I installed debian jessie on an 8 year old Toshiba laptop. During the install, it noted that it needed the non-free driver file "iwlwifi-4965-2.ucode". After the installation finished, everything seems to be working properly (except the wifi).

I could not figure out how to get that file during the debian install, but I have it downloaded now to a flash drive. I tried copying that file to /lib/firmware but got an error "no such file or directory".

I guess it is a permission problem, but I'm really not sure. What is the best way to get this file into the correct location?

Ideally, you should show the exact command you typed and the output generated, rather than a verbal description/interpretation. It is likely that you got the path or source file name wrong, rather than the target directory not existing.

Tip: For a machine without internet access, output and be copy/pasted to a text file and transferred via a memory stick to a machine with internet access, so that it can then be posted.

Which firmware on this page did you download?

https://wiki.debian.org/Firmware

I downloaded the torrent files here, and burned them to DVD:
http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/8.6.0/amd64/bt-dvd/

1 members found this post helpful.

...and so what was the command you typed when trying to copy to /lib/firmware?

Here is what shows up in the Terminal when I tried to copy the file from my Kingston USB drive:

rick@localhost:/lib/firmware$ cp /media/rick/kingston/firmware-iwlwifi_0_extracted/data/lib/firmware/iwlwifi03945-2.ucode iwlwifi03945-2.ucode

cp: cannot stat '/media/rick/kingston/firmware-iwlwifi_0_extracted/data/lib/firmware/iwlwifi-3945-2.ucode": No such file or directory

The error message is correct - I forgot to put KINGSTON in upper case. Now I get a different error:

rick@localhost:/lib/firmware$ cp /media/rick/KINGSTON/firmware-iwlwifi_0_extracted/data/lib/firmware/iwlwifi03945-2.ucode iwlwifi03945-2.ucode

cp: cannot create regular file 'iwlwifi03945-2.ucode': Permission denied

They are .iso images to install the distribution that includes the firmware.
Did you want to do a fresh installation?

The firmware that you need to install in order to get your wireless working is on the page I linked. You can download it (depending on what wifi card you have) and transfer it to a flash drive like ferrari suggested.

To find out what wifi card you have run this command and write it down.
Once you know that you can download the firmware for your wifi card on the page I linked and install it with gdebi or the dpkg --install command.
<OR> you can perform a fresh install with the firmware included in the .iso.
It's up to you.

If it were me, I'd download the firmware install it. Once installed a reboot should give you your wifi connection.

These .iso's include the firmware:- Cinnamon, Gnome, KDE etc.....

http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/un...64/iso-hybrid/

OOPS, I misunderstood the question. Earlier I posted the source of the iso files that I used to do my new fresh install of debian jessie.

During the install, I got hundreds of error messages about this file: iwlwifi-3945-2.ucode. After the install, I did a Google search on that, and downloaded the firmware from this page:
https://packages.debian.org/jessie/k...rmware-iwlwifi

In an attempt to override the permission problem, I tried using sudo. But that gives a different error:

rick@localhost:/lib/firmware$ sudo cp /media/rick/KINGSTON/firmware-iwlwifi_0_extracted/data/lib/firmware/iwlwifi-3945-2.ucode
[sudo] password for rick: <entered it>
rick is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.

I logged in as root, then added rick to the sudo group. But I still get the same error:

su
Password: <entered it>
root@localhost:/lib/firmware# adduser rick sudo
Adding user 'rick' to group 'sudo'
Adding user rick to group sudo
Done
root@localhost:/lib/firmware# exit
exit

rick@localhost:/lib/firmware$ sudo cp /media/rick/KINGSTON/firmware-iwlwifi_0_extracted/data/lib/firmware/iwlwifi-3945-2.ucode
[sudo] password for rick: <entered it>
rick is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.

Good than you have what you need.

Open the terminal and cd to where you have that firmware.
Than become root 'su' and install it with the dpkg command.

If that doesn't work right click on the firmware and install it with gdebi.
Once it's installed, reboot.

1 members found this post helpful.

Still no success.

su
password: <entered>
cd /media/rick/KINGSTON/firmware-iwlwifi_0_extracted/data/lib/firmware
dpkg --install firmware-iwlwifi_0.43_all.deb

dpkg: error processing archive firmware-iwlwifi_0.43_all.deb (--install):
cannot access archive: No such file or directory
Errors were encountered while processing:
firmware-iwlwifi_0.43_all.deb

Then I changed this to process the single file that I do have, but got the same error

dpkg --install iwlwifi-3945-2.ucode

dpkg: error processing archive iwlwifi-3945-2.ucode (--install):
cannot access archive: No such file or directory
Errors were encountered while processing:
iwlwifi-3945-2.ucode

I tried this, but never actually saw any output from gdebi. After rebooting, the wireless is still not working.