Re: Non-free firmware [was: Debian install Question]
On Fri 05 Mar 2021 at 14:30:30 (-0500), rhkramer@gmail.com wrote:
> On Friday, March 05, 2021 11:56:24 AM David Wright wrote:
> > On Thu 04 Mar 2021 at 15:47:37 (-0500), rhkramer@gmail.com wrote:
>
> <cutting the context ;-) >
>
> > If a device is sold on a separate card, it's not necessarily
> > enough to know the model number of the card. Many "identical"
> > models are sold with various different chips, which will
> > require different firmware. You might not know which chip you've
> > got until you look at the board, or even read its codes from
> > the dmesg output.
> >
> > Being non-free, the firmware usually originates/d from some
> > manufacturer or other. If the firmware fails to work with the
> > device, there's not much that Debian can do about it. It might
> > be something for some sub-sub-group of the linux kernel people,
> > if the problem lies in how the driver and firmware interact.
> >
> > So in your scheme, the "unofficial installers" that have to be
> > "vetted" by someone to confirm they "indeed work on those
> > hardware configurations" are actually hundreds of different
> > combinations, each one comprising one particular firmware blob,
> > plus the same old official installer image:
> >
> > iwlwifi-100-5.ucode + official installer ✓ Vetted ✓ Passed
> > iwlwifi-105-6.ucode + official installer ✓ Vetted ✓ Passed
> > iwlwifi-135-6.ucode + official installer ✓ Vetted ✓ Passed
> > iwlwifi-1000-5.ucode + official installer ✓ Vetted ✓ Passed
> > iwlwifi-2000-6.ucode + official installer ✓ Vetted ✓ Passed
> > iwlwifi-2030-6.ucode + official installer ✓ Vetted ✓ Passed
> > … … … … …
> >
> > ad infinitum …
>
> It would be nice (imho), but may be difficult. ;-)
Imagine you are part of the team, and you've volunteered to shoulder
the responsibility for firmware-iwlwifi_20190114-2_all.deb. In order
to vet it, you have to track down, purchase and install 35 different
types of wifi "cards", and over half a dozen more for bluetooth. With
each, you need to run the first half dozen steps of the installer,
presumably by preseed.
I wrote "cards" because you're not just juggling PCI cards here, but
excavating tiny little boards out of the guts of various sorts of
laptop. But you picked an easy option. Many of the ethernet hardware
options are integrated with the mobo.
IMHO, "difficult" doesn't cover it. Nor expensive, nor tedious.
Cheers,
David.
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