[SOLVED] Does kernel-firmware package is needed ?

Pigi_102 · 02-24-2020, 02:25 PM

Hi all,
I'm trying to trim down my slackware installation as I'm almost running out of space.

One of the most interesting candidate to be removed is the kernel-firmware package, that is around 600Mb uncompressed size:

Code:

root@casa:/var/adm/packages# grep UNCOMPRESSED kernel-firmware-20200207_6f89735-noarch-1
UNCOMPRESSED PACKAGE SIZE:     516M

but it's content is kinda wide as there are firmware for a huge amount of platforms.

So i was wondering if I can remove it without risking something in working.

Yes, I know I could try but if someone knows this I could avoid a reinstallation

Thanks in advance

Pigi

Pigi_102 · 02-24-2020, 02:33 PM

I'll reply to myself.
I've removed the package as the most important firmware ( for Raspberry ) are in sarpi3-hacks-3.0-* package.

So yes, in case you need space, and you don't have any fancy hardware on your Raspberry PI ( at least Pi3 ) you can save 516M by removing this package.

Cheers

Pigi

abga · 02-24-2020, 03:43 PM

Check point 5 from this rather long post:
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...5/#post5959658

I've been living with the slimmed down Raspberry officially provided (taken from their Raspbian images) firmware pack for years now without any issues - all common HW looks to be covered. The only extra firmware files I needed were for some DVB adapters. I just manually took the files from linuxtv.org and put them in /lib/firmware (maintaining them on my own).

Pigi_102 · 02-25-2020, 01:45 AM

In addition there is a single file needed from the kernel-firmware package that could be needed:

Code:

[    5.650080] brcmfmac mmc1:0001:1: Direct firmware load for brcm/brcmfmac43430-sdio.raspberrypi,3-model-b.txt failed with error -2

but it's easy to get this file from the kernel-firmware package and put it in lib/firmware to fix it.
In any case running without this file does not seems to create any problem. I've used my Pi for a whole day before copying the file and everything was working

Pigi

Exaga · 02-25-2020, 01:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pigi_102

I'll reply to myself.
I've removed the package as the most important firmware ( for Raspberry ) are in sarpi3-hacks-3.0-* package.

So yes, in case you need space, and you don't have any fancy hardware on your Raspberry PI ( at least Pi3 ) you can save 516M by removing this package.

The firmware included in sarpi*-hacks package is for the RPi3/RPi4 wireless NIC and Bluetooth adapter.

Probably the easiest and prudent thing to do would be to increase the size of your storage capacity.