Bug#485440: kernel-wedge: including drivers that require firmware

[Frans Pop <elendil@planet.nl>]

On Wednesday 11 June 2008, Glenn Saberton wrote:
> What about the ipw drivers?

Well, my understanding was that we would not include "broken" drivers, but 
I see from the changelog that Joey added those with this comment:
  * Add zd1211rw to nic-usb-modules, and ipw2100 and ipw2200 to
    nic-wireless-modules. These had been left off due to needing nonfree
    firmware, but maybe we'll work out a way to provide that, and users
    can always provide it on their own, so I think including these in d-i
    is worthwhile.

Personally I think that including them without at least having code that 
detects firmware is missing and displaying a warning to users is very 
debatable.

We can go three ways here:
- remove drivers that need firmware
- add them while leaving users in the dark while their hardware does not
  work even if they can see the driver has been loaded
- add at least that warning too

I do agree that we should be consistent though, although size of the udeb 
could also be a consideration.

I personally also feel we should be consistent for all classes of drivers 
and not just do this for wireless drivers.

Cheers,
FJP

P.S. I have too many other things on my ToDo list to spend any time on 
this personally.