Bug#973733: RTW88_8821ce module fails to find firmware during install and must be reloaded

["Brandon Werner" <brandon_code@fastmail.fm>]

On Wed, Nov 4, 2020, at 1:13 AM, Brandon Werner wrote:
> 
> 
> On Tue, Nov 3, 2020, at 10:52 PM, Brandon Werner wrote:
> > package: src:linux
> > 
> > Hi,
> > I downloaded one of the firmware netinstall builds of Debian from today 
> > (11/03/2020) to try installing on my netbook with the 8821ce wifi card 
> > since Debian now has the 5.9 kernel. During the text install with 
> > speech, I received an error that the network card could not be found. I 
> > opened a console and looking at dmesg showed the driver not finding the 
> > firmware with a -2 error, however, I noticed that the requested files 
> > had been unpacked to /lib/firmware. I unloaded rtw88_8821ce and 
> > reloaded it using modprobe and the firmware was found, after which the 
> > network interface was successfully brought up.
> I took a look at the installer logs and found something that looks like 
> it could be the likely problem.
> 
> Nov  3 22:09:17 check-missing-firmware: removing and loading kernel 
> module rtw_8821ce
> 
> I think some substitution is going wrong in the installer because it 
> seems like the module should be called rtw88_8821ce.
It looks like what is happening is that the driver prints its messages to dmesg with a different name than what the module is actually called. When it prints its messages about missing firmware, it uses rtl_8821ce. The installer matches on that when unloading and loading modules to get the missing firmware, which results in an incorrect module name being used. Is there a list of cases in the installer for this? It needs to use rtw88_8821ce when it unloads and reloads the module.
> > I was able to continue through the rest of the install without issue. I am not sure what logs 
> > would help but would be happy to provide anything requested to diagnose 
> > this issue.