Bug 645130

Summary:	Core group contains mandatory firmware packages
Product:	Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6	Reporter:	John Ruemker <jruemker>
Component:	releng	Assignee:	Dennis Gregorovic <dgregor>
Status:	CLOSED ERRATA	QA Contact:	Release Test Team <release-test-team>
Severity:	medium	Docs Contact:
Priority:	medium
Version:	6.0	CC:	atodorov, borgan, dmach, jwest, notting, pm, riek, syeghiay, tgummels, woodard
Target Milestone:	rc
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	Unspecified
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	Bug Fix
Doc Text:		Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:	2011-12-06 18:44:08 UTC	Type:	---
Regression:	---	Mount Type:	---
Documentation:	---	CRM:
Verified Versions:		Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description John Ruemker 2010-10-20 21:09:08 UTC

Description of problem: The RHEL 6 Core group in the installation media and package channels contains many firmware packages which would be applicable to a very small number of installations, and they are marked as mandatory packages.  This means that for the overwhelming majority of the userbase, they cannot opt out of installing these.  The list includes:

   aic94xx-firmware
   atmel-firmware
   bfa-firmware
   ipw2100-firmware
   ipw2200-firmware
   ivtv-firmware
   iwl1000-firmware
   iwl3945-firmware
   iwl4965-firmware
   iwl5000-firmware
   iwl5150-firmware
   iwl6000-firmware
   iwl6050-firmware
   kernel-firmware
   libertas-usb8388-firmware
   ql2100-firmware
   ql2200-firmware
   ql23xx-firmware
   ql2400-firmware
   ql2500-firmware
   rt61pci-firmware
   rt73usb-firmware
   xorg-x11-drv-ati-firmware
   zd1211-firmware

Most of these are wireless packages, and there is even a package for a PVR tuner (ivtv-firmware).  In an enterprise distribution, these are bloat and will be unwanted for most customers.

These should, at a minimum, be marked as default or optional, if not completely removed from the Core group.  My customer, JPMorgan Chase, has complained about these being included in Core at the mandatory level, preventing them from stripping them out of their installs. 

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): RHEL 6.0 RC 4

How reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Install RHEL 6
2. Via kickstart or graphical install, attempt to exclude these firmware packages
 
Actual results: Packages cannot be excluded

Expected results: Unnecessary packages are in their own group, or are not mandatory in a group that is installed on essentially all systems using the distribution

Additional info: Had a thread on tech-list about this as well as talked to Bill Nottingham, who indicated it would likely be possible to flip these to default.

Comment 1 John Ruemker 2010-10-20 21:10:12 UTC

I wasn't sure if Distribution was the right component.  If not, please adjust.  

Thanks,
John

Comment 4 Ben Woodard 2011-04-26 17:21:10 UTC

What is the plan to fix it? udev?
Have anaconda probe the hardware at install time?

Comment 11 Dennis Gregorovic 2011-08-19 15:43:33 UTC

checked into cvs and will be in the next compose

Comment 14 Alexander Todorov 2011-08-23 12:01:30 UTC

# pwd
/mnt/redhat/rel-eng/RHEL6.2-20110822.5/6

# find -name "*comps*.xml" | grep "os/repodata" | xargs grep firmware |  wc -l
219

# find -name "*comps*.xml" | grep "os/repodata" | xargs grep firmware | grep default | wc -l
219

# find -name "*comps*.xml" | grep "os/repodata" | xargs grep firmware | grep mandatory
#


All firmware packages are marked as default in the latest tree.

Comment 15 errata-xmlrpc 2011-12-06 18:44:08 UTC

Since the problem described in this bug report should be
resolved in a recent advisory, it has been closed with a
resolution of ERRATA.

For information on the advisory, and where to find the updated
files, follow the link below.

If the solution does not work for you, open a new bug report.

http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHEA-2011-1743.html