Bug#1112138: debian-installer: WiFi setup with automated installation.

Package: debian-installer
Version: 20250809
Severity: wishlist
Tags: d-i
X-Debbugs-Cc: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
User: [email protected]
Usertags: amd64
User: [email protected]
Usertags: amd64

Dear Maintainer,

The new automated install option is great; thank you. I believe there is a defect which should be repaired.

The target hardware here is a Lenovo T-520, manufactured in 2011 or so. The WiFi is:

root@jhegaala:~# lspci -vs 3:0
03:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8188CE 802.11b/g/n WiFi Adapter (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Device 8195
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17, IOMMU group 12
	I/O ports at 5000 [size=256]
	Memory at f2500000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
	Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3
	Capabilities: [50] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
	Capabilities: [70] Express Endpoint, IntMsgNum 0
	Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
	Capabilities: [140] Virtual Channel
	Capabilities: [160] Device Serial Number 01-91-81-fe-ff-4c-e0-00
	Kernel driver in use: rtl8192ce
	Kernel modules: rtl8192ce

root@jhegaala:~# 


After booting d-i, and going to the Automated installation (Advanced -> Automated) and launching that, the system proceeds as usual through a number of steps, one of which is to get a network link. I get a prompt for the two network interfaces, Ethernet and WiFi. I select the WiFi. I then get "Invalid passphrase: The WPA/WPA2 PSK passphrase was either too long (more than 64 characters) or too short (less than 8 characters).". 

I hit Continue and get the same screen several times.

I hit "go Back", and get the main menu. I hit "Configure the Network", and I go through the same song and dance as above.

At no time do I get the opportunity to configure the WiFi interface manually, all of which is in my preseed file.

I can start d-i for a manual expert installation, and successfully set up the WiFi interface. However, since that offers no option to use the preseed file, that doesn't really help. 

Possible solutions:

Option 1: Allow the user to manually set up the WiFi interface: SSID, passphrase, et cetera, during the network setup.

Option 2: Allow the user to specify and "download" a local preseed file which presumably includes WiFi setup, e.g. "file://".

Option 3: Allow the user to provide the WiFi setup as a command line option prior to booting d-i.

Obviously I can (and did) use the Ethernet interface. But not all users will have that option.


-- System Information:
Debian Release: 13.0
  APT prefers stable-updates
  APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable-security'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 6.12.41+deb13-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE not set
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled