Hi all,
I'm trying to install Debian 13 on a desktop using a USB wifi dongle and can't get the installer to recognize the wifi adapter.
I started out with the usual Netinstall in expert mode, which I've done many times in the past. However, on this system, I need to use a USB wifi adapter and can't connect it via ethernet, not even for the installation.
Everything seems normal until I get to the "detect network hardware" step, the installer is looking for adapters, finds none and then prompts me with a list of drivers. Whatever drivers I load, I can't get past this step.
First, I used an Alfa Network AWUS036NHA with an Atheros AR9271 chip (driver ath9k_htc), which I planned to use for this system. I selected the driver from the list accordingly, hit return, went back to network hardware detection, still no adapter found. I tried this several times with all ath9k drivers.
I have two other adapters here that I also tried to use, an older AVM Fritz Wifi Adapter N (driver carl9170) and a newer model AVM Fritz Wifi Adapter AC 860 (driver mt76), all of them supported by Linux.
No matter which of the adapters I plug in or which drivers I select, none of them are detected.
When I boot a live system, all of the wifi adapters are working instantly, so it can't be a hardware issue. I also plugged them around in the process, so I don't think it's a USB chip/port issue, either.
Unfortunately, I can't use the graphical installer in the live system, because I need a specific RAID setup that I can't create in the installer software, plus it can't shrink reserved blocks and such. (I suppose it is somehow possible by creating the RAID/filesystem in the terminal before starting the installer, but I'd feel much better just setting everything up in the manual partitioner in expert mode.)
However, even with the full live ISO in expert install mode, the adapters are not detected.
I'm a bit confused what's going wrong here. The live system finds and loads all necessary drivers and Debian 13 is apparently shipped with non-free firmware as far as I'm aware, so the drivers should be there, but why can't I load them? Or am I doing something wrong in the installer?
I'm trying to install Debian 13 on a desktop using a USB wifi dongle and can't get the installer to recognize the wifi adapter.
I started out with the usual Netinstall in expert mode, which I've done many times in the past. However, on this system, I need to use a USB wifi adapter and can't connect it via ethernet, not even for the installation.
Everything seems normal until I get to the "detect network hardware" step, the installer is looking for adapters, finds none and then prompts me with a list of drivers. Whatever drivers I load, I can't get past this step.
First, I used an Alfa Network AWUS036NHA with an Atheros AR9271 chip (driver ath9k_htc), which I planned to use for this system. I selected the driver from the list accordingly, hit return, went back to network hardware detection, still no adapter found. I tried this several times with all ath9k drivers.
I have two other adapters here that I also tried to use, an older AVM Fritz Wifi Adapter N (driver carl9170) and a newer model AVM Fritz Wifi Adapter AC 860 (driver mt76), all of them supported by Linux.
No matter which of the adapters I plug in or which drivers I select, none of them are detected.
When I boot a live system, all of the wifi adapters are working instantly, so it can't be a hardware issue. I also plugged them around in the process, so I don't think it's a USB chip/port issue, either.
Unfortunately, I can't use the graphical installer in the live system, because I need a specific RAID setup that I can't create in the installer software, plus it can't shrink reserved blocks and such. (I suppose it is somehow possible by creating the RAID/filesystem in the terminal before starting the installer, but I'd feel much better just setting everything up in the manual partitioner in expert mode.)
However, even with the full live ISO in expert install mode, the adapters are not detected.
I'm a bit confused what's going wrong here. The live system finds and loads all necessary drivers and Debian 13 is apparently shipped with non-free firmware as far as I'm aware, so the drivers should be there, but why can't I load them? Or am I doing something wrong in the installer?
Statistics: Posted by Paaradiso — 2025-12-27 23:13