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submitted 1 day ago by KarnaSubarna@lemmy.ml to c/linux@lemmy.ml

Distro developers began discussing ways to reduce the size of firmware updates last year. Now, in Ubuntu 26.04, it’s introducing meta-packaging to spread Linux firmware across 17 smaller packages in the resolute archives. This resolves a bug filed in 2022.

The sub-packages are:

  • linux-firmware-mellanox-spectrum
  • linux-firmware-intel-wireless
  • linux-firmware-intel-graphics
  • linux-firmware-amd-graphics
  • linux-firmware-nvidia-graphics
  • linux-firmware-intel-misc
  • linux-firmware-broadcom-wireless
  • linux-firmware-netronome
  • linux-firmware-misc
  • linux-firmware-qlogic
  • linux-firmware-marvell-wireless
  • linux-firmware-mediatek
  • linux-firmware-marvell-prestera
  • linux-firmware-realtek
  • linux-firmware-qualcomm-wireless
  • linux-firmware-qualcomm-graphics
  • linux-firmware-qualcomm-misc
top 19 comments
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[-] nyan@sh.itjust.works 3 points 9 hours ago

Per the contents of my /usr/portage/distfiles, the original undivided package is ~500MB, making it the largest single package I've got on my system. Splitting it seems like a very good idea . . . but Gentoo generally prefers not to alter upstream tarballs, so I'm likely stuck.

[-] PabloSexcrowbar@piefed.social 77 points 1 day ago

What the hell is this? Ubuntu can't just go around making decisions I actually agree with!

[-] ozymandias117@lemmy.world 6 points 18 hours ago

Cynically, isn't this just because Debian did it with Trixie, so now Ubuntu's next version is pulling in the change?

[-] ms_lane@lemmy.world 21 points 1 day ago

They do it all the time, but then 'balance' it with something terrible. (these aren't in chronological order)

  • Upstart - good idea.

  • PulseAudio wayyyy too early - bad idea.

  • Unity - good idea

  • Mir (display server) - bad idea

[-] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 44 points 1 day ago
[-] truthfultemporarily@feddit.org 8 points 1 day ago

I wanted to create a caching snap proxy and it turns out you have to register it with canonical to get a cert.

[-] ms_lane@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

I'd thoroughly erased it's existence from my mind it seems. It's the reason I went back upstream to Debian many moons ago.

[-] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 13 points 1 day ago

It's existence alone didn't bother me, but the day I went to install something with APT and it force installed the Snap was the last day I ever used Ubuntu.

[-] krigo666@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

Mint doesn't use snap, officially doesn't support it (though it can be enabled and used).

[-] thingsiplay@lemmy.ml 6 points 20 hours ago
  • Snap - bad idea
[-] jaybone@lemmy.zip 1 points 22 hours ago

Are there any plans to maintain Unity? I’m seriously bummed about the state of this awesome desktop / window env 😕

I keep running it, but I’m worried one day it will just go away.

[-] Jajcus@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago

Have you ever tried to use Upstart? It was afwul, in practice it was worse than sysvinit+lsb, in a time one woukd thought any new init system can be better.

There was no way to properly define any complex servixe dependencies, especially with optional or alternative components. And making mistake in defining service forking behaviour would open lock the system down so it could not be cleanly shut down. Those were serious flaws in both design an implementation.

I made a mistake trying to use it in a Linux distribution I was co-developing. So much time an effort lost, when we could directly switch to systemd. But systemd was described as 'work in progress' an Upstart 'practically production ready' then.

[-] eugenia@lemmy.ml 25 points 1 day ago

I like this, because I'm on a slow line here in Greece, and pretty much every time there's an update, the linux-firmware package is 600 MB, which is massive to download.

[-] mexicancartel@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 day ago

Isn't this always the case in fedora? I remember seeing a lot of linux-firmware-* packages when updating and i guess i've seen it in other distros as well

[-] jokro@feddit.org 1 points 13 hours ago

OpenSUSE too

[-] Link@rentadrunk.org 6 points 1 day ago

Arch does the same thing. It allows you to only install the firmware packages you need on your system.

[-] simpolomeo@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 points 20 hours ago

arch only did that recently though

[-] chgxvjh@hexbear.net 3 points 1 day ago

It's a good idea but I just know for sure that I would manage to break the network driver of a remote machine with this.

[-] jaybone@lemmy.zip 1 points 22 hours ago

I’m wondering if the original bug this fixes is related to this kind of scenario.

this post was submitted on 16 Feb 2026
122 points (98.4% liked)

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