Missing firmware in Debian? Learn how to deal with the problem

Comments

1. someone says

   March 14, 2011 at 11:06 am

   What is firmware? Is it software programs? Is it configuration? Why is it non-free? Is there any free firmware at all?

   • Raphaël Hertzog says

     March 14, 2011 at 12:08 pm

     It’s often software program but it could as well be configuration. We don’t always know.

     There are free firmware in the sense that some have no restrictions associated to their distribution and modification but I’ve never seen the “sources” of any firmware. Those which are non-free have restrictions not compatible with the Debian Free Software Guidelines (no modification allowed mainly AFAIK).

     • Timo Juhani Lindfors says

       March 14, 2011 at 1:37 pm

       
$ apt-get source firmware-linux-free
$ sed -n 240,260p linux-2.6-2.6.32/firmware/keyspan_pda/keyspan_pda.S
movx @dptr, a
inc dptr
djnz r1, clear_rx_ring_loop

       ;;; turn on the RS-232 driver chip (bring the STANDBY pin low)
;; set OEB.1
mov a, #02H
mov dptr,OEB
movx @dptr,a
;; clear PB1
mov a, #00H
mov dptr,OUTB
movx @dptr,a
;; set OEC.[127]
mov a, #0x86
mov dptr,OEC
movx @dptr,a
;; set PORTCCFG.[01] to route TxD0,RxD0 to serial port
mov dptr, PORTCCFG
mov a, #0x03
movx @dptr, a


       There, now you’ve seen source code of free firmware 😉

2. Jonathan Carter says

   March 14, 2011 at 2:36 pm

   I think one thing worth noting is that not having non-free firmware included by default is a feature and not a bug, and that many systems will work just fine without it.

3. anon says

   March 14, 2011 at 11:47 pm

   This seems like too much information for most users. Even technical users shouldn’t have to care.

   Fundamentally, there should be only one question with two choices:
   – Ignore missing non-free firmware files, even though this network card and this wireless card will probably not work without it (default)
   – Make it work, with full knowledge that this stuff doesn’t conform to the DFSG.

   Manually adding stuff to the sources.list, figuring out which firmware package is needed, regenerating the initramfs etc – these are all things that can and should happen without user intervention (well, only if the “use non-free” decision has been made) – it should just work.

4. Bob says

   March 15, 2011 at 12:19 am

   In order to clean my `vrms` output, I wrote a small script :

   # cat bin/lsfw.sh 
   #!/bin/sh
   
   for m in `cat /proc/modules | cut -d' ' -f1`
   do
           for fw in `modinfo -F firmware $m`
           do
                   pk=`apt-cache search $fw | cut -d' ' -f1`
                   echo "firmware $fw in package $pk"
           done
   done
   

   Maybe somebody will find it usefull !

   NB: Edited by Raphaël Hertzog to fix the script and the HTML markup

5. Gary says

   March 15, 2011 at 2:31 pm

   Expect plenty of bait comments from ‘someone’ and ‘winfan’ and suchlike.

   If your values are not compatible with the “Debian Free Software Guidelines”
   http://www.debian.org/social_contract
   …then you are probably just here to troll.

   Read the contract, and you will then know more about the background of your operating system (Debian). Phrases like ‘free’ and ‘non-free’ will make sense then.

   I run a Debian desktop and laptop both running Squeeze and with all firmware ‘free’ incl. Graphics Cards and wifi. Had I opted for a bargain bin laptop or bought a 6 year old second hand model from ebay, then I might have had to, instead, go for the ‘includes non-free firmware’ CD install.

   If you run an operating system that is proprietary, then you probably don’t even get a CD anymore, have a locked down mandatory update system that only works via an insecure browser, where updates cannot be picked and chosen based on ‘your’ needs.
   Feature creep via update system, and back door Xbox DRM if you download a recent windows game from the online store.

   There are upsides and downsides to everyone’s choice. If you are happy in a proprietary setup, then stay there, and hang out with some proprietary buddies rather than reading Debian blogs.
   You know have a good whinge, about not being able to easily get hold of a windows 7 generic install CD, or paying an extra $20 just so your daughter can easily change the desktop background on her new netbook.
   Perhaps it’s that your Mac you only bought 18 months ago, needs an OS upgrade that leaves it unable to work with your LCD or older printer.

   Oh the upside is that you make no distinction between ‘free’ and ‘non-free’, so weigh it all up folks. Me…I’m totally happy with Debian and think Squeeze is the best release yet 🙂

6. J Dempsey says

   March 15, 2011 at 4:19 pm

   During upgrade to Debian 6.0, the installer detected that I didn’t have the firmware for my network hardware it warned me just like it should. Unfortunately, the very next thing it did was restart the network.

   This tends to be problematic when you are doing the upgrade over ssh.

   This caused lots of pain for me and made the upgrade experience much much worse than previous releases.

   • Raphaël Hertzog says

     March 15, 2011 at 4:49 pm

     Remote upgrades over ssh are common for servers. But “Debian” does not restart the network… the network-manager package might be (it’s not really designed to be upgraded), but then it’s only installed when you install the desktop profile.

     I advise you to not use network-manager on any server.

     • Jonathan Carter says

       March 15, 2011 at 4:56 pm

       It would also be advisable to run an upgrade that’s taking place over ssh in a screen session. That way, if you lose the connection for whatever reason, the upgrade won’t be interrupted.

     • J Dempsey says

       March 15, 2011 at 5:12 pm

       Looking back at the script output, it was the NetworkManager that restarted the network.

7. eric says

   March 15, 2011 at 9:56 pm

   The unofficial firmware-netinst image for amd64 detected my wireless card, but could not locate any nearby networks (there are plenty). Oh well, time to dig that ethernet cable out of the attic.

   • Raphaël Hertzog says

     March 15, 2011 at 11:30 pm

     Squeeze’s installer unfortunately lacks WPA support so that may explains it. It’s one of the first feature implemented in wheezy’s debian-installer.

8. Justin says

   March 19, 2011 at 6:50 pm

   Honestly, the only “non-free” drivers I like to have are the broadcom-wl drivers so that my wireless card will work. I found a page that explained how to get it enabled and I’m happy to go now.

9. Mike Harden says

   March 25, 2011 at 10:02 pm

   Dumb question – do I have to generate a new initramfs after installing the non-free driver? I got the warning during a squeeze kernel update. I found the drivers and installed them and was just wondering if I need to run update-initramfs manually.

   • Raphaël Hertzog says

     March 26, 2011 at 9:01 am

     If you need the firmware for the early boot to work, yes, otherwise no. Just run update-initramfs -u or even update-initramfs -u -k all.

10. Frank says

    April 12, 2011 at 1:17 am

    Nice article, I feel like I learned a lot from reading it.

    Perhaps you could expand on this subject in a second article covering USB installs.

    I recently installed squeeze on a machine with a broken cd drive. To use the wireless card, I needed the package firmware-iwlwifi. After struggling to get the standard installer to find the package, I found the non-official installer image on the Debian site (which worked like a charm).

11. nord says

    June 15, 2011 at 10:15 am

    http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/cd-including-firmware/

    Just download and install from a “unofficial” release with firmware included
    No more firmware worries for noobs