Bug#740502: debian-installer: check-missing-firmware shows incorrect missing list and only copies one firmware file at a time
Package: debian-installer
Version: 7.0.4 wheezy release
Severity: normal
Dear Maintainer,
Installing from debian-7.4.0-amd64-netinst.iso
1 check-missing-firmware "missing files" list is incorrect. Installer
detects that wifi needs Broadcom firmware and says "The missing firmware
files are: b43/ucode29_mimo.fw b43-open/ucode29_mimo.fw". The list is
incorrect and incomplete. The list contains only two files - there are
more that are required. The list contains two files, suggesting
that both are needed - in fact only one copy of the file is needed (the
loader looks in two directories).
- This bug seems to be caused by the installer interpreting the
kernel firmware loading in an overly simple way. The firmware
loader attempts to load files sequentially, and looks for them in
two places. If it does not find a file, it will immediately quit
and print the two locations that it looked for the file. The Debian
installer interprets and reports this pair of locations as an
absolute list of missing files. It is not an absolute list, it is a
duplicate pair for a single missing file.
- Even if the file is present (eg. b43/ucode29_mimo.fw exists), this
function still reports b43-open/ucode29_mimo.fw as missing! It's
not missing, it's just an alternative location for the same file.
2. The installer should copy any firmware files on the USB drive in one
go. Because of the way the installer copies and loads one file at a
time, even if the user has done everything perfectly (all required
firmwares ready on a USB drive) the "check missing files" prompt will
pop up several times (3 in my case) and the user just has to keep
clicking "yes". Any normal user is going to think that this is broken,
only users who are really paying attention and watching the logs will
notice that it is only loading one file every time they click
"Continue".
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