"Missing Free firware" (benign?) error message
Hello everyone.
It is with great pleasure that I can say that (after some doubt, and a long time waiting for this latest version, based on a LTS (more stable) version of Ubuntu) I have definitely adopted Trisquel on my secondary (laptop) computer. :)
I managed to get it working properly by myself, by adding the "nomodeset" option on the kernel parameters (since, it wouldn't boot to the graphical login otherwise) and, contrary to the previous (5.5) version of Trisquel, my laptop now shuts down properly and (very) quickly.
There's only one catch - that I believe to be Trisquel-related (or specific).
When booting up, right before the graphical login shows up, I can see an error message saying "Missing Free firmware".
And, checking the "/var/log/dmesg" file, this are the last lines that are written there:
[ 81.971043] 8139too 0000:08:02.0: eth0: link down
[ 81.971340] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
[ 81.971970] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
[ 82.020036] ssb0:0: Missing Free firmware
[ 82.356103] b43-phy0: Loading OpenSource firmware version 410.31754
[ 82.356109] b43-phy0: Hardware crypto acceleration not supported by firmware
[ 82.356112] b43-phy0: QoS not supported by firmware
[ 82.408639] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
[ 82.408966] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
The "b43" part of the messages, relates to the built-in Broadcom BCM4318 wireless network card, that already functioned "out-of-the-box" in 5.5 and is now functioning well, also, in 6.0. I suspect this error message to have something to do with this card, but, I can use it, and I don't think I have any problems with my wireless connection - and am using it now to post this message.
I suspect this to be just a "benign" error message - of the type that appear, a lot, just to report results, and one that can be ignored, with no problems. But, not knowing what it means, I would like to be sure...
Also, if this is that type of error message, is there a way to "silence" it, so that it doesn't show up during boot? (It's just that, with only this exception, everything seems to be working fine - and, if possible, I would like to setup a Trisquel system functioning in an as "pretty" way as possible.) :)
Thank you, to everyone involved, for this Great distro.
I can now happily (fully) operate a laptop computer, with a WiFi connection, using only Free Software! :)
I want to confirm it's nothing to worry about. I have the same card.
I don't know if you can hide that message but you can remove these bits
[ 82.356109] b43-phy0: Hardware crypto acceleration not supported by firmware
[ 82.356112] b43-phy0: QoS not supported by firmware
by asking the b43 kernel module to not use those features. It can be done by making a file /etc/modprobe.d/b43.conf with the following content:
options b43 nohwcrypt=1 qos=0
Don't worry about them; they're just the Linux-libre kernel telling you that it can't load a free firmware or that the non-free firmware in the kernel was removed (since the kernel is deblobbed). I get messages like that every time I boot up my computer, running Parabola GNU/Linux with the latest Linux-libre:
[ 3.993987] 0000:0c:00.0: Missing Free firmware
[ 3.994720] r8169 0000:0c:00.0 eth0: unable to load firmware patch /*(DEBLOBBED)*/ (-22)
[ 4.004150] r8169 0000:0c:00.0 eth0: link down
[ 4.004184] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
[ 4.004304] 0000:0d:00.0: Missing Free firmware
[ 4.004591] r8169 0000:0d:00.0 eth1: unable to load firmware patch /*(DEBLOBBED)*/ (-22)
[ 4.016114] r8169 0000:0d:00.0 eth1: link down
[ 4.016146] r8169 0000:0d:00.0 eth1: link down
[ 4.016159] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth1: link is not ready
[ 4.106366] vboxpci: IOMMU not found (not registered)
[ 5.668575] r8169 0000:0d:00.0 eth1: link up
[ 5.668586] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth1: link becomes ready
(and yes, my motherboard does have two ethernet connections, both work regardless of the messages stating that firmware is missing/deblobbed).
Thank you very much for your confirmations, lembas and miga.
I can, then, rest assured that there's nothing wrong with my WiFi connection.
As for the error messages display, lembas, the only one that appears during boot is the "ssb0:0: Missing Free firmware" one.
So, there's no need to hide the other ones that you mention, and that only appear written in the "dmesg" file.
Thank you very much for your help, anyway.
And, as for hiding that particular message, during boot, I guess I can try to look for a solution elsewhere, since that's not a Trisquel-specific problem.