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I'm trying to net-install Debian testing (Jessie) on a laptop but I always get stuck during the network hardware detection.

Specifically, the last line I read in the syslog is that the firmware for the wlan chip (bcm43xx-0.fw) cannot be loaded.

For the installation I'm using a bootable USB drive on which I put the debian netinst iso.
I tried to flash the USB drive with both usb-creator-gtk and dd obtaining the same results.

I tried several debian installers:

  • Jessie Alpha 1 installer (debian-jessie-DI-a1-i386-netinst.iso)
  • the weekly build of the installer (debian-testing-i386-netinst.iso)
  • Jessie Alpha 1 installer with non-free firmwares (firmware-jessie-DI-a1-i386-netinst.iso)
  • the weekly build with non-free firmwares (firmware-testing-i386-netinst.iso)

In these last two installers I see that the firmware bcm43xx-0.fw actually exists down the lib path.

I also tried to run the installer with various boot options: noapic nolapic, hw-detect/start_pcmcia=false, acpi=off (each by its own and combined) but nothing changed.

I'm quite clueless.

This is my network hardware according to lspci on a running system (Ubuntu 11.04):

03:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4313 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller (rev 01)
05:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 06)

and this is the last page of the syslog of the debian installer just before it hangs:

main-menu[572]: INFO: Menu item 'ethdetect' selected
kernel: [         ...] r8169 Gigabit Ethernet driver 2.3LK-NAPI loaded
kernel: [         ...] r8169 0000:05:00.0: can't disable ASPM; OS doesn't have ASPM control
kernel: [         ...] bcma: bus0: Found chip with id 0x4313, rev 0x01 and package 0x08
kernel: [         ...] bcma: bus0: Core 0 found: ChipCommon (manuf 0x4BF, id 0x800, rev 0x24, class 0x0)
kernel: [         ...] bcma: bus0: Core 1 found: IEEE 802.11 (manuf 0x4BF, id 0x812, rev 0x18, class 0x0)
kernel: [         ...] bcma: bus0: Core 2 found: PCIe (manuf 0x4BF, id 0x820, rev 0x11, class 0x0)
kernel: [         ...] r8169 0000:05:00.0: irq 43 for MSI/MSI-x
kernel: [         ...] r8169 0000:05:00.0 eth0: RTL8168e/8111e at 0xf801c00, e8:11:32:14:a6:ea, XID 0c200000 IRQ 43
kernel: [         ...] r8169 0000:05:00.0 eth0: jumbo features [frames: 9200 bytes, tx checksumming: ko]
kernel: [         ...] bcma: bus0: Bus registered
net/hw-detect.hotplug: Detected hotpluggable network interface lo
kernel: [         ...] cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain 
kernel: [         ...] Support for cores revisions 0x17 and 0x18 disabled by module param allhwsupport=0. Try b43.allhwsupport=1
kernel: [         ...] b43: probe of bcma0:0 failed with error -524
kernel: [         ...] Broadcom 43xx driver loaded [ Features: PMNLS ]
kernel: [         ...] brcmsmac bcma0:0: mfg 4bf core 812 rev 24 class 0 irq 16
net/hw-detect.hotplug: Detected hotpluggable network interface eth0
kernel: [         ...] ieee80211 phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'minstrel_ht'
net/hw-detect.hotplug: Detected hotpluggable network interface wlan0
check-missing-firmware: /dev/.udev/firmware-missing does not exist, skipping
check-missing-firmware: /run/udev/firmware-missing does not exist, skipping
check-missing-firmware: no missing firmware in /dev/.udev/firmware-missing /run/udev/firmware-missing
kernel: [         ...] brcmsmac bcma0:0: firmware: failed to load brcm/bcm/bcm43xx-0.fw (-2)
kernel: [         ...] brcmsmac bcma0:0: Direct firmware load failed with error -2
kernel: [         ...] brcmsmac bcma0:0: Falling back to user helper

I wanted to try to unload/blacklist the kernel module for the Broadcom chip, but I didn't manage to do so. Would that work? How should I do that?

Any help is much appreciated.

etuardu
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  • Have you tried disabling the wireless card in the BIOS configuration settings? – MFT May 02 '14 at 13:35
  • This is quite embarassing but it seems my laptop has nor a hardware switch nor a BIOS option to turn the wifi off. I'm tempted to open a new question about this. (The machine is a Samsung NP-RV511 by the way). – etuardu May 02 '14 at 17:49
  • You should be able to get to the bios settings with the F2 key as stated here: http://support-us.samsung.com/cyber/popup/iframe/pop_troubleshooting_fr.jsp?idx=166758&modelname=NP-RV511I&modelcode=NP-RV511-A01US&session_id=&from_osc= – MFT May 02 '14 at 18:07
  • Of course, I do manage to get into the BIOS setup, but once there I can't find any option to turn off the wifi. – etuardu May 02 '14 at 18:20
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    @etuardu I do face the same problem as you are and I think it's best not to use the netinstall cd/dvd of debian when installing. I am trying the full-dvd and I think that will bypass the installation as it won't need to detect the hardware. I'll fix the network/wifi issue after a full install. – Louie Miranda Jun 01 '14 at 15:32

2 Answers2

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https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=681656

The work around is to go to a different shell: Press Alt-F2 type: nano /bin/check-missing-firmware

Under the first line of the script, add exit 0:

#!/bin/bash
exit 0

Press Alt-F1 and return to the frozen screen and hit CTRL-C to kill and restart that script. Do not select the conflicting harder for network setup, and you are good to go for now!

  • +1 to question and this answer. I can confirm this allows installation to bypass the freeze, which in my case occurred when installing even the latest ISO of Debian on a Dell Latitude D600. (I found the bug report too, but I would've been glad this answer was here, if I didn't!) – underscore_d Aug 05 '15 at 13:10
  • +1 this worked, but on my old Thinkpad T43 with the LinuxCNC installer (Wheezy, I think), it was Ctrl+Alt+F1/F2/F3... to switch consoles. – 3Dave Oct 10 '17 at 20:37
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Some related info for future readers of this thread; this does not offer a direct resolution to the problem posted but might offer another work-around if the problem persists like it did with me:

Encountered similar installation freeze at "detecting network hardware" with both Debian (9) & Ubuntu (16) on a old 32-bit i386 machine that continued to successfully run Windows Vista over years.

The installer did not make progress with several potential work-arounds including:

  • the ones mentioned in this thread (installer did not respond to the keys)

  • the use of boot options (per https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1326678):

    noapic nolapic acpi=off pci=noacpi irqpoll pnpbios=off

  • use of the different installation wizards that Debian & Ubuntu offer (Advanced, Graphical, Textual etc.)

Ended up taking the VM route of installing Debian on the Windows Vista machine with VirtualBox; and the installation went thru well!

While use of a VM might not be feasible for all scenarios, it could be another work-around to consider.

Snidhi Dev
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