linux-image-generic should suggest linux-firmware instead of depending on it
Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
linux-meta (Ubuntu) |
Confirmed
|
Undecided
|
Unassigned |
Bug Description
Hello,
At the moment, the only way to install linux-modules-extra and keep it up-to-date is to rely on linux-image-
# lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS
Release: 20.04
# apt-cache policy linux-image-generic
linux-image-
Installed: (none)
Candidate: 5.4.0.89.93
Version table:
5.4.0.89.93 500
500 http://
500 http://
5.4.0.26.32 500
500 http://
# apt rdepends linux-modules-
linux-modules-
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-
Depends: linux-modules-
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?
Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.