Warning: astounding idiocy ahead.

Huge thanks at the outset anyone willing to help me(or point me to where I should go).

As should become clear pretty quickly, I am a linux noob as well as an idiot.

The laptop is an Asus x205ta netbook(32 bit UEFI) The installation was debian off a usb stick. (debian-stretch-DI-a1-i386-CD-1)

I'm unsure as to what is/is not relevant here, so I'll just state what seem to me to the the important facts- if you need to know anything else, please just ask!

So, the installation progressed without any hitches. I get to the portion of the installation where I begin to install additional software.

I pick a mirror, etc and start the download. All is going well. For my internet connection, I was using my android over a usb tether. At a point midway through the installation, wondering if I can't minimize the use of my mobile data, I turn on my phone wifi to tether instead. This immediately interferes with the connection(on the computer)(should I have expected this?) and the install cancels itself.

At this point, I turn off wifi again and try with another mirror. At this point, however, I begin to get an error when I select a mirror, regardless of which mirror I selected.

At this point, I powered down the laptop.

Here is what is happening when I attempt to go through with the install again.

The early bit of the install proceeds normally, but then it tells me that it cannot detect an Ethernet card, and asks me to specify the card in my machine. I assume this implies that something very bad has taken place on account of my interrupting the install by shutting my computer down, and I haven't touched it further(though I completed the install). I CAN boot into debian, not that there is much there.

No Ethernet card appears when I use the lspci command.

After some googling, it appears that no one else has been stupid enough to do this(or if they have, they've shut up about it afterwards).

So, have I turned my computer into a glorified paperweight? Is there hope?

Start over using a ethernet cable connection.

If me. I would delete the file structure on the partitions debian already made. A Live http://gparted.org/download.php live iso should handle that just fine. I keep a few old, new, and newer gparted cds on my cd rack for this job.

Then beg, borrow a land line connection and start over with the Debian install. Not use phone or wifi.Then move on after install to use
the phone/wifi setup after everything is settled and everything boots
like it should. Don't forget to a a after install is done and still connected to land line.

Uprgrades can be handled later on. I am assuming you md5sum checked your downloaded Debian iso? The Gparted iso will run off usb, cd, or dvd. As a live session.


Good luck and happy trailz, Rok

When my Lenovo laptop gets its ethernet interface into that state**, I just power it down completely (disconnect the charger, remove the battery), wait 20 seconds or so, then reconnect everything and start it back up.

** That tends to happen if I plug in the ethernet cable during POST. Neither Linux not Windows can see the ethernet interface again until I do the complete power down.

So, there is no ethernet port on this machine. So I don't quite have that option. There isn't an optical drive either- can I use that over a USB? Powering down doesn't seem to do anything here.

Does this seem like something I should be able to sort out, though?

Don't know as I am not physically present.

Disregard what I posted then I guess.

Yes if talking booting gparted. Ethernet cable Hard Line? Maybe if the router has that capability I should think. I have not done something like that
since dial up so I cannot say for sure.

I'm confused. If there is no ethernet port, then why is it so surprising that the installer does not detect an ethernet card and lspci does not report one either? If you're using USB to connect to your Android for networking, does lsusb see that device?

Right, of course. I was referring to the possibility of gparted via usb. I will give that a shot. I hope the UEFI does not interfere(I was not able to boot into ubuntu live).

Alright, I have booted in with gparted. Excuse my ignorance here. I'm currently looking at /dev/mmcblk0. What should I be seeing and what should I do?

Thanks for the help.

Hi..

I'd like to chime in just say that you are not what you are calling yourself! We all start from the beginning and we all make mistakes so please don't beat yourself up over it or put yourself down. Even experienced folks make mistakes at what they've known for years.

Regards...

Thanks for saying so. As you can imagine, I feel mighty stupid for jeopardizing my new computer! Hopefully this all can be sorted out.

Out of my depth here with UEFI partitons. In gparted.

or

will describe your situtation better to other members who know UEFI partiton layouts.

For uploading screenshots to get my point across in a post. I use
https://imgur.com/

Take a screenshot of what confuses you in gparted and your laptop.
Post the url offered and a detailed description on the screenshot posted.

I can't see how a previous (failed) install would have anything to do with a fresh install. To be safe, simply format all but the UEFI system partition, and try again.

Do you have everything set up exactly the same as your first attempt?

Your ethernet error may be due to the fact that you don't have a working network interface, period. It's an ASUS. and I'm willing to bet that it needs firmware for the internal WiFi that Debian does not supply on an installer image. What you can do is go to live.debian.net, where they have the Live+Non-free (i.e. Firmware containing) images:

http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/un...86-netinst.iso

Yes, everything is the same. I'm not sure this is an issue of something from the debian image, as there was no sign of any problem before the failed install.


I currently looking at my partitions from within gparted. How can tell which to format and which to leave alone? Thank you for your patience.


I may go ahead and try that other image anyway, but considering I didn't have this problem before the install I'm not sure if it would be of help.


Thanks again for the help, everyone.

I agree. Just start the install again following the same procedure but be aware that instead of creating partitions they are likely already there so, perhaps, select an advanced install or a more choices option when it gets to that stage.

Should I not overwrite the old partition? I just find it strange that it is suddenly unable to detect these hardware components when it was able to do so before. Should I just try to go ahead with it anyways?