The Latin American Free Software Foundation has published the fully free version of the Linux kernel 5.17 — Linux-libre 5.17-gnu, which has been cleansed of firmware and driver elements containing non-free components or segments of code restricted by the manufacturer. Additionally, Linux-libre disables kernel features for loading external non-free components not included with the kernel and removes references to non-free components from 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.
The Linux-libre 5.17-gnu release includes code for cleaning blobs in dts files for new SoCs based on the Aarch64 architecture and in the x86-android-tablets driver for x86 architecture tablet PCs. The code for removing blobs in the tegra, bnx2x, mt7915, btmtk, and mscc drivers and subsystems has been updated.
Source: opennet.ru
