Debian 8. Failed to load iwlwifi

Question

I used the netdisk iso to install debian, which apperently is missing the firmware files: rtl_nic_rtl8411-2.fw and iwlwifi, so I can't get my wifi working. My laptop uses intel wireless-AC 8260, and I have updated my kernel to 4.8

Dmesg output:

    iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: firmware: failed to load iwlwifi-8000C-24.ucode (-2)

firmware: failed to load iwlwifi-8000C-23.ucode (-2)

firmware: failed to load iwlwifi-8000C-22.ucode (-2)

firmware: failed to load iwlwifi-8000C-21.ucode (-2)

firmware: failed to load iwlwifi-8000C-20.ucode (-2)

firmware: failed to load iwlwifi-8000C-19.ucode (-2)

firmware: failed to load iwlwifi-8000C-18.ucode (-2)

firmware: failed to load iwlwifi-8000C-17.ucode (-2)

firmware: failed to load iwlwifi-8000C-16.ucode (-2)

uname -a output:

 Linux debian 4.8.0-0.bpo.2-rt-amd64 #1 SMP PREEMPT RT Debian 4.8.11-1~bpo8+1 (2016-12-14) x86_64 GNU/Linux

I'm not sure if I have installed iwlwifi 8000 correctly. this is my /lib/firmware output.

3com                 iwlwifi-135-6.ucode      qat_c3xxx_mmp.bin
advansys             iwlwifi-2000-6.ucode     qat_c62x.bin
agere_ap_fw.bin          iwlwifi-2030-6.ucode     qat_c62x_mmp.bin
agere_sta_fw.bin         iwlwifi-3160-7.ucode     qat_mmp.bin
amdgpu               iwlwifi-3160-8.ucode     r128
amd-ucode            iwlwifi-3160-9.ucode     radeon
as102_data1_st.hex       iwlwifi-3945-2.ucode     rp2.fw
as102_data2_st.hex       iwlwifi-4965-2.ucode     rt2561.bin
av7110               iwlwifi-5000-2.ucode     rt2561s.bin
carl9170-1.fw            iwlwifi-5000-5.ucode     rt2661.bin
cis              iwlwifi-5150-2.ucode     rt2860.bin
ctefx.bin            iwlwifi-6000-4.ucode     rt2870.bin
ctspeq.bin           iwlwifi-6000g2a-5.ucode  rt3070.bin
cxgb3                iwlwifi-6000g2a-6.ucode  rt3071.bin
cxgb4                iwlwifi-6000g2b-6.ucode  rt3090.bin
dabusb               iwlwifi-6050-4.ucode     rt3290.bin
dsp56k               iwlwifi-6050-5.ucode     rt73.bin
dvb-fe-xc4000-1.4.1.fw       iwlwifi-7260-7.ucode     RTL8192E
dvb-fe-xc5000-1.6.114.fw     iwlwifi-7260-8.ucode     rtl_bt
dvb-fe-xc5000c-4.1.30.7.fw   iwlwifi-7260-9.ucode     rtl_nic
dvb-usb-dib0700-1.20.fw      iwlwifi-7265-8.ucode     rtlwifi
dvb-usb-it9135-01.fw         iwlwifi-7265-9.ucode     s2250.fw
dvb-usb-it9135-02.fw         iwlwifi-8000C-13.ucode   s2250_loader.fw
dvb-usb-terratec-h5-drxk.fw  kaweth           tehuti
e100                 keyspan_pda          tigon
ene-ub6250           matrox           ueagle-atm
f2255usb.bin             moxa             usbduxfast_firmware.bin
go7007               mt7601u.bin          usbdux_firmware.bin
hp               mt7650.bin           usbduxsigma_firmware.bin
i915                 mts_cdma.fw          v4l-cx231xx-avcore-01.fw
intel                mts_edge.fw          v4l-cx23418-apu.fw
intel-ucode          mts_gsm.fw           v4l-cx23418-cpu.fw
isci                 nvidia           v4l-cx23418-dig.fw
iwlwifi-1000-5.ucode         qat_895xcc.bin       v4l-cx23885-avcore-01.fw
iwlwifi-100-5.ucode      qat_895xcc_mmp.bin       v4l-cx25840.fw
iwlwifi-105-6.ucode      qat_c3xxx.bin        vntwusb.fw

iwconfig output:

eth0      no wireless extensions.

eth1      no wireless extensions.

lo        no wireless extensions.

ifconfig output:

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 70:8b:cd:25:a4:e8  
          inet addr:192.168.87.107  Bcast:192.168.87.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::728b:cdff:fe25:a4e8/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:4815 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:4504 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:2976911 (2.8 MiB)  TX bytes:949120 (926.8 KiB)

eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 4a:74:6e:46:fc:a2  
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:65536  Metric:1
          RX packets:41 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:41 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1 
          RX bytes:4725 (4.6 KiB)  TX bytes:4725 (4.6 KiB)

I have copied the non-free sources into my /etc/apt/sources.list

deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free#
deb http://mirror.one.com/debian/ jessie-backports main contrib non-free 

When I do apt-get iwlwifi:

firmware-iwlwifi is already the newest version.

I have tried to get this working for 2 days now without luck, what am I missing? I'm new to Linux so I'd really appreciate an understandable answer for a beginner.

Answer 1

The package that you are missing is firmware-iwlwifi which is a non-free package. The official Debian image builds only includes Free Software.

Method #1 - with ethernet connection

So to install it you need to add the non-free and contrib components to /etc/apt/sources.list

See: https://wiki.debian.org/SourcesList#Example_sources.list

Then,

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install firmware-iwlwifi

Method #2 - with no Internet connection

Manually download (from some other machine with Internet connection) the deb package for your release from here.

If you're using the Debian stable, check: https://packages.debian.org/stable/firmware-iwlwifi

Then,

dpkg -i firmware-iwlwifi*.deb

Restart.

The same process should work for Realtek drivers.

FYI: http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/firmware/stable/current/ https://wiki.debian.org/DontBreakDebian