Hi,
and thanks for your report.
I'm not familiar with the cd-including-firmware image(s), but I'd like
to point out that firmware support isn't exactly supposed to be working
nicely, see first item in errata:
https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/errata
(In a nutshell d-i no longer is notified that firmware is missing, so
might fail to try and find them; if the kernel finds its firmware on its
own, things should work though.)
I'm currently working on debugging wireless issues; trying to restore
firmware support should be next.
Mraw,
KiBi.