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Re: Manually add firmware (or other) packages for installation?



On 2/27/21 11:46 AM, Holger Wansing wrote:
> John Paul Adrian Glaubitz <glaubitz@physik.fu-berlin.de> wrote (Sat, 27 Feb 2021 11:21:58 +0100):
>> The point is: We separate free and non-free images for a very reason and if
>> you add a mechanism that just silently enables non-free on a system that
>> was installed with the free installer, you are defeating this separation.
> 
> 1. *I* do not do or change anything here. It's the case like this for ages!

Of course, you are. You are sending in a patch.

> 2. non-free does *NOT* be *silently* activated! The user is prompted for this,
>    and he needs to explicitly say YES to this option! 
>    And this question is only be asked in expert installation mode.

You are contradicting yourself. Earlier in the discussion you claim that the
user just enters the name of the firmware packages and the installer does
the rest of the work.

>> The firmware issue isn't new and the stance has always been that we separate
>> free and non-free installers for a very reason. People that use the free installers
>> expect that the system installed contains DFSG-compatible components only.
> 
> Firmware issues are not new, that's correct.
> But with latest kernels, it seems that missing firmware for graphics cards 
> more often than in the past leads to a completely dark or garbled screen
> (given the amount of user reports, I already mentioned).
> I guess this is a result of some "policy changing" in the kernel, how to 
> act with firmware blobs and what to do, if firmware is missing (?).

Well, people need to use the firmware installer in this case and looking through
the on debian-devel, I'm not the only DD who takes this stance [1].

>> A user wants all firmware to be available after installation, they are advised
>> to use the non-free firmware installers.
> 
> Again:
> even if they decide to use this non-free installer with the graphics-card
> firmware included, this installer *does*not* install the firmware for
> graphics cards!
> (leaving users with a unusable system at first boot.)

Then you don't need to change debian-installer for that. Just adjust the package
lists for the non-free CD.

> Only the "switch-to-second-console-and-install-there-by-hand" solution, you
> mentioned already, can do this.
> 
> This patch should only be a user-friendly variant of the above second-console 
> solution.

I don't think we need this particular solution and I prefer to keep the free
images untainted. We can adjust the package lists for the non-free CDs and
have the firmware packages installed automatically.

Adrian

> [1] https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2021/01/msg00336.html

-- 
 .''`.  John Paul Adrian Glaubitz
: :' :  Debian Developer - glaubitz@debian.org
`. `'   Freie Universitaet Berlin - glaubitz@physik.fu-berlin.de
  `-    GPG: 62FF 8A75 84E0 2956 9546  0006 7426 3B37 F5B5 F913


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