Bug#1029849: hw-detect: storing firmware information specifically
Package: hw-detect
Severity: important
X-Debbugs-Cc: debian-release@lists.debian.org
Hi,
Quoting the text that was agreed to via the 2022 General Resolution
about non-free firmware:
When the installer/live system is running we will provide
information to the user about what firmware has been loaded (both
free and non-free), and we will also store that information on the
target system such that users will be able to find it later.
During the initial brainstorming, I think it was suggested to maybe
include some kind of informational message at the end of the
installation process, like “we installed this and that” or “yay,
you're entirely free”.
That would mean extra work on the translation side, wouldn't add much
value, so that looks like something we should *not* implement.
Regarding the letter of the text, and given hw-detect's code, it's
probably easy enough to keep a file around during the installation
process, with both package name and the component it was found in.
hw-detect already has some finish-install hooks, so it would only need
to generate something like /var/log/installer/firmware-packages from
it, with “$package $component” on each line?
And maybe “# no firmware packages” (with a leading # to signal a
comment), so that people can easily iterate over it if they so wish?
I don't think that's a blocker for the next d-i release, that might be
considered a blocker for Bookworm though; debian-release@ in Cc can
comment and raise severity if that's desired.
If one wanted not to work on this at all, one could make the case that
/var/log/installer/syslog can be used to determine whether/which
firmware packages were installed; the presence of non-free-firmware in
sources.list would be another indication. (That's why I don't think
that's a short-term blocker at all.) But building a 2-column table out
of existing information shouldn't be much work anyway…
Cheers,
--
Cyril Brulebois (kibi@debian.org) <https://debamax.com/>
D-I release manager -- Release team member -- Freelance Consultant
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