Re: Non-free firmware [was: Debian install Question]
On Friday, March 05, 2021 11:56:24 AM David Wright wrote:
> On Thu 04 Mar 2021 at 15:47:37 (-0500), rhkramer@gmail.com wrote:
<cutting the context ;-) >
> If a device is sold on a separate card, it's not necessarily
> enough to know the model number of the card. Many "identical"
> models are sold with various different chips, which will
> require different firmware. You might not know which chip you've
> got until you look at the board, or even read its codes from
> the dmesg output.
>
> Being non-free, the firmware usually originates/d from some
> manufacturer or other. If the firmware fails to work with the
> device, there's not much that Debian can do about it. It might
> be something for some sub-sub-group of the linux kernel people,
> if the problem lies in how the driver and firmware interact.
>
> So in your scheme, the "unofficial installers" that have to be
> "vetted" by someone to confirm they "indeed work on those
> hardware configurations" are actually hundreds of different
> combinations, each one comprising one particular firmware blob,
> plus the same old official installer image:
>
> iwlwifi-100-5.ucode + official installer ✓ Vetted ✓ Passed
> iwlwifi-105-6.ucode + official installer ✓ Vetted ✓ Passed
> iwlwifi-135-6.ucode + official installer ✓ Vetted ✓ Passed
> iwlwifi-1000-5.ucode + official installer ✓ Vetted ✓ Passed
> iwlwifi-2000-6.ucode + official installer ✓ Vetted ✓ Passed
> iwlwifi-2030-6.ucode + official installer ✓ Vetted ✓ Passed
> … … … … …
>
> ad infinitum …
It would be nice (imho), but may be difficult. ;-)
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