Hello Reid, list, On 01/05/2024 15:30, Reid wrote: ...snip...
The following is what I found, which I believe are important Installer bugs that need fixing: 1) Bug #1 / Debian installer / all live image DVDs:
> When using the Debian Installer on live images, it installs 29 non-free components without opt-in/out or warning. ...snip... This is a longer standing issue, which I've seen causes a lot of confusion.You are not the first to stumble upon it, there are several bug reports and mailing list questions about it.
The installer that is provided on the live image is not the regular installer as on the netinst image, but instead it copies the whole live image onto your hard disk and removes some language packs and the live-specific packages afterwards. It should be possible to run the installer from the live image in a similar way as the netinst image, but I haven't tested whether that works as expected.
The official live images are generated already in 8 flavours, and duplicating them requires a lot of additional testing effort. Do you volunteer to test them?
As you wrote, the firmware packages are available per default on the live images, for the reason that modern hardware will probably need some firmware to be working properly, as noted on the non-free-firmware page [1].
Since you wrote that you have 29 non-free-firmware components (BTW there is no non-free on the live images) after installation, you probably needed them for the hardware support. I'm curious, does your computer still work properly after you have removed them?
If you don't want/need the firmware, I'll refer you to use the netinst installer, which suits your level of expertise and offers the option 'firmware=never'.
...snip...
Recommendation: While I think the suggestion for #1 above would be an acceptable solution to this issue as well, there should at least be an error message or warning to inform users that the "firmware=never" instructions don't work when installing via live image DVDs.
Some time ago I've already added the feature request to the TODO list [2] to rename the 'install' option to reflect its current behaviour. That would be a step forward, and supporting another kernel option will be implemented later, unless someone provides a suitable patch.
Debian is in flux, as can be seen on openQA [3]. Keeping the basics working is my first priority. Patches are always welcome.
With kind regards, Roland Clobus --- [1] https://wiki.debian.org/Firmware [2] https://wiki.debian.org/DebianLive/TODO [3] https://openqa.debian.net/group_overview/14
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