Re: Free Software DVD contains non-free firmware

Hi,

Philip Hands wrote:
> While looking at the FSF site, I noticed this somewhat amusing method
> for reconciling these two stances:
>  https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/install-fest-devil.html

Typically Stallman:

  "My new idea is that the install fest could allow the devil to hang
   around, off in a corner of the hall, or the next room. (Actually, a
   human being wearing sign saying 'The Devil,' and maybe a toy mask or
   horns.) The devil would offer to install nonfree drivers [...]"


> but I'm afraid I've no idea how one could implement something equivalent
> in the medium of downloadable images.

Andrew M.A. Cater wrote:
> > You can pass various parameters to the installer: you can also uninstall
> > the non-free firmware after installation -

So one could explain and advertise to organizers of install fests how
to instruct the installer to ignore non-free firmware.
Or an imposter of archangel Michael could offer to eradicate any impurity
as last step of the installation (possibly after making a first backup).


Philip Hands wrote:
> I'm sure if we had a tool for converting "+firmware" to "pure" images,

As GNU maintainer of xorriso i am probably obliged to help with the
purification of Debian ISOs, if there is real interest.
The main open problem which i see in this regard is the list of develish
packages which shall be removed.

Would /firmware/Contents-firmware with the third word in each line tell
what is non-free ? In debian-12.0.0-amd64-netinst.iso i see lines like:
  /lib/firmware/ath9k_htc/htc_9271-1.4.0.fw               firmware-ath9k-htc_1.4.0-108-gd856466+dfsg1-1.3_all.deb main
  /lib/firmware/amd/amd_sev_fam17h_model0xh.sbin          amd64-microcode_3.20230414.1_amd64.deb non-free-firmware

Is all non-free firmware under /pool confined in /pool/non-free-firmware ?
(Is all firmware under /firmare mirrored under /pool ?)

If so, then one could remove the develish files from the various content
lists and re-pack the ISO with updated content lists and removed files.
This is probably not more complicated than merging debian-cd ISOs by
  https://dev.lovelyhq.com/libburnia/libisoburn/raw/master/test/merge_debian_isos
as described in
  https://wiki.debian.org/MergeDebianIsos

(It seems that /firmware/Contents-firmware should be merged, too.
Now i wonder why this did not hamper the use of the resulting amd64 ISOs.
Is it not used by any program ?)


> I would expect the FSF to be
> almost exactly as grumpy even if "pure" images were easily available.

A do-it-yourself purifier program would not bring Debian on the FSF list
of free distros. But it would help with posing as install fest devil.

People who want to organize such a fest are entitled to ask me for
support.


Have a nice day :)

Thomas