I like minimalism, so I go for distros that use a WM, my preference is Fluxbox, though I have used Openbox quite a bit as well.

As an aside, I finally persuaded my sister to ditch Windows XP & use Linux, so spent yesterday setting her up with AntiX, because I know it well enough to keep her up & running.

I just tried a 'live' Devuan RC 1.0.0 on another of my laptops, & it couldn't find a network either!
(So, maybe, it's down to Devuan itself.)

Package list on the RC doesn't show any firmware at all, so that may be why, FSR said I guess that the .debs for some stuff were on there? Guess I need to download it finally, lol, bandwidth is back to squat here today.

That's strange if this is the same machine you're talking about,

Sorry, this is on a different machine, it's an oldish netbook that can boot from SD cards.

I was originally trying it on one of my desktops that has a TP-Link PCI Express card in it, (works no problem with Debian/AntiX). (I think the model number is TL-WN781ND.)

I just tried a 'live' Devuan RC 1.0.0 on another of my laptops, & it couldn't find a network either!
(So, maybe, it's down to Devuan itself.)

[Anyway, I'll be off trying a new version of my backup O/S today, (OpenBSD).]

Maybe this could be helpful.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ … rowz+linux

cheers

zephyr

In Refracta, all I do is install it & wifi then works, but not in Crowz. (Running live.)

I have since tried installing Crowz, (todays JVM, downloaded), & the wifi didn't come up, tried again by using dpkg, rebooted, but still no wifi.
Having rebooted after installing the firmware should have produced a result, but it didn't, no connections were available.

Anyway, I've now put GreenJeans Mate on one SDHC card, & MIYO on another, & they work in my netbook.

That's strange if this is the same machine you're talking about, the mate iso's don't have firmware-atheros or even the linux-free packages installed unless you added them.

I have since tried installing Crowz, (todays JVM, downloaded), & the wifi didn't come up, tried again by using dpkg, rebooted, but still no wifi.
Having rebooted after installing the firmware should have produced a result, but it didn't, no connections were available.

Anyway, I've now put GreenJeans Mate on one SDHC card, & MIYO on another, & they work in my netbook.

I tried installing firmware-atheros in a live Crowz session using dpkg, but it didn't work.

Works fine in a Refracta live session.

Any clues as to what was missing? In what way did it not work?
If the package installed, did the module get loaded, or did you load it?

Works fine in a Refracta live session.

I've installed and removed packages during a livecd session with Devuan and Refracta, modded and replaced files too, so couldn't you even install the needed firmware while still in-session, and delete the unneeded .debs, and have just what you want installed?

Maybe yes, maybe no. You can install them, but sometimes getting them to work without a reboot is difficult. And of course, if you reboot the live session, you lose any changes. I didn't know you could install debs with synaptic. Thanks for that.

The regular installer isos have the wireless firmware, and you can choose to install it or not. That didn't work in beta2, but it's fixed in RC. The desktop-live and minimal-live don't have any wireless firmware installed or available, unless you have a network connection already. (catch-22). There's a good chance the final live isos will have wireless firmware. I don't know what the best way to do it is.

Here's a list of the wireless firmware packages that I pack in the Refracta isos. It's all of the ones I could find, but I haven't checked lately to see if there are more. I was able to install all of them in devuan without having to agree to a EULA with the exception of one - the ipw2x00.

b43-fwcutter_1%3a019-2_amd64.deb
b43-fwcutter_1%3a019-2_i386.deb
firmware-atheros_0.43_all.deb
firmware-b43-installer_1%3a019-2_all.deb
firmware-b43legacy-installer_1%3a019-2_all.deb
firmware-bnx2_0.43_all.deb
firmware-bnx2x_0.43_all.deb
firmware-brcm80211_0.43_all.deb
firmware-intelwimax_0.43_all.deb
firmware-ipw2x00_0.43_all.deb
firmware-iwlwifi_0.43_all.deb
firmware-libertas_0.43_all.deb
firmware-linux-nonfree_0.43_all.deb
firmware-myricom_0.43_all.deb
firmware-netxen_0.43_all.deb
firmware-qlogic_0.43_all.deb
firmware-ralink_0.43_all.deb
firmware-realtek_0.43_all.deb
firmware-ti-connectivity_0.43_all.deb
firmware-zd1211_3.0.0.56-3_all.deb

And here are the package names for installing with apt.

b43-fwcutter firmware-atheros firmware-b43-installer firmware-b43legacy-installer firmware-bnx2 firmware-bnx2x firmware-brcm80211 firmware-intelwimax firmware-ipw2x00 firmware-iwlwifi firmware-libertas firmware-linux-nonfree firmware-myricom firmware-netxen firmware-qlogic firmware-ralink firmware-realtek firmware-ti-connectivity firmware-zd1211

WOW! Code boxes that don't break my line. Nice. Thanks to whoever did that.

Edit: I would guess that the most common ones are atheros, iwlwifi, realtek and broadcom (all the ones that start with b). The ralink is another realtek. I have one of those on a pci card.

Just checked with a live Refracta & my ath9k driver comes in firmware-atheros.

So just thinking out loud here, but a solution when using the Refracta installer/snapshot for livecd's, to keep from installing a bunch of extra firmware, is to just put the .debs for the firmware packages in /var/cache/apt/archives, that way the install can be blob-free if you want, or you can install needed firmware without having to have an internet connection first? The cached packages can even be installed with Synaptic, just fire it up normally and select them for install.

I've installed and removed packages during a livecd session with Devuan and Refracta, modded and replaced files too, so couldn't you even install the needed firmware while still in-session, and delete the unneeded .debs, and have just what you want installed?

Just checked with a live Refracta & my ath9k driver comes in firmware-atheros.

Thought maybe so, thanks for info, need to add that probably for some local installs when I do them.

@Zephyr: Tried both JWM and OB last night and they are both fun! I like the crowz graphics and colors, livecd booted quite a bit faster than mine do on my machine, the boot message was a nice touch , gonna give them a run today again and check out netsurf browser a little more among other things.

Again I gotta say, I learn more from 5 minutes of running and looking at someone else's work, than I do from 5 hours of agonizing over my own filesystem trying to figure out how to make it run better and faster.

Test-driving iso's, much like a 5:30 beer, is always a good decision.

Vuudo is a great looking distro, still fiddling with it. No issues at all! : )

zephyr