Intel 82579V Gigabit Ethernet Driver for Debian Squeeze

To those trying to install the new Debian Squeeze distribution and being owners of an Intel 82579V Gigabit Ethernet adaptor to which appropriate driver files are missing from the installation disks (I tried netinst and KDE-disk1), I present a compiled kernel module for AMD64.

The Download is available here.

Copy this file to a removable media (after unpacking). When the installer presents a list of network adaptor drivers, switch to a shell, mount the media and do an insmod /path/to/media/e1000e.ko.

After that, switch back to the installer, let it determine that there is no ethernet adaptor present and restart the network interface detection. TADA!

UPDATE @2011-07-21: After a vigorous apt-get upgrade the driver failed to work on my machine, too, so I recompiled one for Debian 6.0.2.1. (Thanks to Puneet’s desperate outcry).

UPDATE @2013-12-08: Obviously, there are still some issues with this device. Even in “Wheezy”. The pre-compiled kernel module for Debian “Wheezy” 7.2 AMD64 is now available.