Blog Posts

2020-01-15

Debian Buster Tricks and Tweaks

I am working on a Machine Learning project, therefore, I installed a new system for best utilization. The environment works on an Oracle VirtualBox with a Linux operating system. My preference for OS is the latest version of Debian, codenamed Buster, released as version 10.

Following challenges were tweaked

1. TP-LINK TL-WN722N Wireless Dongle/Modem
2. Login as root to Desktop Environment
3. Change Network Interface ens33 to eth0

 

TP-LINK TL-WN722N

This is a USB Wireless dongle and OS does not install by default. Unfortunately, Buster does not come with an installation package. The solution is to include alternate versions of Debian to locate "firmware-atheros" package.

Follow the steps,

Open your terminal to configure settings and execute commands
Open sources.list with nano editor

nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Add alternate version/package download source

deb http://httpredir.debian.org/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free

Hit CTRL+C to exit the text editor. Confirm Y to overwrite once prompted. Run update and installation commands

run apt-get update && apt-get install firmware-atheros

Reboot your system with shutdown now -r

Plug your USB adapter in and make sure it is enabled under the VirtualBox environment. Confirm with "Devices > USB > Atheros USB 2.0" at the toolbar. Another important note is, TP-LINK TL-WN722N supports USB 1.1. Make sure which port you plugged-in and your settings.

The alternative solution is to compile the code from its source if the installation package is not accessible.

Open your terminal screen and run following commands to download git content tracker, driver of WN722N, and compile the source with an installation.

apt-get install git

git clone https://github.com/jeremyb31/rtl8192eu-linux-driver.git

cd rtl8192eu-Linux-driver

make

make install

shutdown now -r

Compile source code is in progress

 

I upload two packages here in case sources are unavailable or inaccessible. You can download firmware-atheros_20190717-2_all.deb and rtl8192eu-Linux-driver-Realtek-4.4.x.zip

 

Login as Root (Graphical User Environment) Not suggested

Debian has great protection for end-users, therefore, root access in the desktop environment is restricted. I use Gnome, and here is the solution;

Edit configuration file

nano /etc/gdm3/daemon.conf

Write below parameter under [Security] section

AllowRoot=true

 

Exit the text editor with CTRL+C and confirm Y to overwrite once prompted. Edit gdm-password configuration file with

nano /etc/pam.d/gdm-password

and comment out the line

#auth required pam_succeed_if.so user != root quiet_success

Compile source code is in progress

Restart the system.

 

CHANGE NETWORK INTERFACE (ens33) to eth0

Debian automatically renames the standard network adapter to ens if it runs over a virtual environment. This is to protect the actual hardware from virtual, a simulated, abridged one. You can double confirm with command dmesg | grep -i eth

Edit grub config to cancel this renaming,

nano /etc/default/grub

Change GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="" with GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="net.ifnames=0 biosdevname=0"

Create new configuration with with command,

grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Restart your computer.