installed.

I thought it would be installed by default. At this point it may be easier to start from the beginning, but use CD1 or DVD1 instead of the netinstall. This way you will get a graphical environment including necessary software for networking and just have to install the firmware later. Unless you have the possibility to get temporarily a wired Internet connection.

I have iwconfig now. I downloaded wireless-tools package and installed by usb. I was connected to the Internet for quite some time (was downloading and got interrupted), but I can't seem to re-connect. Or maybe that's not the problem. All I know is that when I try to update, I get an error that the sites in my sources.list could not be resolved.

I've already done that, except I eventually removed the line

Code:

auto wlan0

from my /etc/network/interfaces file because it was taking forever at boot. I start it with ifup wlan0 at the command line. When I type iwconfig, it shows the named network, but

Code:

apt-get update

is still not working.

Got my internet connection with a utility called ceni. Everything's good now. Thanks everyone.

I know you've solved this already but it seems you have gone a long way about it just to get a working desktop. Considering your dual booting you could have chrooted into the Debain system while using the Ubuntu system and finished the set up.

This is what I do. Note that if using Ubuntu to Chroot into Debian you will need to use sudo infront of each command instead of the "for i in /dev" command to get Debian mounted and chrooted. After that just use the normal Debian procedures as listed without sudo.

Code:

#mounting

mkdir /mnt/temp

mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/temp

for i in /dev /dev/pts /proc /sys; do sudo mount -B $i /mnt/temp$i; done

cp /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/temp/etc/resolv.conf

chroot /mnt/temp



#Unmounting

for i in /dev/pts /dev /proc /sys; do sudo umount /mnt/temp$i ; done



#Some repair commands

apt-get update

apt-get upgrade

apt-get install -f

dpkg --configure -a

apt-get dist-upgrade