As I mentioned last time, there is some tweaking to do when Debian is installed. Recently, I discovered another needed tweak one needs to do, especially if you need "Non-free" software for some firmware, in my case for my wifi on my HP Laptop. Previously, I tried to install Debian on my HP Laptop, but encountered this error message, which meant I wouldn't be able to use my system. That's when I decided to install Linux Mint Debian Edition on my laptop instead, because I knew it would work.
But it confused me somewhat, because to me, "Non-free" means I need to shell out some money to buy software for, something. Unfortunately, the version of Debian I downloaded (a Cinnamon enabled package), failed to tell me exactly what needed the "non-free" software, and it was the middle of the night and I needed to finish up so I could get some sleep. But, I needed a working system the next day, which is why I installed Linux Mint, because I was sure it would work out of the box.
But, on my Acer Asprire laptop, I was able to install Debian just fine, using the net installer version, which hooks you up to the internet to download most of the packages. So I assumed it was the version of Debian I tried to install, and I tried to install Debian again using the net installer. Yet, again, it encountered this error when I tried to install it, but unlike the previous time, it told me what firmware I needed. So, with that error on my HP Laptop, I opened my Aspire laptop and did some research on this error. Here is what I found out.
I discovered that "non-free" doesn't mean that you have to buy anything--rather it means that the firmware is proprietary software. I read that Debian doesn't enable this "feature" out of the box due to concerns about "non-free" software on their distribution. I found out that to solve this issue, you simply need to edit your repository list file, and add some additional text to the end of each line in the file. Here is the procedure to fix this problem.
First, you need to use a text editor to edit the source.list file. You can use your favorite editor, or use the following command line in a terminal (ensure the user has sudo privileges):
sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list
Then on the end of each line that begins with "deb", tack on the following words after the "main" keyword:
contrib non-free
For example, one line commonly found in this list would be
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster main
When you've edited it, it should look like:
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster main contrib non-free
Once you've done that to every line in the file that starts with "deb", save the file edits under the same name, then enter first:
sudo apt update
then us sudo apt install to install your firmware. In my case, it indicated that I needed the:
sudo apt install firmware-iwlwifi
package. So, with that information, I went ahead with the install, hooking my HP laptop to an Ethernet connection for its internet access, which worked fine. Once I installed Debian, I was able to follow the above steps to install the "non-free" software, then I was able to set up my wifi without further incident and disconnect the Ethernet cable. I'm typing on my Debian system right now, even!
Thanks for reading.
PS: You can reedit the file and take those words off the end if you do fear downloading other proprietary software in the future.
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