> likes linux
> maybe not even install windows on shiny new laptop?
> debian-live.iso
> y u no wifi?
> google: lol apt-get
> but i has no internets...

Why only with Debian and not with literally any other flavor of Linux I've tried, which are all Debian variants?
Halp?

If you have android you can usb tether to get internet connection
Look it up on wiki

Great. Looking into that..

@chadd17 my WiFi card is somewhat broken (loses connection a lot) on my laptop so that's what I use, hop into settings and under more connectivity there should be tethering options. Connect your phone up and press the usb tethering option. If you use pure aosp you can also search for usb tethering in the settings :)

No More Connectivity option in settings. I picked Cinnamon.. is that badly supported? Should I have picked Gnome or KDE? Is that even related?

Maybe waay too specific, but yesterday I was helping a colleague set up Linux (Mint) on his new HP pavilion 360, he also had a wifi issue, had to modify the /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf and add "blacklist acer_wmi"; then reboot to get it working

But then again, like I said, waaay too specific

Have fun!

@encore the machine is Dell, brand new, the wifi chip is intel I think. Doesn't show under ifconfig. All I get is lo.

I'm this close to installing Kali and just telling people it's stretch

@dontPanic thanks. I realized tethering is configured on the phone, not in debian. This is helpful.

Update

Ok, so using usb tethering I could get internet to ad nonfree and search apt for a package for my wifi card. Installed firmware-iwlwifi. Still nothing. Does this require a reboot to take effect? If so, that's a problem since I'm using a live usb. I'm doing this for testing. I don't wanna install debian if my computer's hardware won't be supported for a while

@chadd17
Due to Debian's nature, I'd use one of the variants. Honestly, I've given up on Debian-based as I grew more and more familiar with Linux and now recommend Korora, but I see the appeal of sticking with Debian.

Maybe try Devuan, which is Debian without SystemD?

Intel wireless should work without non-free. If it's Broadcom then that's an issue.

Another update - tried it in a variant distro of Debian and it was as I suspected - didn't need to install drivers or anything. Wifi worked automatically. Very annoying.
It's just vanilla Debian. Whyyyy.

Maybe get a laptop with a wifi card worth > $1 ?

I have a Broadcom 4313 which actually does work, but it's a pain in the hash. See my post here: shajikhan.in/broadcom

It's Debian. It works fine on ubuntu etc.

I ran the Debian installer and it prompted with specific ucodes to download and import via flash drive. I couldn't find the versions it listed, so i imported the newest ones and it worked like a charm.

Thanks for the help everyone.

*shuush on zip line
dont worry, debianDev here, i smelled problems so came to save a day,

1. open console like normal people
2. `ls /sys/class/net` to lookup your network bonds, find up if kernel see your device, if not you fucked up installation, try again
3. on debian 9 and up there is no more /etc/network/interfaces, if you have something there bring it back to default, config there will overwrite gui settings, same with dhcpcd.conf (man it)
4. set up needed stuff in gui, or disable gui and do it in either dhcpcd or ifconfig (later is easier)
5. if wifi card is not responsive, check dmesg and /var/log/syslog for misshapens
6. apt install linux-headers-whatever dkms, firmware-linux-* and firmware-yourdonglemanufacturer

debian is slowly working to switch to wayland, so there are funky stuff happening with all gui interfaces. usually everything works with GNOME+gdm3,

if you really want something good, try Bunsenlabs linux, and change apt sources to testing

write how will it go :3

Not sure how applicable this will be but I came across this post and thought of you

"I use Debian Jessie on my Lenovo X1 Carbon and just needed to enable the non-free repository after install and then installed my WiFi driver. Everything else just works"

@eggory
jessie is officially outdated, since month or so, official stable is called stretch, please update your repos :)