Raspi-firmware: missing /boot/firmware, did you forget to mount it

When installing Debian 12.0 using the live image, the raspi-firmware package will be also installed. However, this is not required on x86 systems and should therefore be deinstalled. If raspi-firmware is present, however, it causes the following error when installing a kernel update: raspi-firmware: missing /boot/firmware, did you forget to mount it?.

Problem

Debian 12.0 was installed via live image. When attempting to install updates using sudo apt dist-upgrade, the following error occurs:

/etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools:
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-6.1.0-10-amd64
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
run-parts: /etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools exited with return code 1
dpkg: error processing package linux-image-6.1.0-10-amd64 (--configure):
 installed linux-image-6.1.0-10-amd64 package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 1

It is no longer possible to deinstall raspi-firmware without first performing some preparatory steps. The deinstallation will fail otherwise.

Solution

First, the new kernel must be deinstalled. Remove raspi-firmware and reinstall linux-image-amd64. After this, updates are possible without problems:

1. sudo apt purge linux-image-6.1.0-10-amd64

   This will remove two packages: The following packages will be REMOVED: linux-image-6.1.0-10-amd64* linux-image-amd64* sudo apt purge raspi-firmware

2. sudo apt install linux-image-amd64

   This will reinstall both packages due to their dependencies: The following NEW packages will be installed: linux-image-6.1.0-10-amd64 linux-image-amd64

More information

• Errors while updating system or install new packages Debian 12 (Solved sort of) (forums.debian.net, 12.06.2023)
• Bookworm amd64 live install ISO RC1 and RC2 install pointless raspi-firmware package (bugs.debian.org)
• raspi-firmware: unowned files after purge (policy 6.8, 10.8): /boot/firmware/fixup*.dat, /boot/firmware/start*.elf, /boot/firmware/bootcode.bin (bugs.debian.org)

Author: Werner Fischer Werner Fischer, working in the Knowledge Transfer team at Thomas-Krenn, completed his studies of Computer and Media Security at FH Hagenberg in Austria. He is a regular speaker at many conferences like LinuxTag, OSMC, OSDC, LinuxCon, and author for various IT magazines. In his spare time he enjoys playing the piano and training for a good result at the annual Linz marathon relay.

Translator: Alina Ranzinger Alina has been working at Thomas-Krenn.AG since 2024. After her training as multilingual business assistant, she got her job as assistant of the Product Management and is responsible for the translation of texts and for the organisation of the department.