linux-image-generic should suggest linux-firmware instead of depending on it

[Louis Sautier]

Hello,
At the moment, the only way to install linux-modules-extra and keep it up-to-date is to rely on linux-image-generic:
# lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS
Release: 20.04
# apt-cache policy linux-image-generic
linux-image-generic:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 5.4.0.89.93
  Version table:
     5.4.0.89.93 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security/main amd64 Packages
     5.4.0.26.32 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal/main amd64 Packages
# apt rdepends linux-modules-extra-5.4.0-89-generic
linux-modules-extra-5.4.0-89-generic
Reverse Depends:
  Depends: linux-image-generic

However, installing linux-image-generic pulls linux-firmware:
# apt depends linux-image-generic
linux-image-generic
  Depends: linux-image-5.4.0-89-generic
  Depends: linux-modules-extra-5.4.0-89-generic
  Depends: linux-firmware
  Depends: intel-microcode
  Depends: amd64-microcode
  Recommends: thermald

I specifically need linux-modules-extra because it contains the r8169 module which some Ethernet controllers require. The driver doesn't need any of the firmware blobs but because of the way it is packaged, I end up creating Ubuntu installations several hundred megabytes larger than necessary (in my case, these extra megabytes do matter). The initramfs also gains a few dozen megabytes.

Would it please be possible to either:
- mark linux-firmware as "Recommends" instead of "Depends"?
- create a metapackage that pulls only the latest version of linux-modules-extra and nothing else?

In addition, I'm not 100% sure linux-modules-extra should have a hard dependency on crda or wireless-crda, maybe they could also be marked as recommended instead?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.