Debian 12.7 amd64 no Wi-Fi after installation

[Kenneth Schack Banner]

Hi,

im blind and been told to write to this list about an issue. I just
installed Debian 12.7 with espeak and during the installation i used
Wi-Fi, but after installation and rebooted, the computer was now
offline. I plugged in a network cable and found out, that the package
network-manager was not installed. - I installed with LXDE desktop
enovirement if that could be the reason for this behaviour..

Best kinds regards
Kenneth

[Cyril Brulebois]

Hi,

Post by Kenneth Schack Banner
im blind and been told to write to this list about an issue. I just
installed Debian 12.7 with espeak and during the installation i used Wi-Fi,
but after installation and rebooted, the computer was now offline. I plugged
in a network cable and found out, that the package network-manager was not
installed. - I installed with LXDE desktop enovirement if that could be the
reason for this behaviour..

Most desktop environments offered in Debian Installer use
NetworkManager, but LXDE and lxqt use connman instead. There,
the installer configures ifupdown during the installation (i.e.
/etc/network/interfaces).


Cheers,

[Samuel Thibault]

Hello,

Post by Cyril Brulebois

Post by Kenneth Schack Banner
im blind and been told to write to this list about an issue. I just
installed Debian 12.7 with espeak and during the installation i used Wi-Fi,
but after installation and rebooted, the computer was now offline. I plugged
in a network cable and found out, that the package network-manager was not
installed. - I installed with LXDE desktop enovirement if that could be the
reason for this behaviour..

Most desktop environments offered in Debian Installer use
NetworkManager, but LXDE and lxqt use connman instead. There,
the installer configures ifupdown during the installation (i.e.
/etc/network/interfaces).

But it apparently does not make it auto-connect at boot?

Samuel

[Cyril Brulebois]

Post by Samuel Thibault

Post by Cyril Brulebois
Most desktop environments offered in Debian Installer use
NetworkManager, but LXDE and lxqt use connman instead. There,
the installer configures ifupdown during the installation (i.e.
/etc/network/interfaces).

But it apparently does not make it auto-connect at boot?

I'm not sure why that'd be different from say an installation without
a network environment? d-i configures ifupdown, therefore the network
is expected to come up automatically.

Having checked that, using a d-i amd64 netinst, installing over Wi-Fi
(WPA2), picking only LXDE and standard in pkgsel/tasksel, I'm seeing
a seemingly correct /etc/network/interfaces configuration, but logging
in on tty1 (without opening the graphical session), I'm seeing no IP
configuration.

Interestingly, networking.service doesn't report any issues. connman
doesn't seem to do much either. But the link is down. Trying to up it
manually, that's impossible because of RF-kill. Hitting the right key
on that laptop lets me up the link, then get DHCP and RA after a
little battle against ifdown, ifup, etc.

Looking for rf & kill (case-insensitive-ly) in journalctl gives such
things:

oct. 24 03:59:33 di systemd[1]: Listening on systemd-rfkill.socket - Load/Save RF Kill Switch Status /dev/rfkill Watch.
oct. 24 03:59:33 di systemd[1]: Starting systemd-rfkill.service - Load/Save RF Kill Switch Status...
oct. 24 03:59:33 di systemd[1]: Started systemd-rfkill.service - Load/Save RF Kill Switch Status.
oct. 24 03:59:34 di wpa_supplicant[674]: rfkill: WLAN soft blocked
oct. 24 03:59:34 di wpa_supplicant[782]: rfkill: WLAN soft blocked
oct. 24 03:59:34 di sh[796]: RTNETLINK answers: Operation not possible due to RF-kill
oct. 24 03:59:39 di systemd[1]: systemd-rfkill.service: Deactivated successfully.
oct. 24 04:00:35 di avahi-autoipd(wlp0s20f3)[950]: SIOCSIFFLAGS failed: Operation not possible due to RF-kill
oct. 24 04:02:00 di systemd[1]: Starting systemd-rfkill.service - Load/Save RF Kill Switch Status...
oct. 24 04:02:00 di systemd[1]: Started systemd-rfkill.service - Load/Save RF Kill Switch Status.
oct. 24 04:02:05 di systemd[1]: systemd-rfkill.service: Deactivated successfully.

For some reason, the soft block comes back up at reboot, even after a
clean shutdown after RF-kill was turned off, so I suppose some magic
is needed to get the state stored.

Also, at least when disabling RF-kill with the right key soon after
boot-up, the network comes up without any further actions (no fiddling
with ip link, ifupdown, connman, or logging in into the graphical
session).


That's a fun one, rfkill doesn't appear anywhere in the many, repeated
test installs I've performed (I mean within d-i); and e.g. after a
text-only installation, I'm getting the IP configuration stored by d-i
up and running via ifupdown and wpa_supplicant without having to worry
about hitting the right key.


Cheers,