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I just installed Debian on laptop, it tells me

Some of your hardware needs non-free firmware files to operate. The firmware can be loaded from removable media, such as a USB stick or floppy.

The missing firmware files are: iwlwifi-7265-9.ucode iwlwifi-7265-8.ucode

If you have media available now, insert it, and continue.

Load missing firmware from removable media?

Using minimal Debian iso and no mirror I was able to install terminal only. Two questions:

  1. Where do I download these files?

  2. How do I get Debian to recognize them once on flash drive? Grep?

  3. Do I need to do special formatting or partitioning to flash drive?

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2 Answers 2

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See the relevant section in the installation manual.

To answer your questions in more detail:

  1. You'll find the files on http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/firmware/; if you're installing Debian 8, look in http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/firmware/jessie/current/ and download whichever archive is the easiest for you to handle (presumably firmware.tar.gz or firmware.zip).
  2. Extract the firmware archive in the root of a flash drive; plug the drive into the computer you're installing, and the installer should find the firmware automatically.
  3. The typical FAT32 filesystem is just fine. If you've got a larger drive using ExFAT, I'm not sure the installer will be able to use it...
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  • ExFAT is not supported yet (in Debian 9.4.0) Commented Jul 14, 2018 at 11:44
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Debian offers convenient boot images including the non-free firmware blobs, so one doesn't need to create a second partition on boot media or use secondary usb media.

https://cdimage.debian.org/images/unofficial/non-free/images-including-firmware/

This quickens the install media creation ceremony.

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