Ok guys/gals here we go.
I consider myself intermediate level, I normally can find a way to accomplish things on my own, but here I am stumped as to why this isn't working as I expected...
I have 2 issues.
I want this USB so I can plug into any computer with any network/wifi or graphics hardware. I installed almost all firmware for wifi and ethernet adapters in synaptic.
Issue 1.
I have installed Debian Stretch full NOT live with persistence on a USB drive. I installed it using a USB wifi adapter and all went fine. I have both a wifi adapter and an ethernet connection on this computer. It picked both up during install, I used the wifi to install. It went fine. I have installed ndiswrapper wireless-tools and wicd. I added line ndiswrapper in the /etc/modules file. The wifi adapter is WUSB100 Cisco/Linksys I see it and loaded the windows XP .inf file in window wireless drivers. However when I unplug the wired connection it still will not get an internet connection. The light on the USB adapter flashes as if it is working just no connection. it shows up in Windows wireless drivers as yes available and yes driver loaded. The wicd utility sees the NDIS network name still no internet connection. I do not get the wifi controls at the top right of gnome.
Issue 2.
Graphics issue. The USB works just fine on the machine where it was installed with a radeon HD 5670 graphics, however if I try to use it on a machine with an nvidia graphics everything is fine then after a random amount of time I get garbage on the screen and it locks up. These are the 2 machines I am testing it on they are totally different it has an Nvidia 6150se. It shows up in settings details as nouveau. I would like this to work on any machine including laptops. So I will need it to work with radeon geforce and intel graphics. I am thinking adding this line in my /etc/default/grub file, it should be fine for the graphics, however I am not sure if this is for only graphics or if it will impact the wireless issue as well. GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nomodeset"

I hit escape on the keyboard during boot and everything loads OK no errors, I am stumped...

Any suggestions to these issues?

Just get the knoppix DVD and make a persistent USB drive out of it. It works with almost everything, because it allows to tweak the system before it boots.

I do not want to use Knoppix, because I want a rolling OS. I have it configured for the stable branch not stretch, therefore I won't need to reinstall to get a current updates and it will automatically turn into Debian 10 Buster.

I have added the nomodeset setting to /etc/default/grub it seems to have fixed the issue with an Nvidia system garbage and lock up, however do not get a good resolution at all it gives 2 choices 1024x768 and 512x385 4x3 res but stretches it to 16x9 I was wondering if there is a way to use bios mode to see what this will do, basically maybe using the hardware modes built into the card itself, if anyone has knowledge on this I would like to try it.

I am still having problems with the networking. I have completely removed wicd and reinstalled the wl wireless-tools and network manager. I have also moved to a 64-bit driver for ndiswrapper it seems to load fine in the Windows wireless tools app. Still no network. Any ideas?

Nobody with a better than crude screen gets a good (aka native) resolution using nomodeset except some people using proprietary (non-FOSS) video drivers. All competent FOSS drivers require kernel modesetting be enabled. Nomodeset limits screens to antique VESA modes, none of which are widescreen modes. Highest likelihood of acceptable performance from the most of popular gfxchips will result if none of the dedicated Xorg video drivers are installed, resulting in the default built-in modesetting driver being used for gfx from all of Intel, ATI/AMD and NVidia/GeForce.

The GeForce 6150SE with some kernels and/or Xorg servers seems to be a special problem in need of special treatment, one or more cmdline options: and/or

Maybe take a look at AntiX/MX Linux (Debian based), both work from a pendrive on multiple machines, it's my regular distro, but I don't know if there is anything special, except that it is a non systemd distro.

mrmazda, thank you I have read on the nvidia it is a special issue taking a special tinker to resolve, however I have never seen anyone make comment on the things to do to fix it. I thank you for your time in finally showing me these things to try. Now could you please tell me what folder and file these config settings should be placed in? and again, thank you. I will remark and add to your status as soon as I try them.

Since you were speaking of the nomodeset in /etc/default/grub, this is what I did in my /etc/default/grub file. Is this correct and/or will this work? Do I also need to sudo update-initramfs -u?


# start /etc/default/grub

# If you change this file, run 'update-grub' afterwards to update
# /boot/grub/grub.cfg.
# For full documentation of the options in this file, see:
# info -f grub -n 'Simple configuration'

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`echo SiDEBIAN OS`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="nouveau.config=NvMSI=0 nouveau.noaccel=1"

# Uncomment to enable BadRAM filtering, modify to suit your needs
# This works with Linux (no patch required) and with any kernel that obtains
# the memory map information from GRUB (GNU Mach, kernel of FreeBSD ...)
#GRUB_BADRAM="0x01234567,0xfefefefe,0x89abcdef,0xefefefef"

# Uncomment to disable graphical terminal (grub-pc only)
#GRUB_TERMINAL=console

# The resolution used on graphical terminal
# note that you can use only modes which your graphic card supports via VBE
# you can see them in real GRUB with the command `vbeinfo'
GRUB_GFXMODE=1280x720

# Uncomment if you don't want GRUB to pass "root=UUID=xxx" parameter to Linux
#GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID=true

# Uncomment to disable generation of recovery mode menu entries
#GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY="true"

# Uncomment to get a beep at grub start
#GRUB_INIT_TUNE="480 440 1"

# end /etc/default/grub