[Debian] Make sure drivers you need are loaded?


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I get some message at start up saying something about making sure all drivers you need are loaded.

 

I don't have a clue what to look for as everything seems to be working correctly.

 

This is on a customers extra computer who decided they wanted to try Linux and seeing as how I've been playing with Debian, that's what I installed. It's a crap Emachine T2682 with Intel Extreme Graphics AGP. The display seems to have all the settings I need.

 

I know quite a few other Linux distro's have a "check for hardware" button, but I'm not seeing anything like that in Debian. Not sure if it's even the graphics driver it's telling me to look for, but that's usually the issue with any Linux distro, if there's a problem.

 

Where do I start?!

 

Thank you

 

Edit:

Probably won't be back to check on any replies until later tonight, or tomorrow morning, but I WILL be back! :)

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Is it a text message? It could be firmware...

 

Edit your /etc/apt/sources.list file and add "non-free" to the end of the two main repository lines. Then run "apt-get update" and install the "firmware-linux" package and see if that works. You might as well add "contrib" while you're editing it.

 

 


deb  http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ wheezy main non-free

deb-src  http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ wheezy main non-free

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@GreyWolf

I'll give that a try when I come back later. Yes, It's just plain text.

 

Edit:

I just added those 2 repositories and get nothing new. :(

 

@tiagosilva29

Don't get enough time to read the whole thing!! The pause button isn't pausing it!

 

Thanks

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Adding the components to the repositories won't do anything itself. The "non-free" component is where the firmware package is. Did you install it? It will not affect anything else if that wasn't the problem.

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Grey, you have to do a sudo update and sudo upgrade to apply it. Didn't see that, sry.

 

cork, ctrl+c is your friend.

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I'm going to bet it's a firmware driver. Intel NIC (and sometimes the GPU) drivers usually end up in the non-free repository.

 

Let us know how it goes!

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Adding the components to the repositories won't do anything itself. The "non-free" component is where the firmware package is. Did you install it? It will not affect anything else if that wasn't the problem.

 

After I added those 2 repos, I DID open synaptic and reload. That's where/when I got the nothing new I was talking about, so if it didn't show up in new in repository or upgradeable, which it didn't, there was nothing to install.

 

@tiagosilva29

I was able to catch a little bit more of the message and it says try checking sensor detect, or something like that! I did a few quick searches on that and what I found is WAY over my head!

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You have to actually install the firmware package. :)

apt-get install firmware-linux

 

I was just going to ask if I needed to look in the origin section of synaptic, or some place else, to see anything new. Was just on one of my own Debian desktops and added those 2 repositories. That was when I started looking through the sections and saw some things that MIGHT be useful for that other computer, such as the linux firmware package you mentioned.

 

Thanks,

Will check into that later today.

 

Edit:

Just tried that on my own machine, rebooted, and now I get a message saying module not supported or no such device. No big thing as everything seems to be working correctly, but how do I get rid of that?

 

apt-get remove firmware-linux?

 

Like I said, I'm a total moron at the command line!! :(

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Have you checked the syslog? it should record all the boot messages.

 

Hate to say it, but when it comes to the file system for Linux, I'm almost a moron there too!

 

Looking over that stuff makes no sense to me. There's just to many items that get logged and the wording might as well be in Japanese, as far as I'm concerned!

 

Not able to get on the computer in original question here anyway, at the moment, so not going a whole further on this this morning.

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You have to actually install the firmware package. :)

apt-get install firmware-linux

 

OK,

Did this on machine in question and still get that message about try checking sensor detect and make sure all drivers I need are installed. At least I didn't get an extra message saying anything about module not supported or no such device.

 

Any other suggestions?

 

Thanks

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Is it a text message? It could be firmware...

 

Edit your /etc/apt/sources.list file and add "non-free" to the end of the two main repository lines. Then run "apt-get update" and install the "firmware-linux" package and see if that works. You might as well add "contrib" while you're editing it.

 

This would be correct, except one should always add contrib and non-free rather than one or the other. Software in contrib meets all requirements of the DFSG except it depends on non-DFSG compliant software (in non-free). Therefore contrib requires non-free. Software in non-free does not meet all the requirements of the DFSG, meaning it may be proprietary software, but is allowed to be distributed by Debian and utilized by its users, with some restrictions. Software in non-free may depend on free software (in contrib or main), therefore non-free requires contrib. Most Debian users probably want to use the contrib and non-free archive areas. For example, my /etc/apt/sources.list is as follows:

## DEBIAN
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ wheezy main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ wheezy main contrib non-free

## DEBIAN-SECURITY
deb http://security.debian.org/ wheezy/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ wheezy/updates main contrib non-free

## DEBIAN-UPDATES 
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ wheezy-updates main contrib non-free 
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ wheezy-updates main contrib non-free

## DEBIAN-BACKPORTS
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ wheezy-backports main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ wheezy-backports main contrib non-free

OP, try installing lshw and using it to list your hardware. When you use HTML output lshw will highlight devices with missing or incomplete drivers in red. It would help if you could post that report here.

sudo apt-get install lshw
sudo lshw -html > hwreport.html
firefox hwreport.html

It would also be helpful if you could post your syslog and messages like The_Decryptor suggested.

sudo cat /var/log/messages > messages
sudo cat /var/log/syslog > syslog
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I was just going to ask if I needed to look in the origin section of synaptic, or some place else, to see anything new. Was just on one of my own Debian desktops and added those 2 repositories. That was when I started looking through the sections and saw some things that MIGHT be useful for that other computer, such as the linux firmware package you mentioned.

 

Thanks,

Will check into that later today.

 

Edit:

Just tried that on my own machine, rebooted, and now I get a message saying module not supported or no such device. No big thing as everything seems to be working correctly, but how do I get rid of that?

 

apt-get remove firmware-linux?

 

Like I said, I'm a total moron at the command line!! :(

 

Ok,

I've ran that command, apt-get install firmware-linux, on 3 machines, including the one that was in original question, and I get that module not supported or no such device message on all of them.

 

Is there a way to remove what I installed, and thusly removing that message, without messing everything up?

 

Thank you

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You can remove any package you installed using apt-get remove <package> or apt-get purge <package>. The exact error message you are getting would still be really helpful. It would be even more helpful if you could post a copy of your /var/log/messages and /var/log/syslog like The_Decryptor and I suggested earlier. The devil is in the details.

sudo cat /var/log/messages > messages
sudo cat /var/log/syslog > syslog
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