Package: installation-reports Boot method: usb stick netinst Image version: debian-8.1.0-amd64-netinst.iso Date: 8/31/2015
Machine: Dell XPS 8300 Processor: N/A Memory: N/A Partitions: N/A Output of lspci -knn (or lspci -nn): 00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family DRAM Controller [8086:0100] (rev 09) 00:01.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200/2nd Generation Core Processor Family PCI Express Root Port [8086:0101] (rev 09) 00:16.0 Communication controller [0780]: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 [8086:1c3a] (rev 04) 00:1a.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 [8086:1c2d] (rev 04) 00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller [8086:1c20] (rev 04) 00:1c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1 [8086:1c10] (rev b4) 00:1c.3 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 4 [8086:1c16] (rev b4) 00:1c.4 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 5 [8086:1c18] (rev b4) 00:1d.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 [8086:1c26] (rev 04) 00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation H67 Express Chipset Family LPC Controller [8086:1c4a] (rev 04) 00:1f.2 SATA controller [0106]: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller [8086:1c02] (rev 04) 00:1f.3 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller [8086:1c22] (rev 04) 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation GM107 [GeForce GTX 750 Ti] [10de:1380] (rev a2) 01:00.1 Audio device [0403]: NVIDIA Corporation Device [10de:0fbc] (rev a1) 02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 [8086:422b] (rev 35) 03:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Broadcom Corporation NetLink BCM57788 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe [14e4:1691] (rev 01) 04:00.0 Multimedia controller [0480]: ViXS Systems, Inc. Device [1745:3000] Base System Installation Checklist: [O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it Initial boot: [O] Detect network card: [E] Configure network: [E] Detect CD: [O] Load installer modules: [O] Detect hard drives: [O] Partition hard drives: [O] Install base system: [E] Clock/timezone setup: [O] User/password setup: [O] Install tasks: [O?] Install boot loader: [O] Overall install: [E] Comments/Problems: There was a change between debian-jessie-DI-b2-amd64-netinst.iso (which completes successfully on this machine) and debian-8.1.0-amd64-netinst.iso (which does not) Specifically, the older DI-b2 does *not* detect the Ultimate-N 6300 card and as a result is able to successfully configure the onboard Ethernet and proceed through the installation as expected. However, the newer 8.1.0 installer detects the Ultimate-N 6300 card but cannot find its firmware blob. This is not surprising as this wireless adapter requires a proprietary firmware blob which the netinst does not include (I completely understand the reasoning for this, but it makes the overall installation problematic.) As a result, the onboard Ethernet appears to be left in a partially configured state (ip link shows eth0 but ip route shows no routes, ping to local network devices results in no route to host) and as a result is unable to successfully complete the network installation resulting in errors and a partial installation. Since the Ultimate-N card requires a proprietary binary blob which this version of the netinst does not provide, wouldn't it make more sense to not include driver support for it in this image as it will result in problems like this? (detecting the adapter but not being able to configure it is not a good user experience... it would seem to make more sense to direct the user to a netinst image with non-free driver support at this point if they have problems completing the installation) Also, in the event multiple network adapters are successfully detected and configured, I didn't see a way to tell the installer to use a specific interface as these would usually be on different networks and only one may be suitable to download the Debian packages. To work around this issue, I switched back to debian-jessie-DI-b2-amd64-netinst.iso which works as expected...
