Debian Bug report logs - #1057399
firmware-amd-graphics: Unintended consequence of /usr merge - video output ceases

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Message #5 received at submit@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Arthur Marsh <arthur.marsh@internode.on.net>

To: Debian Bug Tracking System <submit@bugs.debian.org>

Subject: firmware-amd-graphics: Unintended consequence of /usr merge - video output ceases

Date: Mon, 04 Dec 2023 23:34:29 +1030

Package: firmware-amd-graphics
Version: 20230625-1
Severity: normal

Dear Maintainer,

*** Reporter, please consider answering these questions, where appropriate ***

   * What led up to the situation?

A long time ago on a motherboard far away lived an AMD graphics card 
code-named Cedar. 

Cedar was missing its firmware so its owner copied the firmware to 
/lib/firmware/radeon and all was well.

The graphics card was later moved to another pc (after Cedar firmware was
packaged), replaced by an R7 250 
graphics card and all was well.

Later on the motherboard went to the great scrap metal recovery yard, 
replaced by a motherboard with an AMD APU, and its graphics unit was 
code-named Aruba and all was well.

Then, an early present arrived in the form of /usr merge for AMD graphics 
firmware. 
A small message said: 
"unable to remove /lib/firmware/radeon - directory not empty" 
and all was well until update-initramfs was run and a reboot.

For update-initramfs had found the old /lib/firmware/radeon and its Cedar 
firmware, but stopped searching for /usr/lib/firmware/radeon, which 
contained Aruba firmware.

Module radeon was loaded but Aruba firmware was not found, and no further 
video output appeared. (The boot process continued but not all stages were 
successful, preventing a remote shell into the machine).

   * What exactly did you do (or not do) that was effective (or
     ineffective)?

Finally solved by running a rescue DVD, checking the package update log, 
and blacklisting the radeon module, then deleting /lib/firmware/radeon and 
running update-initramfs -u - k all

   * What was the outcome of this action?

Possible solutions: if dh_movetousr would result in both /lib/firmware/radeon 
and /usr/lib/firmware/radeon, report this as an error rather than an 
informational message, probably better here than in update-initramfs-tools.

Circumstances that lead to problems:

 1. Manually adding a missing firmware file, 
 2. Changing graphics card, 
 3. /usr merge leaving manually added firmware behind, with just an 
 informational message rather than an error 
 4. update-initramfs searching for old or new firmware locations but only 
 loading the first location (old) if both exist 
 5. radeon module ceasing video output (and possible further problems) if no 
 firmware found
 6. Forgetting how to blacklist a module from grub.

   * What outcome did you expect instead?

*** End of the template - remove these template lines ***


-- System Information:
Debian Release: trixie/sid
  APT prefers experimental
  APT policy: (1, 'experimental')
merged-usr: no
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 6.7.0-rc3+ (SMP w/4 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=en_AU.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_AU.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=en_GB
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: sysvinit (via /sbin/init)

firmware-amd-graphics depends on no packages.

firmware-amd-graphics recommends no packages.

Versions of packages firmware-amd-graphics suggests:
ii  initramfs-tools  0.142

-- no debconf information

Message #10 received at 1057399@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Luca Boccassi <bluca@debian.org>

To: 1057399@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: firmware-amd-graphics: Unintended consequence of /usr merge - video output ceases

Date: Mon, 04 Dec 2023 14:03:40 +0000

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Control: tags -1 wontfix
Control: close -1

On Mon, 04 Dec 2023 23:34:29 +1030 Arthur Marsh
<arthur.marsh@internode.on.net> wrote:
> Package: firmware-amd-graphics
> Version: 20230625-1
> Severity: normal
> 
> Dear Maintainer,
> 
> *** Reporter, please consider answering these questions, where
appropriate ***
> 
>    * What led up to the situation?
> 
> A long time ago on a motherboard far away lived an AMD graphics card 
> code-named Cedar. 
> 
> Cedar was missing its firmware so its owner copied the firmware to 
> /lib/firmware/radeon and all was well.
> 
> The graphics card was later moved to another pc (after Cedar firmware
was
> packaged), replaced by an R7 250 
> graphics card and all was well.
> 
> Later on the motherboard went to the great scrap metal recovery yard,
> replaced by a motherboard with an AMD APU, and its graphics unit was 
> code-named Aruba and all was well.
> 
> Then, an early present arrived in the form of /usr merge for AMD
graphics 
> firmware. 
> A small message said: 
> "unable to remove /lib/firmware/radeon - directory not empty" 
> and all was well until update-initramfs was run and a reboot.

> -- System Information:
> Debian Release: trixie/sid
>   APT prefers experimental
>   APT policy: (1, 'experimental')
> merged-usr: no

Hi,

Unfortunately this system appears to be in an unsupported state. Please
install the usrmerge package to fix it. You can find more information
at:

https://wiki.debian.org/UsrMerge

-- 
Kind regards,
Luca Boccassi

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