Possibly missing firmware for module

x80486 · 2023-07-04 01:25:21

I've been using Arch for a while. I've always seen these Possibly missing firmware for module whenever I upgrade.

I thought these warnings would go away at some point because the hardware I had was almost the latest at that time and probably the operating system was not able to recognize everything correctly. Nevertheless, with time, I've seen the list of warnings increasing.

[x80486@uplink:~]$ sudo pacman -Syu
...
:: Running post-transaction hooks...
(1/7) Reloading system manager configuration...
(2/7) Creating temporary files...
(3/7) Arming ConditionNeedsUpdate...
(4/7) Updating linux initcpios...
==> Building image from preset: /etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux-lts.preset: 'default'
==> Using default configuration file: '/etc/mkinitcpio.conf'
  -> -k /boot/vmlinuz-linux-lts -g /boot/initramfs-linux-lts.img --microcode /boot/intel-ucode.img
==> Starting build: '6.1.37-1-lts'
  -> Running build hook: [base]
  -> Running build hook: [udev]
  -> Running build hook: [autodetect]
  -> Running build hook: [modconf]
  -> Running build hook: [kms]
  -> Running build hook: [keyboard]
==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: 'xhci_pci'
  -> Running build hook: [keymap]
  -> Running build hook: [consolefont]
==> WARNING: consolefont: no font found in configuration
  -> Running build hook: [block]
  -> Running build hook: [filesystems]
  -> Running build hook: [fsck]
==> Generating module dependencies
==> Creating zstd-compressed initcpio image: '/boot/initramfs-linux-lts.img'
==> Image generation successful
==> Building image from preset: /etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux-lts.preset: 'fallback'
==> Using default configuration file: '/etc/mkinitcpio.conf'
  -> -k /boot/vmlinuz-linux-lts -g /boot/initramfs-linux-lts-fallback.img -S autodetect --microcode /boot/intel-ucode.img
==> Starting build: '6.1.37-1-lts'
  -> Running build hook: [base]
  -> Running build hook: [udev]
  -> Running build hook: [modconf]
  -> Running build hook: [kms]
==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: 'ast'
  -> Running build hook: [keyboard]
==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: 'xhci_pci'
  -> Running build hook: [keymap]
  -> Running build hook: [consolefont]
==> WARNING: consolefont: no font found in configuration
  -> Running build hook: [block]
==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: 'bfa'
==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: 'qed'
==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: 'wd719x'
==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: 'qla2xxx'
==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: 'aic94xx'
==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: 'qla1280'
  -> Running build hook: [filesystems]
  -> Running build hook: [fsck]
==> Generating module dependencies
==> Creating zstd-compressed initcpio image: '/boot/initramfs-linux-lts-fallback.img'
==> Image generation successful
(5/7) Compiling GSettings XML schema files...
(6/7) Updating icon theme caches...
(7/7) Updating the desktop file MIME type cache...

I wonder if there is a way to remove them.

x80486 · 2023-07-04 01:40:08

Lurking through the Wiki I found this: Mkinitcpio#Possibly_missing_firmware_for_module_XXXX

Is it then possible/safe to remove those (ast, bfa, qed, qla1280, wd719x, .., xhci_pci) modules?

I use systemd-boot. I would guess there could be a way to configure such thing in the options?

c00ter · 2023-07-04 05:19:19

Yeah, there's an AUR pkg that suppresses those lines. Darned if I recall the name, though...I'll be 71 July 6th.

Happy 4th (in the USA)!

mvatten · 2023-07-04 06:01:26

Perhaps https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/mkinitcpio-firmware?

V1del · 2023-07-04 08:58:22

Which is basically pulling in hundreds of megabytes of dependencies for no gain at all.

The warnings here get generated by the "fallback" image. As the name implies it contains all modules to allow a boot on most hardware. You can disable generation of the fallback image by editing the /etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux.preset file if you are sure of your setup and that you aren't planning any bigger HW changes for. Sometimes having a fallback image can be handy if for some reason generation/detection of modules in your system failed, so the "better" reccommendation would be to simply ignore (as in tune them out of your head when reading) the warning messages.

x80486 · 2023-07-05 00:18:22

V1del wrote:

The warnings here get generated by the "fallback" image.

I didn't realize about this

Should I assume the "main" image is built using only the required modules according to the hardware that was loaded/present at the time the process ran? If that's the case, I would be more than happy with how this works.

seth · 2023-07-05 05:57:51

"according to to modules that were autodetected or expliticly added" - the alternative to a fallback image is (means to) a live system in case you have to fix stuff.
Wat's the problem here? The warning isn't harmful, you can juts ignore that.

Arch Linux

#1 2023-07-04 01:25:21

Possibly missing firmware for module

#2 2023-07-04 01:40:08

Re: Possibly missing firmware for module

#3 2023-07-04 05:19:19

Re: Possibly missing firmware for module

#4 2023-07-04 06:01:26

Re: Possibly missing firmware for module

#5 2023-07-04 08:58:22

Re: Possibly missing firmware for module

#6 2023-07-05 00:18:22

Re: Possibly missing firmware for module

#7 2023-07-05 05:57:51

Re: Possibly missing firmware for module

Board footer