Hey everyone... First time posting!

I'm very new to Linux, and I decided that running a 'minimal' debian install with i3 was the best option for me.

So I downloaded and burned the non-free debian .iso to make my life a little easier, and it prompted me to insert a device that had iwlwifi-7265D-22.ucode through iwlwifi-7265D-26.ucode. So, I put the firmware on a separate USB and the install went fine.

It was the my knowledge that a netinstall requires internet to install... so... the fact that everything finalized and installed, I thought, meant I successfully got the wifi to work. Nope...

Unfortunately, when I actually boot into debian I can't connect to the internet at all, even ethernet won't do anything for me.

Maybe I'm in over my head with this netinstall stuff, but I would appreciate any help!

Nah. Go for netinstaller, it is a great idea.. But bringing up wifi on the command line is not a very easy thing to do, but you can learn from it..

Anyways, "debian" is by default a "free" distro and does not contain "non-free" parts. This could explain the issue, even when you download the firmware. The Kernel of debian is a bit similar to that of "Linux Libre", which removes the non-free parts of the kernel, which some wifi cards (among other things) rely upon.

I would suggest you download and configure and compile your own Kernel on the netinstaller, and then load the correct iwlwifi ucode for that Kernel. This should at least get your wifi card up and running. Then you just have the task of actually connecting to the internet with that card from the command line, which is a process in and of itself.

But don't get discouraged, don't take the easy route. I would highly recommend that you take these steps which will teach you alot of useful things.

Good luck!

I appreciate your input! I have no idea how I would go about compiling my own kernel...

Also, the .iso I got was from here: https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/u...ding-firmware/

I had to load the firmware onto a separate USB anyway, but yeah.

I found this fix here: https://lists.debian.org/debian-user.../msg00967.html that will hopefully solve my issue. If not, I will definitely try out your method and post my results.

Thanks!

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Update! So I followed the steps from the above link, and I was able to actually set wlp3s0 up, but couldn't install anything. Apparently, it's an issue with repos using https and not having apt-transport-https installed. So I ran apt-get install apt-transport-https and then apt-get update, and now I can install things smoothly! i3 here I come.