Re: Manually add firmware (or other) packages for installation?

On 2/27/21 12:12 AM, Holger Wansing wrote:
>> Could you link to one or more of those bug reports so I can get an
>> assessment of the situation myself?
> 
> https://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2021/02/msg00268.html
> https://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2020/12/msg00026.html
> https://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2021/01/msg00001.html
> https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=971871
> 
> An older one:
> https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=921861
> 
> And there was a huge discussion on debian-devel in January regarding 
> firmware/nonfree etc., starting here:
> https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2021/01/msg00151.html

I'm not going to read through that huge thread now.

Was there any consensus from actual DDs who favored this solution?

>> Wouldn't that be a policy violation? If the regular installer enables non-free
>> sources, I would consider those installer images to be not DFSG-compliant.
> 
> Don't know. Not a lawyer/policy specialist here.
> Functionality exists for ages in the installer though...

The point is: We separate free and non-free images for a very reason and if
you add a mechanism that just silently enables non-free on a system that
was installed with the free installer, you are defeating this separation.

The firmware issue isn't new and the stance has always been that we separate
free and non-free installers for a very reason. People that use the free installers
expect that the system installed contains DFSG-compatible components only.

A user wants all firmware to be available after installation, they are advised
to use the non-free firmware installers.

Adrian