I've been using Debian for a long time on and off, and I've been using it as my primary (and only) OS for about a year now on a relatively new computer. While I've had issues, they've never been anything that couldn't be fixed by doing a little reading and learning. I'm no expert, but I think I've found something that I should file as a bug report somewhere, but I don't know whether it really qualifies or what the protocol for that is.
I have some beef with the Debian Installer. This problem existed when I installed my current system using the Squeeze D-I back in April 2012, and it exists in the current RC1 D-I for Wheezy. The problem is that it recommends non-free firmware that is not needed for networking functionality. I was prompted at installation for needed firmware; it asked me to provide "rtl_nic/rtl8168e-2.fw" on an external USB or floppy or whatnot. At the time I thought it was necessary for installation, so I got the non-free "firmware-realtek" package, which contains the file in question, and loaded it up on a USB during installation. I selected that yes I did have it, and while I don't fully remember the process that I went through last April, I wound up with "firmware-realtek" installed. Today I installed Wheezy with the RC1 D-I on a spare partition with the intention of upgrading to sid, and during installation I decided to just select "No" when presented with "do you have this firmware". Installation worked fine... and so did networking. When the kernel changed and the initramfs was updated, I got a slew of warnings about POSSIBLE missing firmware (below), but I still don't seem to need the firmware. Here is my "lspci |grep Eth" output: $ lspci |grep Eth 06:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 06) Here are the warnings I get with update-initramfs: # update-initramfs -u update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-4-amd64 W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8168f-2.fw for module r8169 W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8168f-1.fw for module r8169 W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8105e-1.fw for module r8169 W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8168e-3.fw for module r8169 W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8168e-2.fw for module r8169 W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8168e-1.fw for module r8169 W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8168d-2.fw for module r8169 W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8168d-1.fw for module r8169 What's the deal? I think that there are a number of Realtek cards that might need non-free firmware, but it doesn't seem that mine is one of them. I've safely uninstalled the "firmware-realtek" package and rebooted with no ill effects on my current wheezy system. I'm not sure what the next step here is, or whether this is somehow *supposed* to be what the D-I is doing and I'm mistaken somehow. All questions and advice are welcome. -- Aubrey "There are two types of people in the world: those who can extrapolate from incomplete data."
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