pmbootstrap installs unneeded firmware to device

[sicelo]

I notice that pmbootstrap install installs a lot of firmware that will not get used on the device. My target is Nokia-N900 and in the log I see installation of linux-firmware-i915, linux-firmware-ath9k, linux-firmware-amdgpu, among others, and a whole of other linux-firmware-* packages.

I think this behavior could be changed. I understand that sometimes we may want to use that firmware if, for example, we connect a device via USB host, but in general I doubt this firmware is needed on most devices, at least for sure on N900.

[ollieparanoid]

Which firmware files get installed depends on the device. In case of the N900, there's linux-firmware mentioned in aports/device/device-nokia-n900/APKBUILD. The linux-firmware package has been split up recently in Alpine, so it is possible to specify the subpackages you've mentioned instead of the meta-package which depends on all of them.

I agree that we should change all device APKBUILDs where linux-firmware is used. Could you make a pull request, that fixes this for the N900?

From reading up here, the only firmware subpackage needed should be:
linux-firmware-ti-connectivity (WiFi: wl1251-fw.bin and wl1251-nvs.bin)

(CC @craftyguy and @pavelmachek, do you know about more firmware files used, e.g. for the cellular modem?)

Thanks for opening this issue @sicelo!

PS: other devices having this issue:

$ grep -r linux-firmware aports
aports/device/device-htc-ace/APKBUILD:  depends="linux-firmware"
aports/device/device-nokia-n9/APKBUILD: depends="linux-firmware"
aports/device/device-nokia-n900/APKBUILD:       depends="linux-firmware"
aports/device/device-teclast-x80pro/APKBUILD:   depends="linux-firmware"
aports/device/device-sony-castor-windy/APKBUILD:        depends="linux-firmware firmware-adreno"
aports/device/device-lg-hammerhead/APKBUILD:    depends="linux-firmware"
aports/device/device-semc-anzu/APKBUILD:        depends="linux-firmware"

[craftyguy]

Wifi definitely needs firmware, I don't recall firmware being loaded for the modem, but it's really difficult to determine if it's required without removing all firmware and trying to load things (unless someone knows of a better way?), since not all drivers will say "I am loading firmware XYZ now" in the log..

Edit: the elinux link in @ollieparanoid's comment suggests that the BCM2048 firmware is also needed for the bluetooth radio.

[ollieparanoid]

@craftyguy: at least from that page, it looks like the bluetooth firmware never made it to the official linux-firmware. Regarding cellular modem: are there simple test instructions somewhere, that whoever gives this a shot could try out? Then we would know if behavior changes or not after reducing the installed firmwares.

[craftyguy]

Regarding cellular modem: are there simple test instructions somewhere, that whoever gives this a shot could try out?

Well basically if they can do what was described in the N900 wiki page for initializing the modem and establishing a data connection without any linux-firmware packages installed, then that would confirm the modem does not require loading any extra firmware to operate.

[sicelo]

Yes, N900 currently only needs linux-firmware-ti-connectivity
I am not very familiar with alpine to know if that's available as a separate package or not ...

[ollieparanoid]

It is the very package name. I'm not sure if closing the issue was intentional, but it isn't really solved and if you don't want to work on it that's totally fine.

[sicelo]

Thanks. I will look at it later today. I don't know how it got closed (thought someone else did).

EDIT: I see I inadvertently closed it by selecting the wrong comment button.

[drebrez]

Issue #1184 seems a duplicate

[sicelo]

i made the following change:

diff --git a/aports/device/device-nokia-n900/APKBUILD b/aports/device/device-nokia-n900/APKBUILD
index 6d22e60..32f10f2 100644
--- a/aports/device/device-nokia-n900/APKBUILD
+++ b/aports/device/device-nokia-n900/APKBUILD
@@ -97,7 +97,7 @@ i3wm() {

 nonfree_firmware() {
        pkgdesc="Wifi firmware"
-       depends="linux-firmware"
+       depends="linux-firmware-ti-connectivity"
        mkdir "$subpkgdir"
 }

but afterwards in log I get:
(022633) [21:21:50] device-nokia-n900-nonfree-firmware: depends on: linux-firmware

which makes me wonder what other file might be causing the dependency on linux-firmware as linux-firmware-ti-connectivity definitely has no such dependency.

I will test further now that building for N900 is working again (#1408 )

I might add that this is a fresh pmbootstrap installation

[ollieparanoid]

I guess the package was not rebuilt. Either run pmbootstrap build --force device-nokia-n900 (for usual testing) or increase the pkgrel (that needs to be done once in the PR) in the APKBUILD. Other than that the patch looks good :+1:

[sicelo]

Closing. Commit 4388c6614df5915d76bad09ba882b7e70b7bf255 fixes the issue