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mclien

Member

Registered: 2020-02-29

Posts: 133  

fresh install, raspi-firmware install fails

I used this image on my raspi4:
https://arm-files.devuan.org/RaspberryP … 3-0258.zip
dd onto the sdcard, running fine.
now I was trying to install the raspi firmware (as I want to use it as my video PC:

root@devuanpi:~# apt-get install raspi-firmware
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Suggested packages:
  firmware-brcm80211 bluez-firmware
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  raspi-firmware
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 4816 kB of archives.
After this operation, 22.8 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://deb.devuan.org/merged daedalus/non-free-firmware arm64 raspi-firmware all 1.20220830+ds-1 [4816 kB]
Fetched 4816 kB in 4s (1181 kB/s)         
Selecting previously unselected package raspi-firmware.
(Reading database ... 67482 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../raspi-firmware_1.20220830+ds-1_all.deb ...
Unpacking raspi-firmware (1.20220830+ds-1) ...
Setting up raspi-firmware (1.20220830+ds-1) ...
Error: missing /boot/firmware, did you forget to mount it?
dpkg: error processing package raspi-firmware (--configure):
 installed raspi-firmware package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 1
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.142+deb12u3) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-6.1.93
Creating initrd.gz.
raspi-firmware: missing /boot/firmware, did you forget to mount it?
run-parts: /etc/initramfs/post-update.d//z50-raspi-firmware exited with return code 1
dpkg: error processing package initramfs-tools (--configure):
 installed initramfs-tools package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 raspi-firmware
 initramfs-tools
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

strange thing is, that the mount point looks like this:

root@devuanpi:~# df -h
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
[...]
/dev/mmcblk0p1  253M   45M  209M  18% /boot/broadcom

root@devuanpi:~# cat /etc/fstab 
UUID=95DC-D2E8  /boot/broadcom  vfat    defaults 0 2

So it looks a bit difficult to get a /boot/firmware here..
Is that a error in the raspi image?

RedGreen925

Member

Registered: 2024-12-07

Posts: 191  

Re: fresh install, raspi-firmware install fails

I would go with a.

umount /dev/mmcblk0p1
mkdir /boot/firmware
mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /boot/firmware

Install the package then go back to the broken method the image is built with by reversing the changes to mount the /boot/broadcom again. I have no idea why the images are built with breaking changes that are not compatible with the debian archive files but it is the situation we find ourselves in by using it.  I used an installer from a few days before that on my Pi4 and tried to update it to the Excalibur when it released the damn thing fails on the install of the kernel and initramfs-tools. So there is something to look forward too if ever wanting to do that. Oh if the mounting idea fails then try a symbolic link of the /boot/firmware to the /boot/broadcom.

Gnostic

Member

Registered: 2023-11-11

Posts: 9  

Re: fresh install, raspi-firmware install fails

The image I started with was

rpi-devuan-daedalus-6.1.93-armel-ext4-2025-10-16-0434.img

I just ran

sudo apt-get install raspi-firmware

and got these results:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Suggested packages:
  firmware-brcm80211 bluez-firmware
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  raspi-firmware
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 4816 kB of archives.
After this operation, 22.8 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://deb.devuan.org/merged daedalus/non-free-firmware arm64 raspi-firmware all 1.20220830+ds-1 [4816 kB]
Fetched 4816 kB in 1s (4125 kB/s)         
Selecting previously unselected package raspi-firmware.
(Reading database ... 282379 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../raspi-firmware_1.20220830+ds-1_all.deb ...
Unpacking raspi-firmware (1.20220830+ds-1) ...
Setting up raspi-firmware (1.20220830+ds-1) ...
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.142+deb12u3) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-6.12.52
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/broadcom/initrd.gz

Is it because I ran it with sudo, or is there some critical difference in the builds?

RedGreen925

Member

Registered: 2024-12-07

Posts: 191  

Re: fresh install, raspi-firmware install fails

Is it because I ran it with sudo, or is there some critical difference in the builds?

I will go with difference in the builds it fails in exactly the same way here. And I see you have a 6.12.52 kernel installed somehow that fails to install on this build too as I mentioned. How did you get that kernel installed?

root@raspi:~# apt install raspi-firmware
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Suggested packages:
  firmware-brcm80211 bluez-firmware
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  raspi-firmware
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 4,816 kB of archives.
After this operation, 22.8 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://gnlug.org/pub/devuan/merged daedalus/non-free-firmware arm64 raspi-firmware all 1.20220830+ds-1 [4,816 kB]
Fetched 4,816 kB in 1s (4,678 kB/s)          
Selecting previously unselected package raspi-firmware.
(Reading database ... 70924 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../raspi-firmware_1.20220830+ds-1_all.deb ...
Unpacking raspi-firmware (1.20220830+ds-1) ...
Setting up raspi-firmware (1.20220830+ds-1) ...
Error: missing /boot/firmware, did you forget to mount it?
dpkg: error processing package raspi-firmware (--configure):
 installed raspi-firmware package post-installation script subprocess returned e
rror exit status 1
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.142+deb12u3) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-6.1.93

What does work is my suggestion for it.

root@raspi:~# df -h
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
udev            3.6G     0  3.6G   0% /dev
tmpfs           782M  4.9M  777M   1% /run
/dev/sdb2        40G  2.2G   35G   6% /
tmpfs           5.0M   12K  5.0M   1% /run/lock
tmpfs           1.6G     0  1.6G   0% /dev/shm
/dev/sdb1       499M   45M  455M   9% /boot/broadcom
tmpfs           3.9G     0  3.9G   0% /tmp
/dev/sda1       3.6T  1.2T  2.4T  34% /home/zeus/rtorrent
tmpfs           782M     0  782M   0% /run/user/1000
root@raspi:~# umount /dev/sdb1
root@raspi:~# mkdir /boot/firmware
root@raspi:~# mount /dev/sdb1 /boot/firmware
root@raspi:~# apt install raspi-firmware
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Suggested packages:
  firmware-brcm80211 bluez-firmware
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  raspi-firmware
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/4,816 kB of archives.
After this operation, 22.8 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Selecting previously unselected package raspi-firmware.
(Reading database ... 70924 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../raspi-firmware_1.20220830+ds-1_all.deb ...
Unpacking raspi-firmware (1.20220830+ds-1) ...
Setting up raspi-firmware (1.20220830+ds-1) ...
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.142+deb12u3) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-6.1.93
Creating initrd.gz.
root@raspi:~# cat /etc/os-release 
PRETTY_NAME="Devuan GNU/Linux 5 (daedalus)"
NAME="Devuan GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="5"
VERSION="5 (daedalus)"
VERSION_CODENAME="daedalus"
ID=devuan
ID_LIKE=debian
HOME_URL="https://www.devuan.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://devuan.org/os/community"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.devuan.org/"
root@raspi:~# uname -a
Linux raspi 6.1.93 #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Oct 29 02:31:11 CET 2025 aarch64 GNU/Linux

c0rnelius

Member

Registered: 2020-06-13

Posts: 55  

Re: fresh install, raspi-firmware install fails

The Devuan images are built using a fork of: https://github.com/pyavitz/rpi-img-builder
The raspi-firmware pkg contains the boot firmware, which will conflict the kernel the builder packages, as the kernel package contains the boot firmware.

mclien

Member

Registered: 2020-02-29

Posts: 133  

Re: fresh install, raspi-firmware install fails

try a symbolic link of the /boot/firmware to the /boot/broadcom.

Well, I totally overlooked that method since my brain got stuck with "you can't have new dir at the same level as the mountpoint" stupid me. The link will work anyways of course.

Problem now is, that the main purpose of that raspi was watching netflix, which apparently is not possible (al least in a painless enough way) on arm architecture.

RedGreen925

Member

Registered: 2024-12-07

Posts: 191  

Re: fresh install, raspi-firmware install fails

Problem now is, that the main purpose of that raspi was watching netflix,

If looking for a cheap small low power box and the funds are available to buy one try something like a Lenovo Think Center or the equivalent from Dell, HP ot several other brands have them too. SFF is what to search for they are more than enough to do most tasks on I got my two Think Centers with i5s, 8400t & 8500t six core, dirt cheap on Ebay for just over a $100. Wish I had went with them instead of the Pi I bought the year or two before they are much easier to deal with as they are a bog standard x86_64 computer. Easily upgraded with standard off the shelf parts nothing hanging off a dongles with flaky USB performance like a Pi has.