Carbon Bugs

johnraff · 2025-07-11 06:31:47

^Thank you!
We need to remove the obsolete qt5-style-plugins from our package lists.

EDIT: Netinstall and metapackage now fixed.

Last edited by johnraff (2025-07-11 06:52:46)

dmontaine · 2025-07-11 19:35:05

After installing the netinstall version of Debian 13, the bunsen-meta-all installation starts but partway through terminates saying there was an error installing firmware-b43-installer. I can log into the system, but dpkg is broken. For example tint2 is available, but can not be installed.

johnraff · 2025-07-12 04:50:47

This looks serious:
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugrepo … ug=1109025

We might have to ship a forked version of the package using the patch referred to in the bug report, or just drop the broadcom firmware installer altogether.

This package has been orphaned for over a decade now, which is certainly less than ideal.

Another alternative might be to add the firmware files to the netinstall tarball on GitHub for direct download.

---
@dmontaine If you have no broadcom hardware then maybe just removing the broken firmware-b43-installer would allow apt or dpkg to fix the system.

Last edited by johnraff (2025-07-12 04:55:47)

DeepDayze · 2025-07-13 03:43:21

Isn't firmware-b43-installer for old legacy Broadcom wifi cards? Hopefully a longterm solution be found for obtaining the firmware for these old cards.

hhh · 2025-07-13 21:01:51

My last box needed b43 firmware. It's not that old. Let's put the firmware into /etc/skel, IMO.

johnraff · 2025-07-14 01:00:37

^OK we have some choices if we want to go on providing b43 firmware:
*) Netinstall script - add the firmware to the files that get copied in. Easy. EDIT: but the netinstall script presupposes a working internet connection anyway...
*) Iso - already has the firmware in the installer section (thanks to @hhh's work years ago), so just get it to copy that into the installed system too. Not hard.
*) Metapackage installs:
a) Make a BL fork of the Debian package (if the urls it currently uses stay broken) downloading from that GitHub repo instead.
b) Make a BL package that just provides the firmware directly.

Debian haven't provided the b43 firmware in a non-free-firmware package like a lot of other f/w because Broadcom don't allow it. So shipping a url and getting the user to download the firmware themselves via firmware-b43-installer's postinstall script is their legal getout. BL have the choice of following the same route or just providing the firmware...

Last edited by johnraff (2025-07-14 02:44:07)

hhh · 2025-07-14 01:13:44

Just provide the firmware. The one time we should just forget Debian is for this stupid, archaic driver and the thousands of old, usable laptops that depend on it.

-edit- I'll remind everyone that BL was one of the easiest ways to get the b43 driver from a live Debian install back in the day.

Last edited by hhh (2025-07-14 01:16:19)

johnraff · 2025-07-14 02:45:37

Broadcom seem to be a very aggressive company.
https://www.networkworld.com/article/39 … lates.html

hhh · 2025-07-14 04:54:12

^ Agreed, but we're talking about providing an outdated WiFi driver, not supporting current Broadcom/VMWare shenanigans.

johnraff · 2025-07-14 05:27:03

BTW firmware != driver.
Firmware runs on the device itself, drivers run in the OS.
There is a b43 driver in the Linux kernel already, I think.
Still needs the firmware, though how it gets installed into the wifi card I don't know.

Anyway, first off, I'll test whether just doing a replacement in the postinst script of the lwfinger url with github fixes the package. If so, that looks like the safest way to go.

johnraff · 2025-07-14 06:10:28

It looks like a very simple patch, so until a Debian upgrade arrives (after Trixie release?) I'll make a BL non-maintainer-upload with a suitably low version number and put it in a BL repo.
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugrepo … 1109025#32

dmontaine · 2025-07-15 13:59:46

@johnraff - when running bunsen-meta-all after netinstall, the firmware-b43-installer was still failing, but removing it after the install allowed me to proceed. Two things after the install: 1s) tint2 is available and has to be manually installed, 2) when the welcome script ran, I chose to install everything, but most of the options such as java and blluetooth failed.

johnraff · 2025-07-16 00:04:21

Tint2 will be replaced with xfce4-panel with the next upgrade of bunsen-configs which is coming soon, so I wouldn't invest too much effort into it.

I need to have a close look at the welcome script, but that will have to wait until the new bunsen-configs is out. If you can quote any of the error messages you got it would help with debugging.

dmontaine · 2025-07-16 02:09:10

@johnraff - After installing the Trixie RC2 release and installing bunsen-meta-all, and then removing firmware-b43-installer, in the welcome script I answered yes to all prompts. This is the error output I got

Fetched 49.2 kB in 1s (51.1 kB/s)
Reading package lists...
Finished update
Installing packages...
Reading package lists...
Building dependency tree...
Reading state information...
Solving dependencies...
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
bunsen-meta-vcs : Depends: bzrtools but it is not installable

There were problems installing isenkram-cli bunsen-apt-update-checker
bunsen-meta-bluetooth bunsen-meta-java bunsen-meta-vcs bunsen-meta-lamp
bunsen-meta-packaging

Last edited by dmontaine (2025-07-16 02:16:28)

johnraff · 2025-07-16 02:27:48

Ah yes, bzrtools is no longer in the Debian repos, it's been replaced by brz. One package blocking will stop the whole metapackages installation. You can try running bl-welcome multiple times and installing only a single metapackage each time. Some of them might be OK.

The various metapackage dependencies will need checking over for any other such cases, after bunsen-configs is finished.

PS 'apt policy' will sometimes give you a hint when a package is uninstallable:

john@trixie-tester:~$ apt policy bzrtools
bzrtools:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: (none)
  Version table:
john@trixie-tester:~$ apt policy brz
brz:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 3.3.11-1
  Version table:
     3.3.11-1 500
        500 http://deb.debian.org/debian trixie/main amd64 Packages

Last edited by johnraff (2025-07-16 06:37:57)

hhh · 2025-07-16 15:59:30

johnraff wrote:

It looks like a very simple patch, so until a Debian upgrade arrives (after Trixie release?) I'll make a BL non-maintainer-upload with a suitably low version number and put it in a BL repo.
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugrepo … 1109025#32

Brilliant. And thanks for the firmware/driver clarification!

Sector11 · 2025-07-17 20:29:01

WAY OVER my heard, but thanks John!

johnraff · 2025-08-03 06:15:02

johnraff wrote:

...until a Debian upgrade arrives (after Trixie release?) I'll make a BL non-maintainer-upload with a suitably low version number and put it in a BL repo.
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugrepo … 1109025#32

The Debian upgrade has arrived already!
The URL was fixed in firmware-b43{,legacy}-installer 1:019-14 and those packages are already in Trixie.

https://packages.debian.org/source/testing/b43-fwcutter
https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/b43-fwcutter
https://metadata.ftp-master.debian.org/ … _changelog
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugrepo … 1109025#47

Debian bookworm users who still need to install that firmware should make sure "proposed-updates" are enabled, so they can install 1:019-8+deb12u1
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugrepo … 1109025#52

Thank you Debian!

hhh · 2025-08-04 19:52:06

^ Hey, sweet!

johnraff · 2025-08-15 01:29:16

hhh wrote:

Saw this with today's kernel upgrade...

Generating grub configuration file 

Warning: version_find_latest() is deprecated. Use version_sort() instead.
Warning: version_test_gt() is deprecated. Use version_sort() instead.
Warning: version_test_gt() is deprecated. Use version_sort() instead.
Warning: version_test_numeric() is deprecated. Use version_sort() instead.

Anything worth noting? Usually warnings can be ignored, but thought I'd ask.

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

hhh wrote:
Anything worth noting?
I don't think so — the warnings come from /usr/share/grub/grub-mkconfig_lib and they're placed in the functions the warnings mention, which is really strange. See line 313 for an example.
The command exits with zero status so it's just a warning rather than an error.

I missed this at the time - thinking about a different issue - but was getting the same warning messages about deprecated functions in grub-mkconfig. The origin was in our custom code snippet /etc/grub.d/15_bunsen-tty which used functions from older grub files. I updated the code a bit from the trixie files and now grub updates run quietly.
https://github.com/BunsenLabs/bunsen-co … 5b63863c41
Unfortunately, most of the changes you see there are trivial indenting.
Most of the (few) real code changes start around line 250.

#201 2025-07-11 06:31:47

Re: Carbon Bugs

#202 2025-07-11 19:35:05

Re: Carbon Bugs

#203 2025-07-12 04:50:47

Re: Carbon Bugs

#204 2025-07-13 03:43:21

Re: Carbon Bugs

#205 2025-07-13 21:01:51

Re: Carbon Bugs

#206 2025-07-14 01:00:37

Re: Carbon Bugs

#207 2025-07-14 01:13:44

Re: Carbon Bugs

#208 2025-07-14 02:45:37

Re: Carbon Bugs

#209 2025-07-14 04:54:12

Re: Carbon Bugs

#210 2025-07-14 05:27:03

Re: Carbon Bugs

#211 2025-07-14 06:10:28

Re: Carbon Bugs

#212 2025-07-15 13:59:46

Re: Carbon Bugs

#213 2025-07-16 00:04:21

Re: Carbon Bugs

#214 2025-07-16 02:09:10

Re: Carbon Bugs

#215 2025-07-16 02:27:48

Re: Carbon Bugs

#216 2025-07-16 15:59:30

Re: Carbon Bugs

#217 2025-07-17 20:29:01

Re: Carbon Bugs

#218 2025-08-03 06:15:02

Re: Carbon Bugs

#219 2025-08-04 19:52:06

Re: Carbon Bugs

#220 2025-08-15 01:29:16

Re: Carbon Bugs

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