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non-free software requirement

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  non-free software requirement Steve Greig <greigsteve@gmail.com> - 2016-12-07 12:20 +0100
    Re: non-free software requirement Santiago Vila <sanvila@debian.org> - 2016-12-07 16:10 +0100
    Re: non-free software requirement Yvan Masson <yvan.masson@openmailbox.org> - 2016-12-07 16:50 +0100
    Re: non-free software requirement Henrique de Moraes Holschuh <hmh@debian.org> - 2016-12-07 23:10 +0100
      Re: non-free software requirement Steve Greig <greigsteve@gmail.com> - 2016-12-08 00:20 +0100
        Re: non-free software requirement Yvan Masson <yvan.masson@openmailbox.org> - 2016-12-08 20:40 +0100
          Re: non-free software requirement Mark Fletcher <mark27q1@gmail.com> - 2016-12-09 00:50 +0100
            Re: non-free software requirement Henrique de Moraes Holschuh <hmh@debian.org> - 2016-12-09 01:50 +0100
            Re: non-free software requirement Pascal Hambourg <pascal@plouf.fr.eu.org> - 2016-12-09 21:00 +0100

#175502 — non-free software requirement

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When I installed debian I got a message saying my computer (emachines
laptop AMD Athlon X2 64bit) needed some non-free software. The names of the
software were given although I did not record the names. I decided to go
ahead without the non-free software as I would have needed it on a media
and I had no easy way of getting it then. Everything is working pretty well
and I am tempted to continue without the non-free software. However, I
wondered what it might be for. The fan seems to be on more than usual and
also I have to manually increase the screen brightness every time I turn
the computer on so I guess it could be something to do with that.

I would appreciate any advice on this. Is it possible to run a test to see
what that software was and install it now. Although I would prefer not have
any non-free software I would have it if it was something quite important
such as controlling the fan.

Steve

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#175512

On Wed, Dec 07, 2016 at 11:11:29AM +0000, Steve Greig wrote:
> When I installed debian I got a message saying my computer (emachines
> laptop AMD Athlon X2 64bit) needed some non-free software. The names of the
> software were given although I did not record the names. I decided to go
> ahead without the non-free software as I would have needed it on a media
> and I had no easy way of getting it then. Everything is working pretty well
> and I am tempted to continue without the non-free software. However, I
> wondered what it might be for. The fan seems to be on more than usual and
> also I have to manually increase the screen brightness every time I turn
> the computer on so I guess it could be something to do with that.

Hi.

If the message was shown during the install, chances are that the non-free software
it was talking about was some kind of firmware.

Try looking at /var/log. Very often, when some piece of hardware "needs" firmware
the kernel usually attempts to load it.

Hope this helps.

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#175515

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Hi,

> I would appreciate any advice on this. Is it possible to run a test
> to see what that software was and install it now. Although I would
> prefer not have any non-free software I would have it if it was
> something quite important such as controlling the fan.

As said Santiago Vila, it is probably a missing firmware (I don't think
the installer can warn form something else). One way to find which one
is to run the "dmesg" command (needs root since linux 4.7), and to
search for the word "firmware":

# dmesg | grep firmware

Could you give the result of this command?

Yvan

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#175533

On Wed, 07 Dec 2016, Steve Greig wrote:
> When I installed debian I got a message saying my computer (emachines
> laptop AMD Athlon X2 64bit) needed some non-free software. The names of the

The output of "lspci" and cat "/proc/cpuinfo" would tell us a lot more.

I don't recall the name of the hardware detection suite used by the
installer right now, but someone else hopefully will and will reply with
that information to this thread :-)

-- 
  Henrique Holschuh

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#175537

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Thanks for your help. Responses to your suggestions are given below.

Ben Finney: Detect network hardware.
Some of your hardware needs non-free firmware files to operate. The
firmware can be loaded from removable media, such as a USB stick or floppy.
The missing firmware files are: b43/ucode15.fw b43/ucode15.fw
b43-open/ucode15.fw b43-open/ucode15.fw
If you have such media available now, insert it, and continue.
Load missing firmware from removable media?
NO
Yes

Santiago Vila: not quite sure what I am looking for in /var/log. Doing a ls
on that directory gives the following:
root@mylaptop:/var/log# ls
alternatives.log  cups          dpkg.log    fontconfig.log    kern.log
popularity-contest      syslog       user.log
apt          daemon.log  exim4    fsck        lastlog
popularity-contest.0      syslog.1     wtmp
auth.log      debug       faillog    hp        lightdm
popularity-contest.gpg  syslog.2.gz  Xorg.0.log
btmp          dmesg       firebird    installer    messages
speech-dispatcher      syslog.3.gz  Xorg.0.log.old

Yvan Masson: I got the following:
root@mylaptop:~# dmesg | grep firmware
[   17.356396] b43 ssb0:0: firmware: failed to load b43/ucode15.fw (-2)
[   17.356487] b43 ssb0:0: Direct firmware load failed with error -2
[   17.357131] b43 ssb0:0: firmware: failed to load b43/ucode15.fw (-2)
[   17.357219] b43 ssb0:0: Direct firmware load failed with error -2
[   17.357980] b43 ssb0:0: firmware: failed to load b43-open/ucode15.fw (-2)
[   17.358072] b43 ssb0:0: Direct firmware load failed with error -2
[   17.358674] b43 ssb0:0: firmware: failed to load b43-open/ucode15.fw (-2)
[   17.358766] b43 ssb0:0: Direct firmware load failed with error -2
[   17.359404] b43-phy0 ERROR: You must go to http://wireless.kernel.org/en/
users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware and download the correct firmware for this
driver version. Please carefully read all instructions on this website.

Henrique de Moraes...
root@mylaptop:~# lspci
00:00.0 RAM memory: NVIDIA Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] Memory
Controller (rev a2)
00:01.0 ISA bridge: NVIDIA Corporation Device 075e (rev a2)
00:01.1 SMBus: NVIDIA Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] SMBus (rev a1)
00:01.3 Co-processor: NVIDIA Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] Co-Processor
(rev a2)
00:01.4 RAM memory: NVIDIA Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] Memory
Controller (rev a1)
00:02.0 USB controller: NVIDIA Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] OHCI USB
1.1 Controller (rev a1)
00:02.1 USB controller: NVIDIA Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] EHCI USB
2.0 Controller (rev a1)
00:04.0 USB controller: NVIDIA Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] OHCI USB
1.1 Controller (rev a1)
00:04.1 USB controller: NVIDIA Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] EHCI USB
2.0 Controller (rev a1)
00:07.0 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation MCP72XE/MCP72P/MCP78U/MCP78S High
Definition Audio (rev a1)
00:08.0 PCI bridge: NVIDIA Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] PCI Bridge
(rev a1)
00:09.0 SATA controller: NVIDIA Corporation Device 0ad5 (rev a2)
00:0b.0 PCI bridge: NVIDIA Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] PCI Express
Bridge (rev a1)
00:13.0 PCI bridge: NVIDIA Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] PCI Bridge
(rev a1)
00:14.0 PCI bridge: NVIDIA Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] PCI Bridge
(rev a1)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 11h
Processor HyperTransport Configuration (rev 40)
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 11h
Processor Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 11h
Processor DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 11h
Processor Miscellaneous Control
00:18.4 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 11h
Processor Link Control
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation C77 [GeForce 9100M G]
(rev a2)
08:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY
(rev 01)
09:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5764M
Gigabit Ethernet PCIe (rev 10)

root@mylaptop:~# cat "/proc/cpuinfo"
processor    : 0
vendor_id    : AuthenticAMD
cpu family    : 17
model        : 3
model name    : AMD Athlon(tm) X2 Dual-Core QL-62
stepping    : 1
microcode    : 0x2000032
cpu MHz        : 1000.000
cache size    : 512 KB
physical id    : 0
siblings    : 2
core id        : 0
cpu cores    : 2
apicid        : 0
initial apicid    : 0
fpu        : yes
fpu_exception    : yes
cpuid level    : 1
wp        : yes
flags        : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca
cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt
rdtscp lm 3dnowext 3dnow constant_tsc rep_good nopl nonstop_tsc extd_apicid
pni cx16 lahf_lm cmp_legacy svm extapic cr8_legacy 3dnowprefetch osvw
skinit hw_pstate lbrv svm_lock nrip_save vmmcall
bogomips    : 3999.64
TLB size    : 1024 4K pages
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment    : 64
address sizes    : 40 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management: ts ttp tm stc 100mhzsteps hwpstate

processor    : 1
vendor_id    : AuthenticAMD
cpu family    : 17
model        : 3
model name    : AMD Athlon(tm) X2 Dual-Core QL-62
stepping    : 1
microcode    : 0x2000032
cpu MHz        : 2000.000
cache size    : 512 KB
physical id    : 0
siblings    : 2
core id        : 1
cpu cores    : 2
apicid        : 1
initial apicid    : 1
fpu        : yes
fpu_exception    : yes
cpuid level    : 1
wp        : yes
flags        : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca
cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt
rdtscp lm 3dnowext 3dnow constant_tsc rep_good nopl nonstop_tsc extd_apicid
pni cx16 lahf_lm cmp_legacy svm extapic cr8_legacy 3dnowprefetch osvw
skinit hw_pstate lbrv svm_lock nrip_save vmmcall
bogomips    : 3999.64
TLB size    : 1024 4K pages
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment    : 64
address sizes    : 40 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management: ts ttp tm stc 100mhzsteps hwpstate

root@mylaptop:~# cat /var/log
cat: /var/log: Is a directory
root@mylaptop:~# cd var
-su: cd: var: No such file or directory
root@mylaptop:~# ls
root@mylaptop:~# pwd
/root
root@mylaptop:~# cd /
root@mylaptop:/# ls
bin  boot  dev    etc  home  initrd.img  lib  lib64  lost+found  media
mnt  opt    proc  root  run  sbin  srv  sys  tmp  usr  var    vmlinuz
root@mylaptop:/# cd var
root@mylaptop:/var# ls
backups  cache    lib  local  lock  log  mail  opt  run  spool  tmp
root@mylaptop:/var# cd log
root@mylaptop:/var/log# ls
alternatives.log  cups          dpkg.log    fontconfig.log    kern.log
popularity-contest      syslog       user.log
apt          daemon.log  exim4    fsck        lastlog
popularity-contest.0      syslog.1     wtmp
auth.log      debug       faillog    hp        lightdm
popularity-contest.gpg  syslog.2.gz  Xorg.0.log
btmp          dmesg       firebird    installer    messages
speech-dispatcher      syslog.3.gz  Xorg.0.log.old



On Wed, Dec 7, 2016 at 10:08 PM, Henrique de Moraes Holschuh <hmh@debian.org
> wrote:

> On Wed, 07 Dec 2016, Steve Greig wrote:
> > When I installed debian I got a message saying my computer (emachines
> > laptop AMD Athlon X2 64bit) needed some non-free software. The names of
> the
>
> The output of "lspci" and cat "/proc/cpuinfo" would tell us a lot more.
>
> I don't recall the name of the hardware detection suite used by the
> installer right now, but someone else hopefully will and will reply with
> that information to this thread :-)
>
> --
>   Henrique Holschuh
>
>

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#175572

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So, from the result of:
  # dmesg | grep firmware
-> you know that kernel module "b43" is missing some firmware
(ucode15.fw)

After enabling contrib and non-free repository, you can search for
related packages:
  $ apt search b43
This lists interesting packages: "firmware-b43-installer" and
"firmware-b43legacy-installer".

Next run:
  $ apt show firmware-b43-installer
and
  $ apt show firmware-b43legacy-installer
-> this show that these packages are useful for different chipsets, so
you need to know which one is in you laptop.

As pointed Henrique de Moraes, you can run "lspci" for that:
…
Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY (rev
01)
…

So, finally, if you see that this device is not working well, you can
install "firmware-b43-installer" :-)

Then reboot you computer to check that errors from dmesg have
disappeared.

Cheers,
Yvan


Le mercredi 07 décembre 2016 à 23:19 +0000, Steve Greig a écrit :
> Thanks for your help. Responses to your suggestions are given below.
> 
> Ben Finney: Detect network hardware.
> Some of your hardware needs non-free firmware files to operate. The
> firmware can be loaded from removable media, such as a USB stick or
> floppy.
> The missing firmware files are: b43/ucode15.fw b43/ucode15.fw b43-
> open/ucode15.fw b43-open/ucode15.fw
> If you have such media available now, insert it, and continue.
> Load missing firmware from removable media?
> NO
> Yes
> 
> Santiago Vila: not quite sure what I am looking for in /var/log.
> Doing a ls on that directory gives the following:
> root@mylaptop:/var/log# ls
> alternatives.log  cups          dpkg.log    fontconfig.log   
> kern.log  popularity-contest      syslog       user.log
> apt          daemon.log  exim4    fsck        lastlog   popularity-
> contest.0      syslog.1     wtmp
> auth.log      debug       faillog    hp        lightdm   popularity-
> contest.gpg  syslog.2.gz  Xorg.0.log
> btmp          dmesg       firebird    installer    messages  speech-
> dispatcher      syslog.3.gz  Xorg.0.log.old
> 
> Yvan Masson: I got the following:
> root@mylaptop:~# dmesg | grep firmware
> [   17.356396] b43 ssb0:0: firmware: failed to load b43/ucode15.fw (-
> 2)
> [   17.356487] b43 ssb0:0: Direct firmware load failed with error -2
> [   17.357131] b43 ssb0:0: firmware: failed to load b43/ucode15.fw (-
> 2)
> [   17.357219] b43 ssb0:0: Direct firmware load failed with error -2
> [   17.357980] b43 ssb0:0: firmware: failed to load b43-
> open/ucode15.fw (-2)
> [   17.358072] b43 ssb0:0: Direct firmware load failed with error -2
> [   17.358674] b43 ssb0:0: firmware: failed to load b43-
> open/ucode15.fw (-2)
> [   17.358766] b43 ssb0:0: Direct firmware load failed with error -2
> [   17.359404] b43-phy0 ERROR: You must go to http://wireless.kernel.
> org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware and download the correct
> firmware for this driver version. Please carefully read all
> instructions on this website.
> 
> Henrique de Moraes... 
> root@mylaptop:~# lspci
> 00:00.0 RAM memory: NVIDIA Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] Memory
> Controller (rev a2)
> 00:01.0 ISA bridge: NVIDIA Corporation Device 075e (rev a2)
> 00:01.1 SMBus: NVIDIA Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] SMBus (rev
> a1)
> 00:01.3 Co-processor: NVIDIA Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] Co-
> Processor (rev a2)
> 00:01.4 RAM memory: NVIDIA Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] Memory
> Controller (rev a1)
> 00:02.0 USB controller: NVIDIA Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] OHCI
> USB 1.1 Controller (rev a1)
> 00:02.1 USB controller: NVIDIA Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] EHCI
> USB 2.0 Controller (rev a1)
> 00:04.0 USB controller: NVIDIA Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] OHCI
> USB 1.1 Controller (rev a1)
> 00:04.1 USB controller: NVIDIA Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] EHCI
> USB 2.0 Controller (rev a1)
> 00:07.0 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation MCP72XE/MCP72P/MCP78U/MCP78S
> High Definition Audio (rev a1)
> 00:08.0 PCI bridge: NVIDIA Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] PCI
> Bridge (rev a1)
> 00:09.0 SATA controller: NVIDIA Corporation Device 0ad5 (rev a2)
> 00:0b.0 PCI bridge: NVIDIA Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] PCI
> Express Bridge (rev a1)
> 00:13.0 PCI bridge: NVIDIA Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] PCI
> Bridge (rev a1)
> 00:14.0 PCI bridge: NVIDIA Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] PCI
> Bridge (rev a1)
> 00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 11h
> Processor HyperTransport Configuration (rev 40)
> 00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 11h
> Processor Address Map
> 00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 11h
> Processor DRAM Controller
> 00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 11h
> Processor Miscellaneous Control
> 00:18.4 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 11h
> Processor Link Control
> 02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation C77 [GeForce
> 9100M G] (rev a2)
> 08:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g
> LP-PHY (rev 01)controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5764M
> Gigabit Ethernet PCIe (rev 10)
> 
> root@mylaptop:~# cat "/proc/cpuinfo"
> processor    : 0
> vendor_id    : AuthenticAMD
> cpu family    : 17
> model        : 3
> model name    : AMD Athlon(tm) X2 Dual-Core QL-62
> stepping    : 1
> microcode    : 0x2000032
> cpu MHz        : 1000.000
> cache size    : 512 KB
> physical id    : 0
> siblings    : 2
> core id        : 0
> cpu cores    : 2
> apicid        : 0
> initial apicid    : 0
> fpu        : yes
> fpu_exception    : yes
> cpuid level    : 1
> wp        : yes
> flags        : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge
> mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext
> fxsr_opt rdtscp lm 3dnowext 3dnow constant_tsc rep_good nopl
> nonstop_tsc extd_apicid pni cx16 lahf_lm cmp_legacy svm extapic
> cr8_legacy 3dnowprefetch osvw skinit hw_pstate lbrv svm_lock
> nrip_save vmmcall
> bogomips    : 3999.64
> TLB size    : 1024 4K pages
> clflush size    : 64
> cache_alignment    : 64
> address sizes    : 40 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
> power management: ts ttp tm stc 100mhzsteps hwpstate
> 
> processor    : 1
> vendor_id    : AuthenticAMD
> cpu family    : 17
> model        : 3
> model name    : AMD Athlon(tm) X2 Dual-Core QL-62
> stepping    : 1
> microcode    : 0x2000032
> cpu MHz        : 2000.000
> cache size    : 512 KB
> physical id    : 0
> siblings    : 2
> core id        : 1
> cpu cores    : 2
> apicid        : 1
> initial apicid    : 1
> fpu        : yes
> fpu_exception    : yes
> cpuid level    : 1
> wp        : yes
> flags        : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge
> mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext
> fxsr_opt rdtscp lm 3dnowext 3dnow constant_tsc rep_good nopl
> nonstop_tsc extd_apicid pni cx16 lahf_lm cmp_legacy svm extapic
> cr8_legacy 3dnowprefetch osvw skinit hw_pstate lbrv svm_lock
> nrip_save vmmcall
> bogomips    : 3999.64
> TLB size    : 1024 4K pages
> clflush size    : 64
> cache_alignment    : 64
> address sizes    : 40 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
> power management: ts ttp tm stc 100mhzsteps hwpstate
> 
> root@mylaptop:~# cat /var/log
> cat: /var/log: Is a directory
> root@mylaptop:~# cd var
> -su: cd: var: No such file or directory
> root@mylaptop:~# ls
> root@mylaptop:~# pwd
> /root
> root@mylaptop:~# cd /
> root@mylaptop:/# ls
> bin  boot  dev    etc  home  initrd.img  lib  lib64  lost+found 
> media  mnt  opt    proc  root  run  sbin  srv  sys  tmp  usr  var   
> vmlinuz
> root@mylaptop:/# cd var
> root@mylaptop:/var# ls
> backups  cache    lib  local  lock  log  mail  opt  run  spool  tmp
> root@mylaptop:/var# cd log
> root@mylaptop:/var/log# ls
> alternatives.log  cups          dpkg.log    fontconfig.log   
> kern.log  popularity-contest      syslog       user.log
> apt          daemon.log  exim4    fsck        lastlog   popularity-
> contest.0      syslog.1     wtmp
> auth.log      debug       faillog    hp        lightdm   popularity-
> contest.gpg  syslog.2.gz  Xorg.0.log
> btmp          dmesg       firebird    installer    messages  speech-
> dispatcher      syslog.3.gz  Xorg.0.log.old
> 
> 
> 
> On Wed, Dec 7, 2016 at 10:08 PM, Henrique de Moraes Holschuh <hmh@deb
> ian.org> wrote:
> > On Wed, 07 Dec 2016, Steve Greig wrote:
> > > When I installed debian I got a message saying my computer
> > (emachines
> > > laptop AMD Athlon X2 64bit) needed some non-free software. The
> > names of the
> > 
> > The output of "lspci" and cat "/proc/cpuinfo" would tell us a lot
> > more.
> > 
> > I don't recall the name of the hardware detection suite used by the
> > installer right now, but someone else hopefully will and will reply
> > with
> > that information to this thread :-)
> > 
> > --
> >   Henrique Holschuh
> > 
> > 
> 
> 

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#175575

On Thu, Dec 08, 2016 at 08:34:49PM +0100, Yvan Masson wrote:
> So, from the result of:
>   # dmesg | grep firmware
> -> you know that kernel module "b43" is missing some firmware
> (ucode15.fw)
> 
> After enabling contrib and non-free repository, you can search for
> related packages:
>   $ apt search b43
> This lists interesting packages: "firmware-b43-installer" and
> "firmware-b43legacy-installer".
> 
> Next run:
>   $ apt show firmware-b43-installer
> and
>   $ apt show firmware-b43legacy-installer
> -> this show that these packages are useful for different chipsets, so
> you need to know which one is in you laptop.
> 
> As pointed Henrique de Moraes, you can run "lspci" for that:
> …
> Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY (rev
> 01)
> …
> 
> So, finally, if you see that this device is not working well, you can
> install "firmware-b43-installer" :-)
> 
> Then reboot you computer to check that errors from dmesg have
> disappeared.
> 
All true, BUT... The stock Debian kernel contains a lot of device 
drivers that aren't necessarily needed for your particular setup. This 
is the only way it can work in a large number of different systems. Most 
of these drivers are compiled as modules and hence SHOULD only be 
getting loaded if actually needed, but two things can go wrong with 
that: 1) some drivers, for esoteric reasons, don't work as modules and 
have to be compiled into the kernel image, 2) udev rules may have subtle 
flaws that cause drivers that are not needed to be loaded when hardware 
is detected.

So, if your computer is generally working it's possible that the device 
driver that is complaining about missing firmware is actually a driver 
you don't need... and if that turns out to be the case, you have the 
option to ignore the warnings. The other option is to blacklist the 
device driver module (if it IS a module) to prevent it being loaded -- 
no module load, no complaints.

On my Jessie install, there are several complaints about missing 
firmware for drivers for hardware I don't have... I ignore them. If 
memory were tight I might look into suppressing the drivers from being 
loaded, but it isn't, and the drivers aren't doing any harm, so I ignore 
them on the basis that if I leave them alone, they seem to leave me alone.

Mark

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#175580

On Fri, 09 Dec 2016, Mark Fletcher wrote:
> So, if your computer is generally working it's possible that the device 
> driver that is complaining about missing firmware is actually a driver 
> you don't need... and if that turns out to be the case, you have the 

Not in this case, the BCM43xx network device is right there in his PCIe
bus (lspci output).

-- 
  Henrique Holschuh

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#175590

Le 09/12/2016 à 00:46, Mark Fletcher a écrit :
> that: 1) some drivers, for esoteric reasons, don't work as modules and
> have to be compiled into the kernel image,

AFAIK, none of built-in drivers need any out-of-kernel firmware. How 
could such firmware be loaded before a root filesystem is mounted ?

> 2) udev rules may have subtle
> flaws that cause drivers that are not needed to be loaded when hardware
> is detected.

Any example of unneeded modules loaded by udev ?

> So, if your computer is generally working it's possible that the device
> driver that is complaining about missing firmware is actually a driver
> you don't need...
(...)
> On my Jessie install, there are several complaints about missing
> firmware for drivers for hardware I don't have...

I am very skeptical about this. IME, a driver only asks for a firmware 
if it detects a device which needs it. So even if a driver is loaded 
without any related hardware present, it won't ask for any firmware.

Aren't you confusing with update-initramfs warning messages about 
possibly missing firmwares ? Otherwise, could you give an example of a 
driver module which is loaded and asks for firmware for hardware which 
is not present, and post the related kernel log lines ?

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