[Debian-eeepc-devel] Help installing Squeeze on EeePC 901 using rt2860 wireless

[Craig O'Brien]

Hello -

I am trying very hard to install Debian Squeeze onto my EeePC 901 using
wireless, with pretty limited success.

Can I first say that using debian-eeepc.img to install Lenny on my 901 as
per the wiki (http://wiki.debian.org/<http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEeePC/HowTo/Install>
DebianEeePC/HowTo/Install
<http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEeePC/HowTo/Install>) works
flawlessly... well done.  But I am more interested in installing Squeeze
from scratch if possible (rather than an upgrade from Lenny).  To that end,
as per the wiki I am using the standard installer.

I have tried both documented options (the boot.img.gz/netinst option and the
unetbootin/netinst/CD-1 option).  The rt2860 wireless interface does not
seem to be detected in either case.  I read (
http://www.debian.org/releases/testing/i386/ch06s04.html.en) that the
installer was capable of installing non-free firmware.  However, copying the
firmware-ralink deb onto the USB flash drive (either to the root of the
device or in a directory "/firmware") does not help.  The installer does not
prompt for firmware at any time.  Is the rt2860 not supported in the kernel
that is used with these methods?

I have also tried completing a net install and trying to set up the wireless
interface afterwards, using something like the steps below:
- copy firmware-ralink package to machine, install using dpkg
- mount netinst iso & install wireless-tools using aptitude
- edit /etc/network/interfaces, add missing lines for interface wlan0
(including essid & wep key)
- reboot
...but I still do not have a connected wireless interface with which to
complete the install.

Am I going to have to wait for a debian-eeepc.img that supports Squeeze?

While installing using the updated d-i, I noticed character glitches within
its interface - a portion of the right-hand border was misaligned, the
buttons had what looked like escape codes all over them...  It didn't render
the interface unusable, it just messed it up a bit.  This did not happen
with the debian-eeepc.img Lenny installer.  Is this a bug, or am I doing
something wrong?

Lastly, I have some feedback for the wonderful DebianEEEPC wiki -
specifically for the section regarding the Standard Installer (
http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEeePC/HowTo/InstallUsingStandardInstaller).
 Apologies if this is not the correct channel to go through...  If it is
better for me to simply create a wiki account and edit what's there, please
say so.

* Squeeze (testing) using an updated d-i:
- The zcat method to write a bootable image to a USB flash drive works on
Mac OSX, provided you add a ".Z" suffix to the boot.img.gz file (tested
using Mac OS X 10.6.2 Snow Leopard).
- For those with access to Windows only, (1) use 7-Zip to extract boot.img
from boot.img.gz; (2) use win32diskimager (
https://launchpad.net/win32-image-writer/+download) to write the image to
USB flash drive.

* Squeeze installation using Unetbootin to do a full install (Text install):
- Step 3 / Windows appears not to work.  I have tried Daemon Tools, Virtual
CloneDrive, MagicISO and Alcohol 52% on WinXP SP3 and none can mount the
.img file in such a way to allow access to the files within.  Windows
complains that the disk is not formatted, that it could be corrupted or is
using a format that is not compatible with Windows (I suspect the latter).
 I tried extracting the files from boot.img using 7-Zip, but copying to the
USB drive and overwriting existing files renders it unbootable.  The only
method I managed to make work was the Linux method.

Cheers,

Craig
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