Firmware: Add support for retrieving firmware from macOS Recovery Image

[AdityaGarg8]

No description provided.

[AdityaGarg8]

@soopyc , you may want to consider this PR when updating nixos guide

[AdityaGarg8]

@soopyc , can you test this on nixos?

[AdityaGarg8]

@sharpenedblade , can you test on fedora?

[AdityaGarg8]

@NoaHimesaka1873 @Redecorating , can you check the code for Arch. I couldn't find a better way to get dmg2img from aur.

[NoaHimesaka1873]

That seems like the most sane way to install AUR package without helper.

[AdityaGarg8]

That seems like the most sane way to install AUR package without helper.

Nice!

[AdityaGarg8]

The macOS recovery image method occasionally fails with python showing error with wifi. I've noticed that symlinks are being affected in such cases, most probably due to bad support for hfsplus on Linux. The script shows a message to try again with some other macOS version in such cases.

[AdityaGarg8]

In case someone tests and it fails at 1st attempt, but succeeds on automatic retry, do share the no of retries.

[soopyc]

@soopyc , can you test this on nixos?

The script does not work OOTB (expected), but fortunately it's possible to temporarily make packages available to use with one of the following commands.

• nix shell nixpkgs#dmg2img -c bash ./firmware.sh
• nix-shell -p dmg2img --run bash ./firmware.sh

While possible, the notion of installing packages with commands is discouraged on NixOS so I personally think the script should halt when it detects both the distro and missing packages.

Nevertheless, with this method the same thing about manually creating /lib/firmware/brcm applies. Apart from these 2 issues, the script works on both the installation environment and installed NixOS. (N.B.: The script took 5 automatic attempts and a re-run to succeed on the Live environment.)

Instructions could be added to the package manager checks, and one can detect NixOS by checking if /etc/NIXOS exists.

Minor nitpick - when creating temporary directories, prefixing them with something like firmware-{work,mount} makes things easier to manage while testing.

[AdityaGarg8]

@soopyc , can you test this on nixos?

The script does not work OOTB (expected), but fortunately it's possible to temporarily make packages available to use with one of the following commands.

• nix shell nixpkgs#dmg2img -c bash ./firmware.sh
• nix-shell -p dmg2img --run bash ./firmware.sh

While possible, the notion of installing packages with commands is discouraged on NixOS so I personally think the script should halt when it detects both the distro and missing packages.

Nevertheless, with this method the same thing about manually creating /lib/firmware/brcm applies. Apart from these 2 issues, the script works on both the installation environment and installed NixOS. (N.B.: The script took 5 automatic attempts and a re-run to succeed on the Live environment.)

I'll have to fix this thing first. Thanks for testing!

Instructions could be added to the package manager checks, and one can detect NixOS by checking if /etc/NIXOS exists.

I'm not very sure what to put here.

Minor nitpick - when creating temporary directories, prefixing them with something like firmware-{work,mount} makes things easier to manage while testing.

[AdityaGarg8]

I believe the bug has finally been fixed. Apparently if a temp directory had a "C" in its name, the lstrip command broke the code by removing "C" from the folder names in the wifi folder of source firmware. My previous assumption of broken symlinks was wrong.

Still I need tests and feedbacks from more people. @soopyc , it would be nice if you could test, since you were able to reproduce the bug before.

[soopyc]

Thanks for figuring out the bug! I wouldn't have been able to figure that out myself without a few more days :P

Anyways, I've tried running the script normally and forcing a C into the tmpdir. Both runs correctly, so unless I've messed up the position of the C, this looks good from my side.

[AdityaGarg8]

Thanks for figuring out the bug! I wouldn't have been able to figure that out myself without a few more days :P

Anyways, I've tried running the script normally and forcing a C into the tmpdir. Both runs correctly, so unless I've messed up the position of the C, this looks good from my side.

Can you try running the way you did before, maybe there could be some other hidden bug.

[AdityaGarg8]

@soopyc , can you test this now. Also share how many retries it took.

I will agree that this issue is very annoying to debug as the errors happen inconsistently. I've tried the [latest revision of the] script on various occasions, and the success rate is 80%, where the script works first try without any re-attempts. The other 20% fails completely and no automatic retries work, just like before. A re-run of the script after a while usually works. I'm starting to wonder if this is an image problem.

This way

[AdityaGarg8]

Thanks for figuring out the bug! I wouldn't have been able to figure that out myself without a few more days :P
Anyways, I've tried running the script normally and forcing a C into the tmpdir. Both runs correctly, so unless I've messed up the position of the C, this looks good from my side.

Can you try running the way you did before, maybe there could be some other hidden bug.

My bad, I just read your tried to run normally.

[AdityaGarg8]

Thanks for testing @soopyc !

[AdityaGarg8]

Is anything nixos specific required over here?

[soopyc]

The only other NixOS specific thing is to check for /lib/firmware/brcm and not just /lib/firmware with this method, as tar errors and quits if that doesn't exist.

[AdityaGarg8]

The only other NixOS specific thing is to check for /lib/firmware/brcm and not just /lib/firmware with this method, as tar errors and quits if that doesn't exist.

You probably can then update your other pr to add instructions to run this way then.

[AdityaGarg8]

Also, 8f1e8bc

[AdityaGarg8]

Updated the wiki. Preview on https://adityagarg8.github.io/wiki/guides/wifi-bluetooth/

A review is required.

[sharpenedblade]

Just mention that you need a wired internet connection for method 4 This was already there, I didnt notice

[AdityaGarg8]

Just mention that you need a wired internet connection for method 4

https://github.com/t2linux/wiki/pull/540/files#diff-b12df5aa5ceba67e40ea53c7f633b0d49c17a5ee909608930f740b3cbd77fd23R188

[soopyc]

LGTM. The part about NixOS could come in a later PR.