Bug#1069964: debian-installer: Debian LXQt ISO loads all unnecessary proprietary firmware even with firmware=never parameter
Package: debian-installer
Severity: important
X-Debbugs-Cc: baptx.is@gmail.com
The following issue is based on the discussion I created on https://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?t=159027 where you can find attached the content of /var/log/installer/syslog which was generated on a virtual machine with virt-manager when installing debian-live-12.5.0-amd64-lxqt.iso with the firmware=never parameter (the problem was also present on my real computer when I tested with a previous version debian-live-12.0.0-amd64-lxqt.iso). I also attached the result of the vrms command after using firmware=never parameter. To compare, you can also find attached another installer syslog without using firmware=never parameter, which also contains the line "hw-detect: skipping check-missing-firmware as requested by the caller" and looks like a bug.
The firmware=never parameter did not work at all when using the LXQt ISO file (maybe the problem also happens on ISO files with other desktop environments), the non-free firmware packages were installed. And with the LXQt ISO file, the graphical expert install as well as the text expert install did not ask me if I want the non-free firmware packages, they were installed automatically.
I noticed the firmware=never parameter only worked with the netinst ISO file.
For the automatic detection of needed non-free firmware packages, it only worked with the netinst ISO file as well (the LXQt ISO file installed all non-free firmware packages). But even with netinst ISO file, it seems it is only guessing the non-free firmware packages needed since several were not needed to make my laptop work correctly (firmware-realtek, firmware-sof-signed) when installed on my real computer instead of a virtual machine.
Can these issues be fixed?
It would also be useful to have the firmware=never parameter added in a menu in the normal graphical installation (for people who don't want the complexity of the expert installation), since it is more convenient to have it in a menu and also avoids mistakes when typing firmware=never (I accidentally typed firmzare due to my AZERTY keyboard and the QWERTY input). It would be a good idea to warn the user if the entered parameter / value does not exist, to avoid unwanted results like installing non-free firmware.
-- System Information:
Debian Release: 12.5
APT prefers stable
APT policy: (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Kernel: Linux 6.1.0-18-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=en_IE.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_IE.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=en_IE:en
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled
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