"Load missing firmware from removable media?" (Debian)

I’m installing Debian from a USB drive onto my laptop, and it’s asking me for the following firmware file: brcm/brcmfmac43241b4-sdio.bin

I have another Linux distro on my laptop already, so I already have this file. The Debian installer say the “firmware can be loaded from removable media, such as a USB stick“, so I put the file on a (FAT32) USB stick and plugged it into my laptop and tried to continue with the installer, but it doesn’t find the file, even though it’s in the root directory (only directory) of the second USB stick.

I also tried putting the file at this path on the second USB stick, but it didn’t work: /brcm/brcmfmac43241b-sdio.bin

How can I get the Debian installer on the first USB stick to recognize that the file in the second USB stick is the file it wants?

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Answers:

Method 1

Method 2

Method 3

Method 4

Answers:

Thank you for visiting the Q&A section on Magenaut. Please note that all the answers may not help you solve the issue immediately. So please treat them as advisements. If you found the post helpful (or not), leave a comment & I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Method 1

this is a repost of my answer, because google search doesn’t return a meaningful stackexchange results, or none of the answers are considered satisfied by me

My answer is for those who want To install or re-install Debian with correct LAN/Wireless non-free drivers

IMHO, the correct answer should be as below (tested by myself):

Requirement:

NOT TWO, only one USB drive is needed. . No need to use unofficial non-free firmwares attached ISOs as well.

This solution can be applied to netinstall.iso or mini.iso.

Download non-free firmware .deb files from debian repos respectively to the release (stable, testing or sid), like firmware-brcm80211 and firmware-realtek
After dd iso successfully, make a partition (tested with FAT32, option b under dos scheme in fdisk), choose either primary partition or logical partition under extended partition, both work
Create a folder name firmware in that partition
Copy relevant firmware .deb files to that folder, all must be put under same folder and partition.

tips You can download the archive from http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/firmware/. extract all the .deb non-free firmware files to that folder instead of downloading them individually

Relevant threads that I pasted my answers in:

Method 2

It’s better to use the non-free installer, which already contains all firmware: http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/cd-including-firmware/current/amd64/iso-cd/

Method 3

It finally solved my own issue.

It turns out that it was asking for brcm/brcmfmac43241b4-sdio.bin, and it did actually find this and then ask for the very similarly named brcm/brcmfmac43241b4-sdio.txt. Supplying both of these files at the same time on a USB stick worked.

The text file is here and the binary file is here.

Method 4

Download the deb file from here (direct link to download from Debian), put it on the root of the second USB (don’t create any structure), then insert and try to continue.

All methods was sourced from stackoverflow.com or stackexchange.com, is licensed under cc by-sa 2.5, cc by-sa 3.0 and cc by-sa 4.0

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