[GTALUG] Debian install fails due to network failure

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

[I hate top-posting but it seems best in this case.]

It sounds like you have two problems:

(1) debian doesn't understand your network card (NIC)

(2) your UEFI setup isn't doing what you need it to

What is your computer?
What is your NIC?

(1)

Some NICs are have non-open drivers.  By default, debian would not have 
those drivers but Ubuntu might.  That could be the problem.

Some NICs are too new to have drivers in a stable debian.

Anecdote: (perhaps a year ago) my son's motherboard came with a 2.5
gigabit NIC that was not supported by the latest official Fedora
installation image.  But it was supported after updates were applied.

Does the live Ubuntu system (i.e. the booted installation medium) see
your network?  That is a fine environment in which to try to debug
networking hardware.

Hack: install via a different NIC.  If you have tried wireless, try wired.  
Or vice versa.  If desperate, try a USB NIC.  Or a NIC card from another 
computer.

(A USB ethernet NIC is a handy thing to have in your toolbox.)

(2)

UEFI can almost always be convinced to do what you need.  If you are not 
used to it, you are probably trying to get it to do something unnatural.

Note: UEFI and GRUB are not alternatives: you will be using both.

UEFI booting is a multi-stage process (true of all kinds of booting)

- UEFI starts

- UEFI has a setting for what to boot.  This will be the path to a .efi 
  file within the ESP (EFI System Partition) of the hard drive.

- The ESP is a distinguished FAT partition.  It will have been created by 
  installing Windows.  Linux needs to share it.

- In a running Linux system, the ESP is conventionally mounted as /boot/efi

- To boot most Linux distros, there will be a "shim" .efi program in the 
  ESP.

  On a Fedora system, it is /boot/efi/EFI/fedora/shim.efi

- Once the UEFI has started shim.efi, the shim loads grub
  (/boot/efi/EFI/fedora/grubx64.efi)

At this point things are close to what you are used to.

What is odd under UEFI is selecting what .efi to boot.  Almost every
UEFI firmware has a setup page that lets you select what .efi to boot,
but the capabilities and methods vary wildly.  I cannot tell you what
to do from the setup page because I cannot see yours.

Once you have Linux running, Grub will usually let you select Windows
to boot, and that is the most convenient way to control what gets
booted.

I've posted to this list a few messages about the mysteries of UEFI
in general and efibootmgr(8) in particular.

| From: sciguy via talk <talk at gtalug.org>

| This has happened with what I have tried so far: Debian and Ubuntu. I have
| been accustomed to my network card being auto-detected and the internet being
| automatically connected with an installation, but I am not getting internet on
| installation, so much of the installation has failed.
| 
| This machine was set up as a dual boot, and is running Windows 10 with the
| latest updates. It has previously run a version of Ubuntu Studio, but with
| this upgrade (first by USB then by DVD), I am not getting a network, and so
| the installation remains half-finished.
| 
| Somehow, after changing this over to Debian, where the installation failed for
| the same reason, Windows 10 EFI detected the incomplete installation and now
| offers "finishing the Debian installation" as a boot option when I reboot.
| 
| It seems the root of my problem is in Microsoft's choice to take over the EFI
| in a recent update, thereby supplanting GRUB, which was there before. GRUB was
| a technology I understood fairly well; EFI is not. Can anyone suggest, or
| point to some resources, for how to install Linux alongside W10, in a way that
| the EFI appears to recognize (since it seemed to almost accidentally with
| Debian).
| 
| Thanks
| 
| Paul
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