The Debian developers have announced that they are testing a new non-free-firmware repository, in which firmware packages have been moved from the non-free repository. The second alpha release of the Debian 12 "Bookworm" installer provides the ability to dynamically request firmware packages from a non-free-firmware repository. The presence of a separate repository with firmware allows you to provide access to the firmware without including a common non-free repository in the installation media.
In accordance with the previous general vote, the official images include both free firmware from the main repository and proprietary firmware previously available through the non-free repository. If you have hardware that requires external firmware, the required proprietary firmware is loaded by default. For users who prefer only free software, at the download stage, an option is provided to disable the use of non-free firmware.
The required firmware is determined by analyzing the kernel logs, which contain warnings about failures to load firmware (for example, "failed to load rtl_nic/rtl8153a-3.fw"). The log is parsed by the check-missing-firmware script called by the hw-detect component. When detecting firmware download problems, the script checks the Contents-firmware index file, which matches the names of the firmware and the packages in which they can be found. If the index is missing, firmware is searched through the contents of packages in the /firmware directory. If a firmware package is found, it is unpacked and its associated kernel modules are loaded, after which the firmware package is added to the list of installed packages, and the non-free-firmware repository is activated in the APT configuration.
Source: opennet.ru