Debian 9 install#

It is time to try something else than Ubuntu every now and then, this time Debian 9.

First, the size of the download image (small image) is quite small, about 300 MB , versus 1500 MB for Ubuntu.

The laptop boots from the USB smoothly, but :

• my touchpad is not recognized (I am suggested to load the drivers from a USB stick, that I dont have. maybe later...)
• my wifi card is not recognized
• during grub install it does not see my windows partition, only my second Linux partition

So I stopped and later started the install again, with a cable connected and a USB mouse attached.

The installation dialog is fine, you need to set the root passwd (instead of sudo rights), and you also get the option to select the type of desktop you want, ranging from none, to default Debian, MATE, Gnome, LXDE, XFCE and what more... The install takes a bit longer because it has to download more. After the install, a reboot, all fine, nice full HD screen resolution, and also the mousepad is recognized, but soft tapping on the pad does not work, only the buttons :-(. Also Fn keys all work.

Also tested with 2 screens, all works fine.

Wifi fix#

See http://30minparjour.la-bnbox.fr/blog/2017/02/17/enable-wifi-on-a-dell-e7470-laptop/

lshw -C network
vim /etc/apt/sources.list
apt update
apt install firmware-iwlwifi
modprobe -r iwlwifi
modprobe iwlwifi
iwconfig 

Mousepad fix#

The soft tap did not work, so :

modprobe -r psmouse
modprobe psmouse proto=imps

To persist this, create file /etc/modprobe.conf/psmouse.conf with content options psmouse proto=imps

Citrix install#

Download web package 13.6 from the citrix site. Trust one more cert :

ln -s /usr/share/ca-certificates/mozilla/DigiCert_High_Assurance_EV_Root_CA.crt DigiCert_High_Assurance_EV_Root_CA.crt

And it works, amazing !

F5 VPN firefox plugin#

It is already know that F5 has a firefox plugin, but that only works up until firefox version 49, and we now have 52. Native client is available, but does not support MFA (SMS). So we are stuck here.... Well, I apt removed firefox-esr, and copied /usr/lib/firefox/ and symlinked /usr/bin/firefox to /usr/lib/firefox/firefox.sh, and that one still works.