6

During installation I got a few pop ups stating that hardware needs non-free firmware files to operate. At that time I didn't have those files so I continued with the installation, but now my now system is not able to recognize wifi. I tried installing firmware but whatever from searching from didn't at all work.

The missing files are:

  • rtlwifi/rtl8723befw.bin
  • rtlwifi/rtl8723befw.bin

Now I completed the installation, how can I install the firmware?

GAD3R
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Sarfraz Robo Rex
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3 Answers3

12

You need to enable non-free first: edit /etc/apt/sources.list, and at the end of lines ending with main, add contrib non-free. You'll end up with something like

deb http://ftp.fr.debian.org/debian jessie main contrib non-free

etc.

Then update your repositories and install firmware-realtek:

apt-get update && apt-get install firmware-realtek

That will provide the necessary firmware files.

Stephen Kitt
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  • Thank you. Many guides to this process say something like "add non-free to your sources" without saying what that means specifically. – Paul Bissex Apr 03 '23 at 21:14
2

If you have a wired internet connection you can install sudo apt-get install firmware-linux-nonfree

Alternative way in Debian 8 Jessie:

Download firmware.zip or tar.gz from here :

and extract all files of the zipped archive in folder /lib/firmware and then restart.
See also Debian Wiki :

Provide Firmware during installation:
Just for the record when i want to be sure that all recent firmware will be available during a fresh Debian Jessie installation i follow these steps:

  • I download the Debian 8 iso image i like (stable, testing, etc)
  • I burn Debian iso image to a usb stick
  • I download seperately the package firmware.tar.gz
  • I copy firmware.tar.gz inside folder "firmware" of the installation cd.
  • I extract firmware.tar.gz inside folder "firmware" of installation cd by using "extract here" option
  • I accept any overwrite messages.
  • Finally i boot with usb stick and firmware it is just there for sure.
  • PS: I do the same procedure even if the Debian iso image claims that contains nonfree firmware, because in reality it has turned out that firmware maybe missing even from such iso images.
George Vasiliou
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0

For Debian Buster, with internet access, a mix of the two other response is what you need to go :

You need to enable non-free first: edit /etc/apt/sources.list, and at the end of lines ending with main, add contrib non-free. You'll end up with something like

deb http://ftp.fr.debian.org/debian buster main contrib non-free

Once that's saved, update the indexes with the new package lists:

sudo apt update

You can now install 

sudo apt install firmware-linux-nonfree

and eventually:

sudo apt install firmware-realtek
Toby Speight
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GnuSam
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