On Tue 15 Oct 2024 at 17:43:30 (-0400), Lee wrote: > On Tue, Oct 15, 2024 at 4:20 PM David Wright wrote: > > On Tue 15 Oct 2024 at 20:33:09 (+0100), debian-user wrote: > > > If I click on either of the bookworm-backports links above (either http > > > or https) my browser takes me to http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ and in > > > the dists/ directory I see [DIR] bookworm-backports/ > > > > dists will take you to the Packages files, whereas you want > > pool for the .deb files themselves. Or just go to: > > > > https://packages.debian.org/index > > > > where you can tell which .deb belongs to what suite. > > > > > Is that what you're looking for? > > > > That's getting hard to discern. AIUI the OP got the latest firmware > > in the end (202600 bytes), but as that doesn't fix the problem, > > Correct. > I got the firmware from the Ubuntu Live USB stick - where wireless > works on the laptop. > Reboot into Debian and wifi is broken again. > Then I reverted that set of firmware and got the latest from > backports, but that does not fix the problems with wifi either. > > I also got the latest linux-image-amd64 from backports -- but again, > wifi is still mostly broken in Debian. > "mostly broken" because as long as the laptop in within about 6 feet > of the AP wifi works. Take the laptop into a different room & there's > no indication I can see (but what do I know?) that wifi quit working > but I can't ping anything else on the subnet -- not even the AP. And > getting the list of available SSIDs is hit or miss - mostly miss with > having to wait minutes before any of "my" SSIDs shows up on the list > again. > > & for the heck of it, I've booted up a live image of Mint; it's the > same deal as Ubuntu, wifi just works. > So getting this realtek card to work correctly all the time is a > solved problem. At least in ubuntu/mint, so what magic do I need to > get it working in Debian??? > > > perhaps a whole kernel would be better. > > What's the difference between linux-image-[version #]-amd64 and a whole > kernel?
Nothing, as long as there's a version number there. (There's a version-less package that depends on the latest version, which is a trick to make APT aware of a kernel upgrade.) I'm only skimming the thread as, with my old hardware devices, I tend not to see these problems. Looking back at your post of 14 Oct 2024 13:55:25, I see that you have indeed installed the backported kernel. I also see that your firmware listed there is under /lib/firmware/ instead of /lib/firmware/rtw88/, but presumably you've corrected that if needed. Whether there's a difference in the drivers between Debian and ubuntu/mint, IDK. There may be clues in the web posts on the topic of this card elsewhere. > > Much of the rest of the > > thread seems to be about working out how to use Debian's tools > > for finding and installing packages. > > yes - there is much puzzlement on my part why a seemingly simple "find > the latest software offered" task is turning out to be a non-trivial > task. > Horrors.. I can't just point-n-click my way thru the [synaptics] GUI, > I need to actually read and understand the documentation. I don't use synaptic, so I don't know how easy it is to add backports. Joe seemed to find it trivial. > ... and what has me thinking there's a bug lurking there somewhere is > me installing something from backports back in Debian 9. _without_ > having to read anything other that what to put in the > /etc/apt/sources.list to say where the backports repository is and > everything Just Working. It's always been recommended that you remove backported software when you do your final upgrade on an older Debian version, just before you dist-upgrade to a newer version. Cheers, David.
