I’ve got a Framework Laptop 12 (13th Gen Intel® Core™) and wanted to install Debian 13.6 Trixie. Turns out, it isn’t compatible out of the box because it doesn’t find the WiFi adapter:
Detect network hardware
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:
Is Debian 13.6 that old already? I thought about Fedora, but I want a distro which doesn’t update that often, because the laptop has no fast static internet connection but is used when I travel.
My own view is that folks should use a distro that works as the first priority. I would not worry about how many updates you need to do - leaving an OS with updates pending is very normal. Just do them when you get access to high-bandwidth internet.
That said, I think this dialogue is just warning you about proprietary software. If you have no ethical objections to that, can you just go ahead?
I don’t think it’s only a warning about propritary software, it seems it actually is missing. Normally such drivers are not an issue on Linux, so I am wondering what’s wrong.
Debian 13 worked fine for me right out of the box (back last February). It was my understanding that since 12, Debian included non-free firmware except when doing an install using network boot. It might be worth looking at https://wiki.debian.org/Firmware as that page tells you how to make usb-stick with non-free firmware to get you past your problem
The debian package firmware-iwlwifi (in the non-free-firmware section) definitely has /usr/lib/firmware/iwlwifi-so-a0-gf-a0-89.ucode which is the latest version of that firmware.
My suspicion is you checked an option to exclude non-free software in your ISO download, Or possibly in one of the install steps. But I can’t really tell because I don’t know what install ISO you chose.
Rest assured Debian works just fine on the FW12. How do I know? I’m typing this reply on a FW12, with a freshly installed version of Trixie (AKA Debian 13.X).
I used the image debian-live-13.6.0-amd64-kde.iso (Live KDE) with the normal graphic installer. I didn’t check any option, I just clicked the download link.
I also tried Calamares, but with that I never get a working system if I choose encryption. After installation the system would get stuck in the boot, also the decryption in Grub takes forever.
Seems I need to test a netinstall image, since the live KDE images and Calamares definitely do not work.
While the Debian Live ISO (debian-live-13.6.0-amd64-kde.iso) wasn’t able to be installed on the Framework 12 due to missing WiFi drivers, the netinstallation version debian-13.6.0-amd64-netinst.iso had no problem, it recognized the WiFi adapter without problems.
So the live versions have less drivers even though they are way larger?
The netinst versions usually just have enough packages to get a working non-gui system. During the install they ask what gui you want and download those as needed. I almost always use netinst - not sure why - probably habit.
FWIW, I too used debian-live-13.6.0-amd64-kde.iso downloaded from the links I shared above. It worked just fine. I wanted to give KDE a try, OH MY, more than I need, I’m a simple #2 wooden pencil kinda guy Back to GNOME for me, hence my comment above, “…freshly installed version of Trixie…”.
Back to GNOME for me, hence my comment above, “…freshly installed version of Trixie…”.