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Provide wifi driver at install stage for Debian

· 3 min read
Hreniuc Cristian-Alexandru

Ever encountered this type of error when you were trying to install Linux on your Laptop?

Some of your hardware needs non-free firmware files to operate.  The firmware can be loaded from
removable media, such as a USB stick or floppy.

The missing firmware files are: iwlwifi-6000g2a-6.ucode iwlwifi-6000g2a-5.ucode

If you have such media available now, insert it, and continue.

Here's how to fix it, based on steps from this guy.

If you fot to this ponit in the installation process, do not close the installation.

Get another usb stick and format it using FAT.

Plug in the usb​

If you already have a usb that is formated as FAT(it doesn't need to be empty), skip the next two steps.

Get the usb device:​
fdisk -l
# Output
Disk /dev/sda: 119.2 GiB, 128035676160 bytes, 250069680 sectors
Disk model: SanDisk SD8SBAT1
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x995ebae8

Device     Boot Start       End   Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/sda1  *     2048 250068991 250066944 119.2G 83 Linux


Disk /dev/sdb: 931.5 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Disk model: WDC WD10EZEX-75W
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 08BAF1CD-519D-4758-8BFE-6B50CBBC078D

Device          Start        End    Sectors   Size Type
/dev/sdb1  1922275328 1953523711   31248384  14.9G Linux swap
/dev/sdb2        2048 1922275327 1922273280 916.6G Linux filesystem

Partition table entries are not in disk order.


Disk /dev/sdc: 29.3 GiB, 31457280000 bytes, 61440000 sectors
Disk model: ProductCode     
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x263d4ee4

Device     Boot Start      End  Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/sdc1  *     2048 61439999 61437952 29.3G 83 Linux
Delete all partitions and create a new FAT one:​
fdisk /dev/sdc

# Press 'd' untill you deleted all partitions.

# Press 'w' to write the changes.

fdisk /dev/sdc
# Press 'n' to create a new partition

# Press 'w' to write the changes.

# Format it as FAT:

mkfs.fat /dev/sdc1
Download the drivers and copy them on the drive:​

Go to https://packages.debian.org/buster/firmware-iwlwifi and download the deb file.

Extract it's content:

mkdir wifi
dpkg-deb --extract firmware-iwlwifi_20190114-1_all.deb wifi

Copy files to usb:

cp -r wifi/lib/firmware /mnt/usb_stick
Plugin the usb stick in the laptop that you are installing Debian and mount it:​

  • Plugin the USB stick.

  • Press <CTRL>+<Alt>+<F2> key combination, to switch to the second virtual terminal.

  • Run the blkid command, to find out under which device name the USB stick was known: /dev/sdc. Its FAT filesystem, which contained the firmware files, then, was /dev/sdc1.

  • Mount the usb stick:

    cd /mnt
    mkdir mount_usb
    mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt/mount_usb

  • Create a symbolic link to the firmware folder from the usb stick in /lib/firmware:

    ln -s /mnt/mount_usb/firmware /lib/firmware
  • Press <CTRL>+<Alt>+<F5> to continue the installation process.

Everything should work out of the box now.