I've installed Debian dozens of times since 2002 and I have never run into anything approaching the headaches I am experiencing trying to get the current stable Debian onto a newly rebuilt machine. The box is a straightforward amd64 setup built from a bundle from Newegg. It has onboard Realtek eth0, plus I have an Atheros PCI wireless card that I purchased a couple years ago specifically based on Linux compatibility.
Issues: 1. the official amd64 netinst CD image fails to let me connect to my router via either interface, even when I provide a USB drive with the debs for all firmwares. 2. the unofficial amd64 netinst CD image with firmware included fails identically. DHCP autoconfiguration fails, and even if I supply a manual ip address the installer can't find ftp.debian.org 3. an old Squeeze installer CD (6.03 amd netinst) connects perfectly on the same hardware and installs a partially usable system. I say "partially" because KDE only sees one of my two monitors, it won't let me use the correct resolution, and the system has no functioning sound. But it sure is disturbing that the 8.1 installer fails on the exact equipment where 6.03 works. 4. Thinking dist-upgrade would work as it always has in the past, I figured I could just adjust my sources.list and upgrade first to Wheezy, then to Jessie, and then get the issues worked out with the current stable system. Wrong! I was able to dist-upgrade to Wheezy with no evident errors, but upon rebooting I could no longer connect to the network. Or if I try the Wheezy->Jessie dist-upgrade without rebooting, it fails with dependency errors ("E: package 'foo' requires 'bar-xxx', but 'bar-yyy' is going to be installed..."). 5. (most troubling) - I posted a couple of days ago that I had trouble with DHCP not working during install, and have had exactly zero follow-ups (although I did receive one very nice off-list email suggestion, which unfortunately did not help). I have always been an ardent advocate and defender of free software and desktop "Linux" (sloppily defined for present discussion), but I have to say that this is an enormously frustrating situation. It has been a while since I installed Debian on the predecessor to my current machine. I distinctly recall feeling that desktop Debian had become mature, solid, and eminently usable, and that the "Debian is outdated and difficult" reputation had become a thing of the past. Definitely not so sure anymore. Well enough of the rant but hopefully some of this can be taken constructively. I will probably get a CD set and see if I can install a complete system offline and then get the networking up. Debian is definitely the system I want, but that doesn't matter much if I can't get the darn thing working. I would still welcome any suggestions or insights as to why the 6.03 installer works with my home router, but 8.1 does not. Thanks for any help, or for at least listening to these issues. -- David Bruce For all your software needs, visit The Apt Store: deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian stable main -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/calg8afsfsrlfgf10lrikdovxctm2710uhx-_to0ncrw1aad...@mail.gmail.com