The Latin American Free Software Foundation has released a fully free version of the Linux kernel 5.14 — Linux-libre 5.14-gnu1, which has been cleansed of firmware and driver elements containing non-free components or code sections restricted by manufacturers. Additionally, Linux-libre disables the kernel's ability to load non-free components not included with the kernel while removing references to the use of non-free components in the documentation.
To cleanse the kernel of non-free parts, a universal shell script has been created within the Linux-libre project, containing thousands of patterns to identify the presence of binary blobs and exclude false positives. Ready-to-use patches, made based on 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, the Linux-libre kernel is used in distributions like Dragora Linux, Trisquel, Dyne:Bolic, gNewSense, Parabola, Musix, and Kongoni.
In the new release, blob loading in the new eftc and qcom arm64 drivers is disabled. The blob cleansing code in the btrtl, amdgpu, adreno, i915, sp8870, av7110, r8188eu, btqca, and xhci-pci-renesas drivers and subsystems has been updated. Notably, changes have been made to the code for cleansing microcode for x86 systems, as well as addressing previously missed blobs in loading components for powerpc 8xx systems and in micro-patches for firmware for vs6624 sensors. Since the aforementioned blobs were present in earlier kernel releases, updates have been formed for previously released versions of Linux-libre 5.13, 5.10, 5.4, 4.19, 4.14, 4.9, and 4.4, labeled as "-gnu1".
Source: opennet.ru
