The Latin American Free Software Foundation has released a fully free version of the Linux kernel 7.1 — Linux-libre 7.1-gnu, cleaned of firmware and driver elements that contain non-free components or code segments restricted by the manufacturer. In Linux-libre, kernel features for loading external non-free components not included with the kernel have also been disabled, and references to the use of non-free components have been removed from the documentation.
To clean the kernel from non-free parts, the Linux-libre project has created a universal shell script that contains thousands of templates to detect the presence of binary inserts and exclude false positives. Pre-made patches created based on the use of the aforementioned script are also available for download. The Linux-libre kernel is recommended for use in distributions that meet the Free Software Foundation's criteria for building fully free GNU/Linux distributions. For example, Linux-libre is used in distributions such as GNU Guix System, Dragora Linux, Trisquel, Dyne:Bolic, gNewSense, Parabola, Musix, and Kongoni.
The Linux-libre 7.1-gnu release includes an updated blob-cleaning code in the drivers Nova-core, btmtk, qat_6xxx, amdgpu, m88ds3103, saa7164, r8169, ath12k, mt792x, and mt7996. Issues with compilation using Rust have been resolved. Blob cleanup has been provided for new drivers
for Lontium LT8713SX DP MST and Realtek 802.11be 8922D chips. Blob names have been cleaned in the dts files (device tree) for the Aarch64 architecture. Cleanup of the drivers fore200e, acenic, yam, smc91c92_cs, and speedfax has been discontinued as they were removed from the kernel.
Source: opennet.ru
