On Fri, Feb 13, 2026 at 09:15:54PM -0700, Gregory Nowak via Dng wrote:
> Redirecting back to the list again. Haines, is there a specific reason
> why you keep replying to me directly? Someone on the list following
> the discussion may have other ideas, or notice something I miss. Also,
> time constraints prevent me from being your personal tech support.
>
>
> On Fri, Feb 13, 2026 at 08:10:31AM -0500, Haines Brown wrote:
> > On Thu, Feb 12, 2026 at 02:35:33PM -0700, Gregory Nowak wrote:
> > > Redirecting back to the list.
> >
> > ...
> >
> > > > > Try installing the wireless-regdb package. You may also need to enable
> > > > > the non-free sources, and install firmware-linux-nonfree.
> > > > >
> > > > > Greg
> > > >
> > > > Greg, thanks for the feedback, but if I can't boot, how do I
> > > > install applications or edit /etc/apt/sourceslist?
> > >
> > > Your original post didn't indicate that you can't boot. The output you
> > > posted seems to indicate your newly installed system came up fine, and
> > > just the wireless card didn't work. If you in fact have a newly
> > > installed system that won't boot, then a not functioning wireless card
> > > is the least of your problems (if it even is one). In this case, it
> > > might be easiest to do the install again.
> >
> > Sorry for the omission. The broken system boots to the error message.
> > I send this message to the list from another machine.,
>
> As I recall, the error message was about the system not being able to
> load what it needed for the wireless card, specifically
> regulatory.db. The rest of the system should boot as normal given the
> messages you sent earlier.
>
> >
> > > > Can it be done
> > > > with a Devuan Live? I have a devuan live key and run sy - to get
> > > > a root termnial.
> > >
> > > It likely can be done with devuan live, and I'm sure you type su, not sy.
> >
> > Sorry as well for the typo, At 90 I've lost my ability to type.
> >
> > With DevuanLive I can open a terminal and get a # prompt. In the
> > directory I see the file: remove_firmware.sh. I look at it and it
> > removes all firmware packages. Included is firmware-iwlwifi. The
> > bane of thats package appears in the error I get when I try to
> > boot the drive. The file also has the command apt-get autoremove
> > --purge ${FIRMWARE_PKGS}
> >
>
> Like I said before, that seems to remove non-free firmware for those
> who don't want it.
>
> > I create a mount point in that directory and try to to mount
> > /dev/nvme0n1 on it. The mount fails becayse it cannot find a
> > valid ext4 file system. When I ty to install firmware-iwlwifi
> > it says already installed in newest version.
>
> I would have to see the partition list of /dev/nvme0 to see what is in
> the first partition, and what other partitions you have. What does
>
> lsblk -fs /dev/nvme0

Note that "/dev/nvme0" refers to a collective of possible drives, and
that "/dev/nvme0n1" refers to the first drive in that collective, and
that "/dev/nvme0n1p1" would be the first partition of the first drive
in that collective.

Ralph.

>
> show?
>
> >
> > > I'm confused. You said above you can't boot, but you just said that
> > > you have a running system. Therefore, given the output you posted in
> > > your previous post, and that you have just said you have a running
> > > system, I will assume you do in fact have a running system. In that
> > > case, installing firmware-linux-nonfree should fix your wireless
> > > errors you posted previously. You will need to use an Ethernet cable
> > > to do the package install, a cellular hotspot if possible, or another
> > > computer with internet access to download firmware-linux-nonfree to a
> > > flash drive which you can install from on your running system.
> >
> > I have two systems. One broken and another is OK. I have the
> > broken system connected via ethernet, At a DevuanLive terminal, I
> > can mount the broken drive. I went to install
> > firmware-linux-nonfree and I am told it is already installed at
> > newest version.
>
> I'm again confused. You said above you can't mount /dev/nvme0n1
> because there is no ext4 file system. Now you seem to be saying you
> can mount the drive with your installed system. Also, mounting a drive
> in a lie environment isn't enough, you need to chroot into that system
> to operate on it. Chrooting is an advanced topic. If you're not
> familiar with operating inside a chroot system to fix it, I would
> suggest you use the repair mode of the devuan installer which sets the
> environment for you properly to install and uninstall packages
> in. Simply mounting your installed system in a live environment, and
> checking for installed packages will show you what is installed in the
> live environment, not in the system you just mounted.
>
> >
> > I find that on the broken system /etc/fstab has only these lines
> >
> > overlay / overlay rw 0 0
> > tmpfs /tmp tmpfs nosuid,nodev o o
>
> This is correct for a live environment. I would say it seems like
> you're looking at the /etc/fstab of the devuan live environment, not
> your broken installation.
>
> >
> > No wonder I cannot boot! It is not the installer because I have
> > same problem withn the refracta in a DevuanLive and a netinst iso
> > on different key.
>
> Those are all live environments.
>
> >
> > I find that /etc/apt/sources.list has
> >
> > deb https://dev.devuan.org/merged daedalus main non-free-firmware
> >
> > --
> >

> >      Haines Brown

>
> I'm not sure what to tell you to do next, since the information you
> are providing seems contradictory to me. Based on the output messages
> you provided in your first post on this topic, I would say it seems
> like you have a system that boots, and you should be able to login on
> it natively without using a live environment. Once in that system,
> installing wireless-regdb, and linux-firmware-nonfree should resolve
> the error messages about the wireless card. If you can't login because
> you don't see a graphical login screen, pressing ctrl+alt+f1 should
> give you a text console with a login prompt. Once you login there, you
> can use apt to install packages.
>
> Greg
>
>
> > --
> web site: http://www.gregn.net
> gpg public key: http://www.gregn.net/pubkey.asc
>
> --
> Free domains: http://www.eu.org/ or mail dns-manager@???
> _______________________________________________
> Dng mailing list
> Dng@???
> Manage your subscription: https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dng
> Archive: https://lists.dyne.org/lurker/list/dng.en.html