I tried installing iwlwifi firmware using the Debian 7 steps here but although it appears to have installed (adds a bunch of files to /lib/firmware), iwconfig still doesn't list it.

Does it also need a driver installed? Is anything in Trisquel/Linux-libre likely to be blocking it?

Annoyingly I've promised a working system by Friday, so need to check if this or any of these will work on Linux-libre - have until 5pm tomorrow/today to get next day delivery.

Kinda hoping Xen's going to appear before then and give me a magic command to just make it all work. :)

With a USB one I just need a supported chipset?

A single bad firmwire isn't ideal but doesn't make it completely redundant - especially if it can be undone once I have time/inclination to swap the card over.

Half do, half don't object, and the point is identical bases.

I'm building the most free solution without sacrificing user friendliness whilst being constrained by time - if I'd discovered this sooner I probably would have looked for a different LTS distro that used the regular kernel, and it seems likely I'm going to have to waste the entire evening tonight repeating stuff I've already done. :(

It was only on looking more into Linux-libre that I discovered it doesn't just remove non-free firmware, but actively refuses to load it even if you install it separately.

So I'm going with Debian - still got some more setup to do today, but not oversleeping like I usually do means I at least have a bit of time.

No point arguing that though - they'd just say having the source code means you're free to modify it, (whilst insisting immediately that doing so would be the worst thing ever).