Missing firmware to network boot Debian installer via iPXE using Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 NIC

Question

I am using iPXE to network boot Debian bullseye via TP Link TG-3468 NIC. The network card is using Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 15) as according to the Linux lspci -vv.

Booting to iPXE work and it can load the initrd.gz till it complaint missing firmware:

Aug 12 11:09:29 check-missing-firmware:looking for firmware file rtl_nic/rtl8125b-2.fw requested by r8169
Aug 12 11:09:29 check-missing-firmware:missing firmware files (rtl_nic/rtl8168h-2.fw rtl_niczrtl8125b-2.fw) for r8169
Aug 12 11:09:39 check-missing-firmware:removing and loading kernel module r8169
Aug 12 11:09:40 kernel: [ 26.5222761 r8169 0000:01:00.0 eth0: RTL8168h/8111h, 51:af:97:97:cf:cf, XID 541. IRQ 49
Aug 12 11:09:40 kernel: [ 26.5222781 r8169 0000:01:00.0 eth0: jumbo features [frames:9194 bytes, tx checksumming: ko]
Aug 12 11:09:40 kernel: [ 26.5227331 r8169 0000:04:00.0 enp4s0: renamed from eth0
Aug 12 11:09:40 net/hw-detect.hotplug: Detected hotpluggable network interface enp4s0
Aug 12 11:09:40 check-missing-firmware: taking network interface enp4s0 up/down
Aug 12 11:09:40 kernel: [ 26.549920] r8169 0000:06:00.0 eth0: RTL8125B, a8:a1:59:9b:b7:cb, XID 641. IRQ 68
Aug 12 11:09:40 kernel: [ 26.549921] r8169 0000:06:00.0 eth0: jumbo features [frames:9194 bytes, tx checksumming: ko]
Aug 12 11:09:40 kernel: [ 26.550296] r8169 0000:06:00.0 enp6s0: renamed from eth0
Aug 12 11:09:40 net/hu-detect.hotplug: Detected hotpluggable network interface enр6s0
Aug 12 11:09:40 kernel: [ 26.582111] r8169 0000:04:00.0: firmware: failed to load rtl_nic/rtl8168h-2.fw (-2)
Aug 12 11:09:40 kernel: [ 26.582112] r8169 0000:04:00.0: Direct firmware load for rtl_nic/rtl8168h-2.fw failed with error -2
Aug 12 11:09:40 kernel: [ 26.582114] r8169 0000:04:00.0: Unable to load firmware rtl_nic/rtl8168h-2.fw (-2)
Aug 12 11:09:40 kernel: [ 26.609688] Generic FE-GE Realtek PHY r8169-0-400:00: attached PHY driver [Generic FE-GE Realtek PHY] (mii_bus:phy_addr=r8169-0-400:00, irq-IGNORE)
Aug 12 11:09:40 kernel: [ 26.733651] r8169 0000:04:00.0 enp4s0: Link is Down
Aug 12 11:09:40 check-missing-firmware: taking network interface еnр6s0 up/down
Aug 12 11:09:40 kernel: [ 26.743025] r8169 0000:06:00.0: firmware: failed to load rtl_nic/rtl8125b-2.fw (-2)
Aug 12 11:09:40 kernel: [ 26.7430271 r8169 0000:06:00.0: Direct firmware load for rtl_nic/rtl8125b-2.fw failed with error -2
Aug 12 11:09:40 kernel: [ 26.743029] r8169 0000:06:00.0: Unable to load firmware rtl_nic/rtl8125b-2.fw (-2)
Aug 12 11:09:40 kernel: [ 26.769682] RTL82268_RTL8221B 2.5Gbps PHY r8169-0-600:00: attached PHY driver [RTL8226B_RTL8221B 2.5G bps PHY] (mii_bus:phy_addr=r8169-0-600:00, irq=IGNORE)
Aug 12 11:09:40 kernel: [ 26.893858] r8169 0000:06:00.0 enp6s0: Link is Down
Aug 12 11:09:40 check-missing-firmware: taking network interface enp5s0 up/down
Aug 12 11:09:41 check-missing-firmware: looking at dmesg again, restarting from timestamp: [ 15.137846]
Aug 12 11:09:41 check-missing-firmware: timestamp found, truncating dmesg accordingly
Aug 12 11:09:41 check-missing-firmware: looking for firmware file rtl_nic/rtl8168h-2.fw requested by r8169
Aug 12 11:09:41 check-missing-firmware: looking for firmware file rtl_nic/rtl8125b-2.fw requested by r8169
Aug 12 11:09:41 check-missing-firmware: missing firmware files (rtl_nic/rtl8168h-2.fw rtl_nic/rtl8125b-2.fw) for r8169

I have another Intel I210 network card and it boot the live ISO smoothly.

Is the Realtek NIC not fit work with network booting?

Answer 1

You are missing rtl8168h-2.fw. You have other variants but not this one.

I found what seems to be the firmware at wkennington / linux-firmware.

You need to install it, because the boot for some reason won't accept another version.

Answer 2

A discussion in iPXE group, the author gave a solution using the magic initrd strategy:

set inst-dir http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/installer-amd64/current/images/netboot/debian-installer/amd64
kernel ${inst-dir}/linux initrd=initrd.magic auto=true priority=critical
initrd ${inst-dir}/initrd.gz
initrd http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/firmware/stable/current/firmware.cpio.gz
boot