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during the upgrade of a debian system i got the following errors:

W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8125b-2.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8125a-3.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8107e-2.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8107e-1.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8168fp-3.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8168h-2.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8168h-1.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8168g-3.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8168g-2.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8106e-2.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8106e-1.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8411-2.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8411-1.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8402-1.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8168f-2.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8168f-1.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8105e-1.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8168e-3.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8168e-2.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8168e-1.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8168d-2.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8168d-1.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/skl_huc_2.0.0.bin for module i915
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/skl_guc_33.0.0.bin for module i91

Has anyone encountered something similar? I tried safe update/upgrade..

Vlastimil Burián
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onlyf
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    If you don'ẗ have a problem with the device, you can ignore this. If you have problems, or it doesn't work, you probably need to address this. Just add nonfree repository and search which file owns the file you want. Use apt-file search rtl_nic/rtl8125 or dpkg-search -S rtl_nic/rtl8125 and it tells you which package to install. – Anders Feb 24 '22 at 04:38
  • @Anders Can we also ignore the message if we see "Unable to load firmware" with dmesg command? I asked a question here: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/768156/unable-to-load-firmware-rtl-nic-rtl8168h-2-fw-but-ethernet-card-does-not-need – baptx Jan 31 '24 at 18:30
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    @baptx if nothing "bad" happen, yes. It depends on what kind of hardware you are using. As usually, it depends. – Anders Feb 01 '24 at 17:53

1 Answers1

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It's normal. Many devices need firmware to fully work. The thing is, firmware is a binary blob, and not free (as in GNU-free).

So Debian does not distribute it by default.

In your case you could do this (with the non-free entry in /etc/apt/sources.list:

$ sudo apt-get install firmware-realtek firmware-misc-nonfree

If that ever happens again, one way to know the package that holds a certain file is to look it up at packages.debian.org, under Search the contents of packages.

Alternatively, you can go to: https://packages.debian.org/file:path, where path is the path of the file you are looking for, for example, for /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8125b-2.fw it would be: https://packages.debian.org/file:/lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8125b-2.fw

Eduardo Trápani
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    To actually find the package where they are located, you can add to your answer the general solution to use apt-file search rtl_nic/rtl8125 or dpkg-search -S rtl_nic/rtl8125 to locate the package with the firmware. And as you suggested, you need to add nonfree to /etc/apt/sources.list or in a file in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*. – Anders Feb 24 '22 at 04:40