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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.
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