Re: Module failure on new install of Debian Bullseye

[Leslie Rhorer <lesrhorer@att.net>]

On 5/30/2022 1:11 AM, Christophe Leroy wrote:
> 
> 
> Le 30/05/2022 à 01:45, Leslie Rhorer a écrit :
>>       If this is the wrong list, please let me know the correct one so I
>> can subscribe and post there.
>>
>>       Two of my servers are having bizarre problems after upgrading to
>> Debian Bullseye.  After attempting numerous fixes, I decided to wipe the
>> systems and do a fresh install.  I did a fresh install of he first from
>> a netinst thumb drive, but the .iso does not contain the bnx2c drivers
>> needed for the ASUS PEB-10G/57811-1S 10GbE SFP+ Network Adapters used by
>> both systems.  I tried adding what I thought to be the correct non-free
>> drivers, but I still got errors about the bnx2x drivers and the
>> interface shows no carrier.  Since no carrier is detected on the
>> interface, no LAN or internet access is possible.  The system is
>> effectively dead, although it boots up and of course I have local
>> console access.
>>
>>       After several different approaches, I changed from the netinst
>> image to a full non-free image.  It still would not properly load the
>> bnx2x drivers.  I tried downloading all six bnx2x e1, e1h, and e2
>> release 7.13.15.0 and 7.13.21.0 firmware files and adding them to the
>> initram image.  It no longer complains about missing files, but it
>> doesn't activate the NIC, either.  These servers are both essentially
>> dead in the water until I can get this fixed.
>>
>>       The only thing I spot from dmesg that seems possibly related is:
>>
>> ...
>> [   12.976323] r8169 0000:0b:00.0: firmware: failed to load
>> rtl_nic/rtl8168f-1.fw (-2)
>> [   12.976478] firmware_class: See https://wiki.debian.org/Firmware for
>> information about missing firmware
>> [   12.976632] r8169 0000:0b:00.0: Direct firmware load for
>> rtl_nic/rtl8168f-1.fw failed with error -2
>> [   12.976636] r8169 0000:0b:00.0: Unable to load firmware
>> rtl_nic/rtl8168f-1.fw (-2)
> 
> Do you have that file rtl8168f-1.fw in your setup ? Is it at the correct
> place ?

	I will check.  Without remote LAN support, it isn't very easy.
> 
> By the way, this seems to be more a Debian problem than a kernel
> problem. Have you asked your question to Debian support ?

	They and I do not get along.  More importantly, while at first glance 
this might seem to be the case, I don't think it is. The github 
repository at

git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git/tree/bnx2x/

	Is not a Debian thing.  It is a kernel module thing for all distros. 
It is from there I downloaded the firmware (after it failed to load 
during install), and it is that which is failing.  As I said, it could 
possibly be the realtek drivers also need to be loaded, and they are 
not, but I really would not expect it to be the case.