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Hi Cyril,
Cyril Brulebois <
kibi@debian.org> wrote (Wed, 4 Aug 2021 01:49:35 +0200):
When using an official installer image, you will most likely need to enable the non-free component of the archive, when asked for that.
Do we prompt for such a thing? We offer loading firmware from external storage, which might or might not work due to lack of active support (#991771). As far as I understand from the code I looked at (#989863 and friends), if one chooses to look around for firmware files/packages,
non-free will be automatically enabled without a specific prompt about
that part. But then I was mainly making sure firmware-enabled images
would work better out of the scope.
Hmm.
When using an *official* installer image, the default has been in the past, that you get a DFSG compatible system. Means without non-free components installed and without non-free being enabled in the sources.list.
Unless you choose to enable non-free *explicitly*on*purpose* of course!
But this question, if non-free should be enabled, is expert-only.
So, if you perform a standard-priority installation from an official
image, you don't get any components from non-free.
This is from my memory, as it was in the past.
Now, what happens with the current bullseye-rc3 images?
I did a test install with an official rc3 i386 netinst image.
I did NOT choose to enable non-free during installation, and I did NOT
got any packages from non-free! That means, I did NOT got any firmware
packages during the new 'install-firmware' step. Thus, my T60 did complain about missing firmware for the Radeon graphics card after the first reboot.
But that's ok IMO !!!
That means, that the official images are still untouched regarding their functionality (you get a DFSG-free system, if you did NOT choose to enable non-free).
And this was important to some people, if I remember correctly!
In another test installation with official rc3 image, where I installed in expert mode and enabled non-free, when being asked for that in apt-setup step, the result was basically the same: non-free was enabled in sources.list, but the new 'install-firmware' code did not succeed nevertheless, since the /cdrom/firmware/dep11/*.patterns file was not found.
But that's also ok!
So, only with the unofficial images the new 'install-firmware' code works,
and this is ok as well IMO !!!
I think that's a perfect compromise between two basic aspects:
1. install a fully DFSG-free OS, no matter what;
2. additionally install some non-free components, to deal with hardware
(firmware) issues or similar, which could be otherwise hard deal
with for users.
Therefore, I adapted my patch to a conclusion similar to
"This new functionality is only available with the inofficial images
including firmware".
And I have implemented Charles' suggestions, where applicable.
Patch attached.
Holger
--
Holger Wansing <
hwansing@mailbox.org>
PGP-Fingerprint: 496A C6E8 1442 4B34 8508 3529 59F1 87CA 156E B076
diff --git a/en/installing.dbk b/en/installing.dbk
index 7a7e0674..8922fb9a 100644
--- a/en/installing.dbk
+++ b/en/installing.dbk
@@ -44,11 +44,10 @@ for the &releasename; beta and RC releases available from the Debian
Installer's <ulink url="&url-installer-news;">news history</ulink>.
</para>
-<!-- no major changes
<section id="inst-changes">
<title>Major changes</title>
-<!- -
+<!--
release-notes authors should check webwml repo or
https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/
@@ -63,22 +62,36 @@
https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/News/2019/20190202
<!- - TODO: Add
*
-- ->
<variablelist>
-<!- - The following empty paragraph purpose is to unb0rk
- the build until real material get committed - ->
-
<varlistentry>
-<term><!- - Empty Title - -></term>
+<term>Help with installation of firmware</term>
<listitem>
<para>
-<!- - Empty Paragraph - ->
+More and more, peripheral devices require firmware to be loaded as part of the +hardware initialization. To help deal with this problem, the installer has been
+improved.
+Bas