Module failure on new install of Debian Bullseye

[Leslie Rhorer <lesrhorer@att.net>]

     If this is the wrong list, please let me know the correct one so I 
can subscribe and post there.

     Two of my servers are having bizarre problems after upgrading to 
Debian Bullseye.  After attempting numerous fixes, I decided to wipe the 
systems and do a fresh install.  I did a fresh install of he first from 
a netinst thumb drive, but the .iso does not contain the bnx2c drivers 
needed for the ASUS PEB-10G/57811-1S 10GbE SFP+ Network Adapters used by 
both systems.  I tried adding what I thought to be the correct non-free 
drivers, but I still got errors about the bnx2x drivers and the 
interface shows no carrier.  Since no carrier is detected on the 
interface, no LAN or internet access is possible.  The system is 
effectively dead, although it boots up and of course I have local 
console access.

     After several different approaches, I changed from the netinst 
image to a full non-free image.  It still would not properly load the 
bnx2x drivers.  I tried downloading all six bnx2x e1, e1h, and e2 
release 7.13.15.0 and 7.13.21.0 firmware files and adding them to the 
initram image.  It no longer complains about missing files, but it 
doesn't activate the NIC, either.  These servers are both essentially 
dead in the water until I can get this fixed.

     The only thing I spot from dmesg that seems possibly related is:

[    1.420748] r8169 0000:0b:00.0: can't disable ASPM; OS doesn't have 
ASPM control
[    1.433467] r8169 0000:0b:00.0 eth0: RTL8168f/8111f, 
50:46:5d:65:15:9c, XID 480, IRQ 39
[    1.433469] r8169 0000:0b:00.0 eth0: jumbo features [frames: 9194 
bytes, tx checksumming: ko]
...
[    1.458361] r8169 0000:0b:00.0 enp11s0: renamed from eth0
[    1.465675] bnx2x: disagrees about version of symbol module_layout
...
[   12.976323] r8169 0000:0b:00.0: firmware: failed to load 
rtl_nic/rtl8168f-1.fw (-2)
[   12.976478] firmware_class: See https://wiki.debian.org/Firmware for 
information about missing firmware
[   12.976632] r8169 0000:0b:00.0: Direct firmware load for 
rtl_nic/rtl8168f-1.fw failed with error -2
[   12.976636] r8169 0000:0b:00.0: Unable to load firmware 
rtl_nic/rtl8168f-1.fw (-2)
[   12.977326] RTL8211E Gigabit Ethernet r8169-0-b00:00: attached PHY 
driver [RTL8211E Gigabit Ethernet] (mii_bus:phy_addr=r8169-0-b00:00, 
irq=IGNORE)
[   13.046445] r8169 0000:0b:00.0 enp11s0: Link is Down

     I would not expect the RTL8168 or RTL8169 firmware to be necessary, 
but is it?  Either way, why isn't it on the image?  I would ask the same 
thing about the bnx2x drivers, but they seem to have a bit of a history 
of being fragmented.  All that aside, how can I get this fixed in a hurry?

     This is an AMD system with an 8 core FX-8350 CPU.  The install 
image is Debian GNU/Linux 11.3.0 "Bullseye" - Unofficial amd64 DVD 
Binary-1 with firmware 20220326-11:23.  I pulled the extra firmware from

git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git/tree/bnx2x/