XPost: linux.debian.maint.boot

Hey all!

Here's a status update on the non-free-firmware changes that we voted
for last year [1].

Cyril has done a huge amount of work [2], implementing the bulk of
what we need. We released d-i bookworm alpha 2 last weekend [3],
including those changes. Our own testing shows that things work well
on *our* test hardware, but we'd like some more assistance in testing!
If you would like to help and you have a machine that wants firmware,
please:

1. Boot the installer and verify that it identifies the necessary
firmware correctly - go as far as configuring the network. If
there are still missing firmware blobs, d-i will complain. If you
stop before making any changes in the partitioner (partman), then
this should a safe thing to do on your existing machine and won't
make any permanent changes.

2. (If you can) complete an installation and check that all the
hardware works as expected after normal bootup. We'd love people
to do this to verify the more awkward blobs: audio and GPU.

We're especially interested in wifi, NIC and GPU firmware here, as
they have been the things blocking people installing Debian in the
past.

Please file bugs against "installation-reports" with whatever you
find! Thanks in advance!

We're also planning more updates before the full bookworm release -
watch this space!

[1] https://www.debian.org/vote/2022/vote_003
[2] https://debamax.com/blog/2023/02/27/debian-versus-non-free-firmware/
[3] https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2023/02/msg00005.html

--
Steve McIntyre, Cambridge, UK. steve@einval.com "Because heaters aren't purple!" -- Catherine Pitt

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