Ubuntu 15.10 Server; W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/ast_dp501_fw.bin for module ast

Ubuntuubuntu-15.10

I'm running Ubuntu 15.10 server on a Asrock E3C226D2I board. When I get a kernel update or run update-initramfs -u I get a warning about missing firmware:

root@fileserver:~# update-initramfs -u
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.2.0-27-generic
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/ast_dp501_fw.bin for module ast

I can't find much information on this particular firmware, other than it is probably for my video card. Since I'm running a server I don't really care about graphics (no monitor attached).

All works fine so I'm ignoring it for now but is there a way to fix this?

Best Answer

Its annoying, but harmless. That is coming from the Aspeed VGA module from the IPMI on your server/workstation. It can be safely ignored for now. I took a quick look at the source code of the aspeed DRM driver. It is hardcoded at runtime to look for /lib/firmware/ast_dp501_fw.bin. This provides a way to update for firmware issues at runtime versus needing to be flashed onto the hardware.

Here is the lspci output showing the video card in question from my Asus Workstation which has the same "issue" as it were:

lspci |grep -i aspeed
 01:01.0 VGA compatible controller: ASPEED Technology, Inc. ASPEED Graphics Family (rev 10)

Aspeed's drivers and source for drivers are here (but you shouldn't need them from there unless you have a Windows server):

http://www.aspeedtech.com/support.php?fPath=24

Here is the Bug report: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1751613

Final(?) Update: I assume this particular error will be there forever since it's on End of Life hardware. The bug above remains in expired status since 2018-04-28.

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