Add Firmware

Linux kernel firmware files are normally installed in /usr/lib/firmware but in LibreELEC this directory is inside the read-only SYSTEM file preventing you from adding files. To allow user changes we support overlays. Copy firmware files and subfolders to /storage/.config/firmware and reboot. On boot the folders/files will be overlaid onto /usr/lib/firmware where kernel drivers expect to see them.

Example

The following text from dmesg shows the kernel failing to load rtl8761a_config.binwhich is needed for a Bluetooth device to work:

[    8.641489] Bluetooth: hci0: RTL: rtl: loading rtl_bt/rtl8761a_fw.bin
[    9.241371] bluetooth hci0: Direct firmware load for rtl_bt/rtl8761a_fw.bin failed with error -2

This can be fixed by creating the overlay directories and downloading the missing firmware file from the linux-firmware repository, then rebooting.

mkdir -p /storage/.config/firmware/rtl_bt
cd /storage/.config/firmware/rtl_bt
wget https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git/plain/rtl_bt/rtl8761a_fw.bin
Connecting to git.kernel.org (136.144.49.103:443)
saving to 'rtl8761a_fw.bin'
rtl8761a_fw.bin      100% |**********************************| 74488  0:00:00 ETA
'rtl8761a_fw.bin' saved
reboot

Firmware files can also be copied via the local Samba/SMB shares, as shown below: