Unix & Linux Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for users of Linux, FreeBSD and other Un*x-like operating systems.. It's 100% free, no registration required. How to install kernel on debian with no internet connection I'm trying to install a newer kernel version on my Debian (squeeze) machine as I need it to get my wireless card working. I have Debian on one partition of my hard drive, Fedora on the other. I'm looking for SIMPLE instructions on how to do this which I cannot find anywhere on the net. Any help would be greatly appreciated! I'm even wondering if it is possible to copy the kernel across from one partition to the next? / linux / debian / kernel / install edited Dec 18 '11 at 23:09 Gilles 195k 25 261 528 asked Dec 18 '11 at 5:50 james 16 2 2 Answers Assuming you have a machine that is connected to the internet, and that is properly configured on your squeeze machine, you can do e.g. apt apt-get install --print-uris linux-image-2.6.32 which will give you a list of urls for packages to install. Then you can use another machine to download them. On my machine, for example, this list starts with 'http://debian.csail.mit.edu/debian/pool/main/l/linux-2.6/linux-image- 2.6.32-5-486_2.6.32-39_i386.deb' linux-image-2.6.32-5-486_2.6.32-39_i386.deb 27475516 MD5Sum:be5608eefba4b7180d91b7888abde8da Then you can download the packages on another machine by doing (for example) wget -c http://debian.csail.mit.edu/debian/pool/main/l/linux-2.6/linux-image- 2.6.32-5-486_2.6.32-39_i386.deb Then copy them to your Debian machine. Then do dpkg -i linux-image-2.6.32-5-486_2.6.32-39_i386.deb pkg2.deb pkg3.deb... You need to give all the package files as arguments. If you see errors, try running this command again. Sometimes , when called with a list of packages which are dependent on each other, has trouble with dependency resolution. If it still doesn't work, try dpkg apt-get -f install which will try to resolve your dependencies. An alternative is gdebi apt-cache show gdebi Description: Simple tool to install deb files - GNOME GUI gdebi lets you install local deb packages resolving and installing its dependencies. apt does the same, but only for remote (http, ftp) located packages. edited Dec 18 '11 at 6:31 answered Dec 18 '11 at 6:22 Faheem Mitha 8,276 2 20 44 linux - How to install kernel on debian with no internet ... http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/27100/how-to-i... 1 of 2 Saturday 17 May 2014 02:03 PM
on my debian machine that is not connected to the internet the --print-uris command finds nothing. how will it know what packages it needs if its not connected to the internet? james Dec 18 '11 at 15:45
@james: It uses the apt cache if present, but this does assume that it has at some point been connected to the internet, and that you ran , so it has the cache. If not, you'll have to manually go through the list apt-get update of packages it wants. How did you do the installation? Faheem Mitha Dec 18 '11 at 16:25
@james: Perhaps you could give more details about your setup, as in, which systems do you have connected to the internet, why you can't connect the Debian installation to the internet temporarily (which would be the simplest thing), and the history of the Debian installation, like how you installed it and whether it has ever been on the network. Faheem Mitha Dec 18 '11 at 16:36
i have installed debian cd 1 on one partition of my hard drive. i have a rtl8191se wireless card which will not work as of yet on debian, on my other partition i have fedora. no problems wireless is working fine.. recently i updated my debian kernel its now 2.6.39 and downloaded the drivers for the rtl8191se card. when i try to compile make keeps bringing up errors :/ james Dec 19 '11 at 4:32
@james: Ok. The drivers for the card are not included in the kernel I take it? I suggest you post the errors. Faheem Mitha Dec 19 '11 at 6:27 It sounds like you need a more recent version of the kernel than what's in Debian squeeze. The easiest thing to try is the kernel from the . The kernel is in a package called . Pick the flavor from what you already have (e.g. or or or and get the most recent version you can find. The currently have version 2.6.39. backports linux-image-$VERSION-$FLAVOR 686 686-bigmem amd64 sqeeze backports If that's recent enough for you, download the file from the website and copy it to your machine however you like (e.g. on a USB stick). Also grab every package that's listed as a dependency; you'll need the package containing the actual kernel file (not just the metapackage) and updated , and possibly more recent and other as well. Install the packages by typing the command as root in a terminal. This will automatically create an entry for the new kernel in the boot menu. Reboot and see if it works. .deb linux- image-2.6- initramfs-tools firmware-linux-free firmware dpkg -iGE /path/to/*.deb If you need to recompile third-party modules in addition to what's distributed ith the kernel, grab the package alongside the package. linux-headers- -image- If you find you need an even more recent kernel (3.0 or 3.1), it doesn't look like there's any readily available package for Debian squeeze at the moment. Try a from testing or unstable (or even a 3.2rc in experimental). Note that this may require more effort; you may need more recent module and initramfs tools. 3.x kernel answered Dec 18 '11 at 23:08 Gilles 195k 25 261 528
thanks for the advice. i got my kernel updated using your advice. only problem now is i still cant get my wireless card working :/.. if i type in ifconfig wlan0 up it says theres no such device. im having trouble makeing the drivers. if i go into the driver directory and type make it brings up an error james Dec 19 '11 at 4:36
@james It's impossible to help you more without knowing what your wireless card is and what the errors are. I suggest that you ask a new question How to make XXX wireless card work on Debian squeeze (where XXX is the model of your wireless card), and mention what you tried (what kernel and driver versions you used, where you got them from, what commands you ran) and copy-paste the error messages. Gilles Dec 19 '11 at 8:00 ok sure.. i'll repost. thanks for all the help. i at least go a new kernel package working :) james Dec 19 '11 at 10:36 linux - How to install kernel on debian with no internet ... http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/27100/how-to-i... 2 of 2 Saturday 17 May 2014 02:03 PM