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Install the wifi, bluetooth and audio-DSP firmware #3

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sebastian merged 1 commit from wifi-audio-firmware into recommends-and-forge-clis 2026-08-23 11:28:44 +02:00
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sebastian commented 2026-08-23 11:25:44 +02:00
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Stacked on #2 — base is recommends-and-forge-clis, so review that one first; this diff is one line plus comments. Retarget to main if #2 merges first.

The problem

firmware-linux pulls firmware-misc-nonfree and firmware-amd-graphics, and with recommends on (#2) also the intel/mediatek/nvidia graphics blobs. Nothing in the image — depends or recommends — pulls any wifi firmware. A laptop booting this image comes up with no network until it is plugged into ethernet, on an image whose apt-sources.sh enables non-free-firmware with the comment that it is there so wifi comes up.

os3 never had to think about this: Fedora has a single linux-firmware package and the whole tree arrives with the base image. Debian splits it per vendor, so it has to be named.

What is added

package size covers
firmware-iwlwifi 111 MiB Intel wifi, and Intel bluetooth
firmware-atheros 95 MiB ath9k/ath10k/ath11k, and QCA bluetooth
firmware-sof-signed 34 MiB Intel SOF audio DSP — modern laptops are silent without it
firmware-realtek 19 MiB RTL wifi, bluetooth, ethernet
firmware-brcm80211 18 MiB Broadcom wifi and bluetooth
firmware-cirrus 5 MiB Cirrus smart amps (recent Dell/Lenovo)
firmware-intel-sound 4 MiB pre-SOF Intel audio DSP

+7 packages, +286 MiB. Verified with apt-get --simulate against the trixie indices: nothing else is added, and nothing is displaced.

Why not all of non-free-firmware

Installing every firmware-* in the component would be ~944 MiB. The difference is almost entirely hardware this image will never see: enterprise NICs (firmware-netronome 141 MiB, firmware-marvell-prestera 59 MiB, bnx2x, qlogic, myricom), and firmware-qcom-soc at 298 MiB of Qualcomm SoC blobs for machines an amd64 image cannot boot on.

The seven above are the x86 laptop and desktop paths. If you would rather trade the size for never thinking about it again, the alternative is one firmware-linux-nonfree-style catch-all — but Debian does not ship one that means "all of it", so it would be an explicit list either way.

Testing

Not built. Resolution verified against the archive; nothing booted.

Stacked on #2 — base is `recommends-and-forge-clis`, so review that one first; this diff is one line plus comments. Retarget to `main` if #2 merges first. ## The problem `firmware-linux` pulls `firmware-misc-nonfree` and `firmware-amd-graphics`, and with recommends on (#2) also the intel/mediatek/nvidia graphics blobs. Nothing in the image — depends or recommends — pulls any **wifi** firmware. A laptop booting this image comes up with no network until it is plugged into ethernet, on an image whose `apt-sources.sh` enables `non-free-firmware` with the comment that it is there so wifi comes up. os3 never had to think about this: Fedora has a single `linux-firmware` package and the whole tree arrives with the base image. Debian splits it per vendor, so it has to be named. ## What is added | package | size | covers | | --- | --- | --- | | `firmware-iwlwifi` | 111 MiB | Intel wifi, and Intel bluetooth | | `firmware-atheros` | 95 MiB | ath9k/ath10k/ath11k, and QCA bluetooth | | `firmware-sof-signed` | 34 MiB | Intel SOF audio DSP — modern laptops are silent without it | | `firmware-realtek` | 19 MiB | RTL wifi, bluetooth, ethernet | | `firmware-brcm80211` | 18 MiB | Broadcom wifi and bluetooth | | `firmware-cirrus` | 5 MiB | Cirrus smart amps (recent Dell/Lenovo) | | `firmware-intel-sound` | 4 MiB | pre-SOF Intel audio DSP | **+7 packages, +286 MiB.** Verified with `apt-get --simulate` against the trixie indices: nothing else is added, and nothing is displaced. ## Why not all of non-free-firmware Installing every `firmware-*` in the component would be ~944 MiB. The difference is almost entirely hardware this image will never see: enterprise NICs (`firmware-netronome` 141 MiB, `firmware-marvell-prestera` 59 MiB, bnx2x, qlogic, myricom), and `firmware-qcom-soc` at 298 MiB of Qualcomm SoC blobs for machines an amd64 image cannot boot on. The seven above are the x86 laptop and desktop paths. If you would rather trade the size for never thinking about it again, the alternative is one `firmware-linux-nonfree`-style catch-all — but Debian does not ship one that means "all of it", so it would be an explicit list either way. ## Testing Not built. Resolution verified against the archive; nothing booted.
Install the wifi, bluetooth and audio-DSP firmware
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3a5f344972
 
firmware-linux pulls only firmware-misc-nonfree and firmware-amd-graphics,
and with recommends on, the intel/mediatek/nvidia graphics blobs. Nothing in
the image recommends the wifi firmware, so a laptop booting this had no
network until it was plugged in -- on an image whose apt-sources.sh enables
non-free-firmware specifically so that wifi comes up.

Fedora has one linux-firmware package, so os3 never had to name any of this.
Debian splits the tree per vendor, so it gets named:

  firmware-iwlwifi       111 MiB  Intel wifi + Intel bluetooth
  firmware-atheros        95 MiB  ath9k/10k/11k + QCA bluetooth
  firmware-sof-signed      34 MiB  Intel SOF audio DSP
  firmware-realtek         19 MiB  RTL wifi/bluetooth/ethernet
  firmware-brcm80211       18 MiB  Broadcom wifi/bluetooth
  firmware-cirrus           5 MiB  Cirrus smart amps
  firmware-intel-sound      4 MiB  pre-SOF Intel audio DSP

+7 packages, +286 MiB, verified against the trixie indices with apt
--simulate; no other package is added or displaced.

Not "every firmware-* in non-free-firmware": that is ~944 MiB, and the bulk
of it is enterprise NICs plus firmware-qcom-soc, 298 MiB of Qualcomm SoC
blobs for machines this amd64 image cannot boot on.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01FTfEFdtzmNidPVTQ6X5bLK
sebastian merged commit 3a5f344972 into recommends-and-forge-clis 2026-08-23 11:28:44 +02:00
sebastian deleted branch wifi-audio-firmware 2026-08-23 11:28:44 +02:00
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