Re: Which driver for RealTek RTL8168 ethernet interface card? [SOLVED]

2017-01-15 Thread M.A. Perry 

Thank you.
M.A.P.
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On 01/15/2017 10:28 AM, Jeremy Nicoll wrote:

On Sun, 15 Jan 2017, at 09:16, M.A. Perry wrote:


3.  From 1. and 2. I have concluded that the non-free
   "programming" added to the interface hardware
   is non-volatile (i.e. persistent); which raises the
   question how does one de-install the non-free
   firmware should that ever be necessary in the
   future? [Or have I got it wrong again??]

I doubt it's persistent.  The error message you saw seemed to be from a
post-boot command, presumably executed every time you reboot, that
loads the optional firmware into the chipset.



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Sent from my unwashed Linux box

Re: Which driver for RealTek RTL8168 ethernet interface card? [SOLVED]

2017-01-15 Thread M.A. Perry 

People,

My thanks to all of you for the useful reactions
to my question. I will try to summarise what
was said.

1.   The ethernet internet card (in my case a
   chip set on the motherboard) requires
   "firmware" and not software. [In fact when
   I wrote "software" in my initial post, I was
   looking for an English equivalent of the
   Dutch "programatuur" or French "logiciel".]
   Hence the misunderstanding, which I first
   thought was a semantic storm in a linguistic
   glass of water for not using a word like
   "programming" instead.  An informative
   website which helped me see things in
   perspective.
  <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firmware>

2.   Since the internet connection already works,
  one may assume that some firmware already
  exists in the ethernet interface to enable it to
  function, albeit maybe without "optional
  features" as one respondent put it. However
  nobody has suggested that my computer
  would suffer harm by not installing the extra
  firmware. Maybe some lost speed but that's all.

3.  From 1. and 2. I have concluded that the non-free
 "programming" added to the interface hardware
 is non-volatile (i.e. persistent); which raises the
 question how does one de-install the non-free
 firmware should that ever be necessary in the
 future? [Or have I got it wrong again??]

4.  Some people have indicated clear philosophical
 objections to installing non-free firmware.

Again thanks to all of you for your advice.

M.A. Perry
--
Sent from my unwashed Linux box

Which driver for RealTek RTL8168 ethernet interface card?

2017-01-14 Thread M.A. Perry 

Dear People,
A question here, not a problem as such.
My (domestic dektop) runs under Debian 8.6 (Jessie)
and has a RealTek ethernet (i.e internet) wired interface.

On boot-up, the monitor briefly shows a message to the
effect "... failed to load rtl_nic/rtl8168g-2.fw firmware".
Running "dmesg | tail" shows much the same in more detail.

Nevertheless, the wired ethernet connection to internet
seems to work fine. There is no wireless interface on the
Asus P8B75-MLE motherboard as far as I know.

The above suggests that other software takes over the
function of the missing Non-Free RealTek driver.

Thus my question:  What should I do?
either:
a)  Leave things as they are ('If it ain't broke don't fix it')
or :
b) install the Debian non-free package "firmware-realtek (0.43)
Can someone with experience of this software please advise??
Thanks in advance.
Cheers,
M.A. Perry
--
Sent from my unwashed Linux box

Re: Which type of FTP transfer for apt and aptitude?

2016-12-22 Thread M.A. Perry 

Thanks for your replies. The answers are
clear and helpful. Again thanks.
M.A. Perry

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Which type of FTP transfer for apt and aptitude?

2016-12-21 Thread M.A. Perry 

Dear People,
A simple question for which I have so far found no
answer in the Debian documentation. My computer
is a domestic, Debian 8.6 AMD-64 box that uses
apt-get and aptitude for ugrades and/or installations.

We are currently writing a set of ip_tables rules for
a default baseline  -A OUTPUT DROP. Thus the rules
will block outgoing traffic which is not specifically
permitted.

The URL specifications in /etc/apt/sources.list of
my Debian box contain both HTTP and FTP in the URL
for example: http://ftp.nl.debian.org/debian/ and this
confuses me.

QUESTION:
Which data transfer protocol(s) are used for downloads
from the Debian Repository to my desktop? Must my
firewall ACCEPT
-- plain HTTP (port 80) ; or
-- is HTTPS (port 443) later involved; or
-- active FTP (port 20) used or
-- passive FTP (port 1024:65535) applicable ?
Can anyone enlighten me please??
Thanks in advance.
M.A. Perry
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