On Friday, March 05, 2021 08:44:26 PM David Wright wrote: > On Fri 05 Mar 2021 at 14:30:30 (-0500), rhkra...@gmail.com wrote: > > On Friday, March 05, 2021 11:56:24 AM David Wright wrote: > > > On Thu 04 Mar 2021 at 15:47:37 (-0500), rhkra...@gmail.com wrote: > > <cutting the context ;-) > > > > > > If a device is sold on a separate card, it's not necessarily > > > enough to know the model number of the card. Many "identical" > > > models are sold with various different chips, which will > > > require different firmware. You might not know which chip you've > > > got until you look at the board, or even read its codes from > > > the dmesg output. > > > > > > Being non-free, the firmware usually originates/d from some > > > manufacturer or other. If the firmware fails to work with the > > > device, there's not much that Debian can do about it. It might > > > be something for some sub-sub-group of the linux kernel people, > > > if the problem lies in how the driver and firmware interact. > > > > > > So in your scheme, the "unofficial installers" that have to be > > > "vetted" by someone to confirm they "indeed work on those > > > hardware configurations" are actually hundreds of different > > > combinations, each one comprising one particular firmware blob, > > > > > > plus the same old official installer image: > > > iwlwifi-100-5.ucode + official installer ✓ Vetted ✓ Passed > > > iwlwifi-105-6.ucode + official installer ✓ Vetted ✓ Passed > > > iwlwifi-135-6.ucode + official installer ✓ Vetted ✓ Passed > > > iwlwifi-1000-5.ucode + official installer ✓ Vetted ✓ Passed > > > iwlwifi-2000-6.ucode + official installer ✓ Vetted ✓ Passed > > > iwlwifi-2030-6.ucode + official installer ✓ Vetted ✓ Passed > > > … … … … … > > > > > > ad infinitum … > > > > It would be nice (imho), but may be difficult. ;-) > > Imagine you are part of the team, and you've volunteered to shoulder > the responsibility for firmware-iwlwifi_20190114-2_all.deb. In order > to vet it, you have to track down, purchase and install 35 different > types of wifi "cards", and over half a dozen more for bluetooth. With > each, you need to run the first half dozen steps of the installer, > presumably by preseed. > > I wrote "cards" because you're not just juggling PCI cards here, but > excavating tiny little boards out of the guts of various sorts of > laptop. But you picked an easy option. Many of the ethernet hardware > options are integrated with the mobo. > > IMHO, "difficult" doesn't cover it. Nor expensive, nor tedious.
That's not how I would do it, and not what I'm trying to suggest. If person A has hardware B and he tries installer C and it works, he reports (or even updates a web page himself) the point that he successfully used installer C on hardware B. Somebody else might do the same for hardware they have.