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

Craig cjolists at gmail.com
Thu Feb 25 23:25:24 UTC 2010


On 25 February 2010 23:23, Ben Armstrong <synrg at sanctuary.nslug.ns.ca> wrote:
>
> On 24/02/10 08:57 PM, Craig O'Brien wrote:
>>
>> 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?
>
> The most likely reason for this is wifi being toggled off in the BIOS.  Check your BIOS settings.  Don't let the blue light fool you.  Asus has made it an indicator both for wireless *and* bluetooth.

Thanks...  I did as you suggested and the wireless interface was
indeed enabled.  I suspected as much since the debian-eeepc.img
install worked just fine.  Just in case, I reset all BIOS settings to
factory defaults and then re-enabled the wireless.  I retried the
install with the same result.

Can anyone else out there with a 901 test to see whether this is
widespread, or just me?  I have been using joeyh's boot media
(http://people.debian.org/~joeyh/d-i/images/daily/hd-media/) and the
daily netinst ISOs
(http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/daily-builds/daily/arch-latest/i386/iso-cd/)
from 16 Feb to 23 Feb 2010...

I would ideally like to install Squeeze using the wireless interface,
but If I have to install using the wired LAN then I will...  But I'd
rather get to the bottom of the problem if I can (with the community's
help, of course :-)

>> Am I going to have to wait for a debian-eeepc.img that supports Squeeze?
>
> There are no plans for such a thing.  Our goal is to make Debian itself install on the Eee, and that includes having the standard installer work out of the box.  The custom installer was necessary in the early days of the project when the standard installer didn't work well for the Eee, but now that the standard installer mostly works, making sure it works for everyone is our focus.

I see...  Yes, that seems to be the best goal - Debian *is* the
universal operating system.

>> 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?
>
> Sounds like a bug.  Please file one against debian-installer.

Will do this weekend - once I figure out how :-)

>> 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.
>
> Yes.  Please do.

Wilco.

> Thanks,
> Ben



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