[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Bug#1030189: Let regular users know need to put non-free-firmware in sources.list



Package: general

The average user will not notice his firmware is not updating any more.

Some users, if they do
$ apt-show-versions |grep 'No available version in archive'
will see
firmware-amd-graphics:all 20221214-3 installed: No available version in archive
firmware-brcm80211:all 20221214-3 installed: No available version in archive...

And if they check
/var/lib/apt/lists/*_debian_dists_unstable_non-free_i18n_Translation-en.diff_Index
will notice something funny happened...
 137480 T-2023-01-30-2019.16-F-2023-01-14-1406.12
 137194 T-2023-01-30-2019.16-F-2023-01-14-2004.08
 137161 T-2023-01-30-2019.16-F-2023-01-16-0203.33
 137036 T-2023-01-30-2019.16-F-2023-01-16-2003.44
  73251 T-2023-01-30-2019.16-F-2023-01-18-2013.57
  73217 T-2023-01-30-2019.16-F-2023-01-19-2008.34
  72676 T-2023-01-30-2019.16-F-2023-01-20-2016.02

So he must do Google Search.
https://www.google.com/search?q=debian+firmware+non-free
which leads to
https://wiki.debian.org/Firmware
which says
...a new repository component non-free-firmware...

So that means he needs to add it to /etc/apt/sources.list.d/
Ah ha!

Yes, he should be regularly subscribed to debian-user, but that's too
much.
Or https://lists.debian.org/debian-announce/, but that's too many boring
messages too.

Yes, he uses apt-listchanges, but that won't tell him this.

So I'm saying that Debian needs a mechanism to have his computer tell
him to do this.

Maybe the next time he uses apt*, somehow the system should tell him...


Reply to: