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seems outdated.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".
Have a nice day :)
Thomas
