I installed a 32-bit Debian on an HP laptop the other day, and during installation it said non-free components were not installed as not on the disc, for political reasons I suppose, and then the network couldn't be set up correctly despite the cable in place.
When done, I couldn't get Internet to work despite doing as superuser 'dhclient eth0' which is all it takes on my other Debian, which I also installed from a DVD. So I wonder, are the Ethernet problems related to the missing firmware? And if not, what seems to be the problem? TIA -- underground experts united http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573