The "unofficial" firmware installer iso has a bunch of non-free/proprietary drivers/firmware for various adapters and devices that do not have open-source drivers, but that your machine may need to run correctly.
For example, a laptop may have a wi-fi built-in from a manufacturer who is unwilling to release the source code for the wi-fi device's firmware. The "unofficial" installer CD has the necessary firmware in the form of a "binary blob" that can be installed to make the laptop's wi-fi work with Linux. Hope That Helps! Rick ----- Original message ----- From: Thomas Hilbert <uxi9...@gmail.com> To: Rick Thomas <rick.tho...@pobox.com> Subject: Re: AMD 10.2 netinstall Date: Sunday, January 19, 2020 5:50 PM Good to know about the expert option. So what does the Non-Free, firmware installer get you over the standard all open source installer? On 1/19/20 2:35 AM, Rick Thomas wrote: >> Since you have to install the firmware-linux-nonfree that means that >> it s not installed! From what I remember >> you need to select those packages at the end of the base image >> installation. > And you must do an "expert" install, in order to see that option. If you do > a "Standard" install, you won't get a chance. > > There's probably something you can put in the boot args that will force it to > install the firmware-linux-nonfree package, but I don't know what that is. > > Rick >