Background
- Linux Version – Debian 8.6 Jessie
This is the first Debian machine (laptop) that I setup with wifi. Duration installation, it did ask for CD media for the wifi drivers and I ignored that during the Debian installation.
After installation is completed, as expected, wifi is not working. I can see errors about something failed to load and found the following errors in /var/log/kern.log
kern.log:Jan 24 16:20:04 hostname kernel: [ 10.458415] iwlwifi 0000:08:00.0: firmware: failed to load iwlwifi-1000-5.ucode (-2) kern.log:Jan 24 16:20:04 hostname kernel: [ 10.458447] iwlwifi 0000:08:00.0: Direct firmware load failed with error -2 kern.log:Jan 24 16:20:04 hostname kernel: [ 10.458448] iwlwifi 0000:08:00.0: Falling back to user helper kern.log:Jan 24 16:20:04 hostname kernel: [ 11.525302] iwlwifi 0000:08:00.0: firmware: failed to load iwlwifi-1000-4.ucode (-2) kern.log:Jan 24 16:20:04 hostname kernel: [ 11.525366] iwlwifi 0000:08:00.0: Direct firmware load failed with error -2 kern.log:Jan 24 16:20:04 hostname kernel: [ 11.525368] iwlwifi 0000:08:00.0: Falling back to user helper kern.log:Jan 24 16:20:04 hostname kernel: [ 12.986152] iwlwifi 0000:08:00.0: firmware: failed to load iwlwifi-1000-3.ucode (-2) kern.log:Jan 24 16:20:04 hostname kernel: [ 12.986262] iwlwifi 0000:08:00.0: Direct firmware load failed with error -2 kern.log:Jan 24 16:20:04 hostname kernel: [ 12.986268] iwlwifi 0000:08:00.0: Falling back to user helper kern.log:Jan 24 16:20:04 hostname kernel: [ 12.989686] iwlwifi 0000:08:00.0: firmware: failed to load iwlwifi-1000-2.ucode (-2) kern.log:Jan 24 16:20:04 hostname kernel: [ 12.989796] iwlwifi 0000:08:00.0: Direct firmware load failed with error -2 kern.log:Jan 24 16:20:04 hostname kernel: [ 12.989800] iwlwifi 0000:08:00.0: Falling back to user helper kern.log:Jan 24 16:20:04 hostname kernel: [ 12.999731] iwlwifi 0000:08:00.0: firmware: failed to load iwlwifi-1000-1.ucode (-2) kern.log:Jan 24 16:20:04 hostname kernel: [ 12.999831] iwlwifi 0000:08:00.0: Direct firmware load failed with error -2 kern.log:Jan 24 16:20:04 hostname kernel: [ 12.999837] iwlwifi 0000:08:00.0: Falling back to user helper kern.log:Jan 24 16:20:04 hostname kernel: [ 13.000381] iwlwifi 0000:08:00.0: no suitable firmware found!
Resolutions
Quick web search for iwlwifi and found the instructions from debian.org (Resource 1) – read and follow instructions.
- echo deb http://httpredir.debian.org/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free >> /etc/apt/sources.list
- apt-get update && apt-get install firmware-iwlwifi
- modprobe -r iwlwifi ; modprobe iwlwifi