On Sat, Jan 03, 2026 at 10:41:00AM +0100, Thomas Schmitt wrote: > Hi, > > Nicolas Kovacs wrote: > > what about the Live systems ? Say I'm using the Debian 13 Live KDE > > system. Does this include non-free firmware ? > > According to the information found here it doesn't: > > https://www.debian.org/releases/trixie/amd64/ch03s03.en.html > > The statement > > "Another limitation with regards to hardware compatibility testing > is that the official Debian GNU/Linux live system contains only > free components, i.e. there are no non-free firmware files included > in it." > > seems outdated. > > Some files in the /firmware directory of > debian-live-13.1.0-amd64-standard.iso > are listed in its file > /firmware/Contents-firmware > as "non-free-firmware". > > E.g.: > /firmware/firmware-atheros_20250410-2_all.deb > which is listed in the file as containing among others: > /usr/lib/firmware/htc_9271.fw > firmware-atheros_20250410-2_all.deb non-free-firmware > > Quite few items in the Contents-firmware file are not marked by > "non-free-firmware" but there are some items marked "main" instead. > > The difference of the /firmware directories between > debian-live-13.1.0-amd64-standard.iso > and > debian-13.1.0-amd64-netinst.iso > is not very big (< = "live" , > = "netinst"): > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > 3d2 > < /firmware/alsa-topology-conf_1.2.5.1-3_all.deb > 19a19,22 > > /firmware/dep11/firmware-b43-installer.component > > /firmware/dep11/firmware-b43-installer.patterns > > /firmware/dep11/firmware-b43legacy-installer.component > > /firmware/dep11/firmware-b43legacy-installer.patterns > 34,35d36 > < /firmware/dep11/firmware-intel-sound.component > < /firmware/dep11/firmware-intel-sound.patterns > 69a71,72 > > /firmware/firmware-b43-installer_019-14_all.deb > > /firmware/firmware-b43legacy-installer_019-14_all.deb > 84d86 > < /firmware/firmware-linux_20250410-2_all.deb > 95,96c97 > < /firmware/firmware-zd1211_1%3a1.5-13_all.deb > < /firmware/indi-dsi_0.4+20221223123028-2_amd64.deb > --- > > /firmware/firmware-zd1211_1.5-13_all.deb > 98d98 > < /firmware/wireless-regdb_2025.07.10-1_all.deb > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > > There are 98 files in both directories. > I guess that among them is network firmware which shall enable the user > to fetch other firmware from Debian repositories. > > > > Any suggestions ? > > Just try out a Live ISO and ask at [email protected] if > you experience problems. > > An interesting question would be why there are differences like > firmware-b43-* not being in "live" but in "netinst". >
firmware-b43-* is an oddity. Debian is not able to distribute it - so we couldn't put it onto a Live. It supports various Broadcom hardware especially wifi. If you can connect a laptop / a Macbook with an Ethernet cable, you can then get hold of the package so it is sensible for the netinst. [I have exactly this situation with an older Intel Macbook.] I seem to recall that the firmware is snipped out of a Wndows binary somewhere. We had the same situation on the Cubietruck single board machines a long time ago and I can't remember how that was resolved. Hope this helps explain, Andy ([email protected]) > > Have a nice day :) > > Thomas >
