Groups | Search | Server Info | Keyboard shortcuts | Login | Register [http] [https] [nntp] [nntps]

Groups > linux.debian.kernel > #85065 > unrolled thread

Bug#1092603: Please enable firmware Zstd compression

Back to article view | Back to linux.debian.kernel

Contents

  Bug#1092603: Please enable firmware Zstd compression Raul Tambre <raul@tambre.ee> - 2025-01-09 17:20 +0100
    Bug#1092603: Please enable firmware Zstd compression "Diederik de Haas" <didi.debian@cknow.org> - 2025-02-18 16:50 +0100
      Bug#1092603: Please enable firmware Zstd compression Raul Tambre <raul@tambre.ee> - 2025-02-18 17:30 +0100
        Bug#1092603: Please enable firmware Zstd compression Salvatore Bonaccorso <carnil@debian.org> - 2025-02-18 17:40 +0100
        Bug#1092603: Please enable firmware Zstd compression "Diederik de Haas" <didi.debian@cknow.org> - 2025-02-18 18:00 +0100
          Bug#1092603: Please enable firmware Zstd compression Raul Tambre <raul@tambre.ee> - 2025-02-18 19:40 +0100

#85065 — Bug#1092603: Please enable firmware Zstd compression

Source: linux-signed-amd64
Version: 6.12.8+1
Severity: wishlist

Dear maintainer,

Please enable FW_LOADER_COMPRESS_ZSTD.
Support for Zstd firmware files was enabled in initramfs-tools=0.143 after bug #1019412.
With default settings the compression time for Zstd vs Xz is 8s vs 135s for a difference of only ~50MB.
Which for me is the difference between "makes sense" and "too annoying to bother".

[toc] | [next] | [standalone]

#85551

[Multipart message — attachments visible in raw view] — view raw

On Thu Jan 9, 2025 at 5:08 PM CET, Raul Tambre wrote:
> Source: linux-signed-amd64
> Version: 6.12.8+1
> Severity: wishlist
>
> Dear maintainer,
>
> Please enable FW_LOADER_COMPRESS_ZSTD.
> Support for Zstd firmware files was enabled in initramfs-tools=0.143 after bug #1019412.
> With default settings the compression time for Zstd vs Xz is 8s vs 135s for a difference of only ~50MB.
> Which for me is the difference between "makes sense" and "too annoying to bother".

I think 50MB is quite a lot. Compression of the firmware happens once
(on Debian server(s)) and then 'everyone' downloads the compressed
archive. Making 'everyone' download 50MB more *per packaged version* is
not something to sneeze about IMO.

Or am I missing something?

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#85558

In my case I have to install firmware from linux-firmware myself due to having very new hardware.
So not directly applicable to Debian's own shipped firmware but for some users it's still relevant.
This actually has been enabled in <https://salsa.debian.org/kernel-team/linux/-/commit/dfee9b4caabb60d008616f0a2875d069d4c82ea2> but the closer was missed before the 6.13.3-1~exp1 upload.

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#85561

Hi,

On Tue, Feb 18, 2025 at 06:19:40PM +0200, Raul Tambre wrote:
> In my case I have to install firmware from linux-firmware myself due to having very new hardware.
> So not directly applicable to Debian's own shipped firmware but for some users it's still relevant.
> This actually has been enabled in <https://salsa.debian.org/kernel-team/linux/-/commit/dfee9b4caabb60d008616f0a2875d069d4c82ea2> but the closer was missed before the 6.13.3-1~exp1 upload.

Thanks, I have updated the Debian bug metadata.

Regards,
Salvatore

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#85563

[Multipart message — attachments visible in raw view] — view raw

On Tue Feb 18, 2025 at 5:19 PM CET, Raul Tambre wrote:
> In my case I have to install firmware from linux-firmware myself due
> to having very new hardware.  So not directly applicable to Debian's
> own shipped firmware but for some users it's still relevant.  This
> actually has been enabled in
> <https://salsa.debian.org/kernel-team/linux/-/commit/dfee9b4caabb60d008616f0a2875d069d4c82ea2>
> but the closer was missed before the 6.13.3-1~exp1 upload.

I think it's useful to enable FW_LOADER_COMPRESS_ZSTD which seems a bit
of a misnomer as it supports loading (=decompressing?) zstd compressed
archives.

My issue was that I think 50MB larger compressed archives, is a
significant increase and the (only?) benefit is that *compression* is
much faster (but that only needs to be done once).
Next to the additional distribution costs, I think we should also keep
in mind that not everyone has a 1Gb+ unmetered internet connection.

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#85566

On Tue, 2025-02-18 at 17:43 +0100, Diederik de Haas wrote:
> On Tue Feb 18, 2025 at 5:19 PM CET, Raul Tambre wrote:
> > In my case I have to install firmware from linux-firmware myself due
> > to having very new hardware.  So not directly applicable to Debian's
> > own shipped firmware but for some users it's still relevant.  This
> > actually has been enabled in
> > <https://salsa.debian.org/kernel-team/linux/-/commit/dfee9b4caabb60d008616f0a2875d069d4c82ea2>
> > but the closer was missed before the 6.13.3-1~exp1 upload.
> 
> I think it's useful to enable FW_LOADER_COMPRESS_ZSTD which seems a bit
> of a misnomer as it supports loading (=decompressing?) zstd compressed
> archives.
> 
> My issue was that I think 50MB larger compressed archives, is a
> significant increase and the (only?) benefit is that *compression* is
> much faster (but that only needs to be done once).
> Next to the additional distribution costs, I think we should also keep
> in mind that not everyone has a 1Gb+ unmetered internet connection.

The shortening of "compress" to "compression" can indeed be a bit confusing.

Note that firmware files shipped by Debian are uncompressed, sans the
compression of the .deb itself. initramfs-tools already defaults to Zstd,
but that's for the initramfs image itself. This is really only relevant if
you're looking to compress the firmware files as unpacked on the disk.

On faster systems with sufficient RAM you'd probably still prefer Zstd
despite the size increase due to the significantly faster decompression.
Note that the 50 MB was the total increase for all firmware files in
linux-firmware, which total some 1.9 GB.

Raul

[toc] | [prev] | [standalone]

Back to top | Article view | linux.debian.kernel

csiph-web