Discussion:
Debian Chooses Reasonable, Common Sense Solution ToDealing With Non-Free Firmware - Slashdot
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Ant
2022-10-02 23:40:25 UTC
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https://linux.slashdot.org/story/22/10/02/1650200/debian-chooses-reasonable-common-sense-solution-to-dealing-with-non-free-firmware
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Marco Moock
2022-10-03 10:51:46 UTC
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Post by Ant
https://linux.slashdot.org/story/22/10/02/1650200/debian-chooses-reasonable-common-sense-solution-to-dealing-with-non-free-firmware
If it still possible to opt out in the installer?

PS: Richard Stallman will maybe freak out because of this decision.
Theo
2022-10-06 15:40:13 UTC
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Post by Marco Moock
Post by Ant
https://linux.slashdot.org/story/22/10/02/1650200/debian-chooses-reasonable-common-sense-solution-to-dealing-with-non-free-firmware
If it still possible to opt out in the installer?
Yes:


"The Debian Social Contract is replaced with a new version that is identical
to the current version in all respects except that it adds the following
sentence to the end of point 5:

The Debian official media may include firmware that is otherwise not
part of the Debian system to enable use of Debian with hardware that
requires such firmware.

The Debian Project also makes the following statement on an issue of the day:

We will include non-free firmware packages from the "non-free-firmware"
section of the Debian archive on our official media (installer images and
live images). The included firmware binaries will normally be enabled by
default where the system determines that they are required, but where
possible we will include ways for users to disable this at boot (boot menu
option, kernel command line etc.).

When the installer/live system is running we will provide information to the
user about what firmware has been loaded (both free and non-free), and we
will also store that information on the target system such that users will
be able to find it later. Where non-free firmware is found to be necessary,
the target system will also be configured to use the non-free-firmware
component by default in the apt sources.list file. Our users should receive
security updates and important fixes to firmware binaries just like any
other installed software.

We will publish these images as official Debian media, replacing the current
media sets that do not include non-free firmware packages."
Marco Moock
2022-10-06 18:41:24 UTC
Permalink
Post by Theo
The included firmware binaries will normally be enabled by
default where the system determines that they are required, but where
possible we will include ways for users to disable this at boot (boot
menu option, kernel command line etc.).
This doesn't sound good for me. Why don't they ask a question when the
installer detects that non-free firmware is needed instead of creating
a difficult way with boot options?
Richard Kettlewell
2022-10-06 19:46:57 UTC
Permalink
Post by Marco Moock
Post by Theo
The included firmware binaries will normally be enabled by
default where the system determines that they are required, but where
possible we will include ways for users to disable this at boot (boot
menu option, kernel command line etc.).
This doesn't sound good for me. Why don't they ask a question when the
installer detects that non-free firmware is needed instead of creating
a difficult way with boot options?
Why bother, when almost nobody would use the option? Suppressing
non-free firmware on hardware that needs it is a niche use case at best.
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