14.2R/errata: news: inclusion of Wi-Fi firmware

[grahamperrin]

Expand upon the second of the four highlights that were announced on 3rd December.

[grahamperrin]

Affects:

• late-breaking news at https://www.freebsd.org/releases/14.2R/errata/#late-news.

https://old.reddit.com/r/freebsd/comments/1gxn0qf/freebsd_142rc1_now_available/lyi74ou/ (@cperciva, 2024-11-23) noted, and I'll emphasise:

The biggest change in 14.2-RC1 is that the installer images contain some wifi firmware, and the installer knows how to download and install firmware packages.

This is important for solving the chicken-and-egg problem of systems which need firmware packages in order to connect to the internet – it's hard to download and install firmware if you don't already have the firmware you need to connect to the internet. …

https://www.freebsd.org/releases/14.2R/announce/, second point:

• The installer now supports downloading and installing necessary firmware packages after installing the FreeBSD base system.

It's certainly a highlight, however the phrase lacked the chicken/egg context.

From FreeBSD 14.2: What’s new, and how did we get here? | FreeBSD Foundation:

Installer Improvements: The bsdinstall(8) utility now supports post-installation firmware downloads​.

– similarly lacking the chicken/egg context.

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https://forums.theregister.com/forum/all/2024/12/05/freebsd_142/#c_4978438 did note new capabilities. A valid question remained:

So no LAN and only WiFi how am I supposed to 'download' these firmwares …

@jrtc27 offered an answer there (thank you).

Let's have a comparable statement in an official area. A single, authoritative point of reference. Late-breaking news seems appropriate.

From the Foundation's post:

… Before starting the installation, it is advisable to check the release errata for any recent issues or updates.y recent issues or updates.

(I'll contact Marketing for a correction to that sentence.)

Thanks