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| Some of these firmware are free and open-source, and some of them are [[https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-archive#s-non-free|non-free]], which means that you need to add the {{{non-free}}} and {{{contrib}}} components to your [[SourcesList|APT sources list]]. | Some of these firmware are free and open-source, and some of them are [[https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-archive#s-non-free|non-free]], which means that you need to add the {{{non-free}}} and {{{contrib}}} components to your [[SourcesList|APT sources]]. |
Translation(s): English - Español - Français - Italiano
Firmware refers to embedded software which controls electronic devices. Well-defined boundaries between firmware and software do not exist, as both terms cover some of the same code. Typically, the term firmware deals with low-level operations in a device, without which the device would be completely non-functional (read more on Wikipedia).
Contents
Devices/Drivers Firmware
Many devices require a firmware to operate. Historically, firmware were built-into the device's ROM or Flash memory, but more and more often, the firmware has to be loaded into the device by the driver during the device initialization.
Some of these firmware are free and open-source, and some of them are non-free, which means that you need to add the non-free and contrib components to your APT sources.
Firmware during the installation
In some cases the installer detects the need for non-free firmware and prompts the user to make the firmware available to the installer to complete the installation. This can happen, for example, with wireless network cards which often require non-free firmware to function (see ipw2200 for an example).
An easy method is to use an installer image that includes all non-free firmware packages directly. See http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/cd-including-firmware/
You can also download the firmware archive for your platform and unpack it into a directory named firmware in the root of a removable storage device (USB/CD drive). You can find firmware downloads for your Debian version at http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/firmware/. When the installer starts, it will automatically find the firmware files in the directory on the removable storage and, if needed, install the required firmware.
In some cases, firmware supplied on removable media may not be detected automatically (e.g. 740503). In these situations, drop to the console (Ctrl+alt+F2) and manually mount(8) your removable storage on a temporary directory (e.g. /media).
NetbootFirmware - Firmware for Netbooting.
Once the network is configured, Debian-Installer can fetch firmware from Debian repositories.
Location of firmware files
Debian 8 "Jessie" and newer
udev used in Debian Jessie and later, only checks one directory for firmware files: /lib/firmware. See 729252 for details.
Debian 7 "Wheezy", Debian 6.0 "Squeeze"
Firmware is sourced from the following places (see udev's /lib/udev/hotplug.functions and /lib/udev/firmware.agent)
/lib/firmware/$(uname -r) - Firmware provided by a package, specific for a kernel.
/lib/firmware/ - Firmware provided by a package, valid for all kernels.
/usr/local/lib/firmware - Location for manually installed firmware.
/usr/lib/hotplug/firmware - Firmware provided by a package, valid for all kernels
List of firmware in Linux kernel
To find which package provides a given firmware file, you can use this search page:
https://www.debian.org/distrib/packages#search_contents
Firmware/List lists all firmware distributed along Debian Linux kernel images.
Computer Firmware
Found on so called IBM-PC compatible computers- (wikipedia) |
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also known as OpenBoot, Found on Sun SPARC systems, IBM Power, PowerPC-based Apple Macintosh, IEEE 1275-1994... (wikipedia) |
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EFI/UEFI |
Found on ia64 (Itanium) systems, some ia32/amd64 systems (Intel based Macintosh, some Dell Servers..), some XScale based systems - (wikipedia) |
Coreboot (LinuxBIOS) |
Found on very few PC motheboards. Can be tested under QEMU http://www.coreboot.org/QEMU - (wikipedia) |
PMON2000 |
Found on the Lemote Yeeloong and embedded devices - (homepage) |
Updating firmware
Firmware can be updated using various methods.
Open firmware
There are a number of projects creating various kinds of open firmware, including for booting, WiFi and audio.
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