Developer(s) | Free Software Foundation Latin America |
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Initial release | May 19, 2008[1] |
Stable release | 3.3.2[2] / April 17, 2012 |
Development status | Active |
Written in | C and Assembly language |
Operating system | GNU |
Platform | x86, x86-64, MIPS |
Available in | English |
Type | Kernel |
License | GPL 2 |
Website | fsfla.org/svnwiki/selibre/linux-libre/index.en.html |
Linux-libre is a project that releases and maintains modified versions of the Linux kernel. Their kernel version removes any software that does not include its source code, has its source code obfuscated or released under proprietary licenses. The parts that have no source code are called binary blobs and are generally proprietary firmware which, while generally redistributable, generally do not give the user the freedom to modify or study them.
Linux-libre is endorsed by the Free Software Foundation,[3] is a major component of the totally free GNU/Linux distributions, and is maintained and released by the Free Software Foundation Latin America (FSFLA).
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Method of proprietary firmware removal
The removal process is achieved by using a script called deblob-main.[4] This script is inspired by the one used for gNewSense. Jeff Moe made subsequent modifications to meet certain requirements for its use with the BLAG Linux and GNU distribution. There is another script called deblob-check,[5] which is used to check if a kernel source file, a patch or a compressed sources file still contains software which is suspected of being proprietary.
Effects of removing proprietary firmware
Aside from the primary intended effect of running a system with only free software, the practical consequences of removing device firmware that a user is not allowed to study or modify has both positive and negative effects.
Advantages include the removal of device firmware which cannot be audited for bugs and/or security problems, or fixed by the Linux kernel maintainers themselves even if they know of them. It is possible for the entire system to be compromised by a malicious firmware, and without the ability to perform a security audit on manufacturer-provided firmware, even an innocent bug could undermine the safety of the running system.[6]
The downside of removing proprietary firmware from the kernel is that it will cause loss of functionality of certain hardware that does not have a free software replacement available. This affects certain sound, video, TV tuner, and network cards, as well as some other devices. When possible, free software replacement firmware is provided as a substitute.[7]
Availability
The source code and precompiled packages of the deblobbed Linux kernel are available directly from the distributions which use the Linux-Libre scripts. Freed-ora is a subproject which prepares and maintains RPM packages based on the Fedora kernel.[8] There are also precompiled packages for Debian[9] and derived distributions such as Ubuntu.[10]
Linux-libre distributions
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The following distributions have announced plans to use Linux-libre as its kernel:
Real-time version
The kernel of the dyne:bolic distribution has been compiled to work in real-time, giving it better performance for multimedia editing and other tasks which require hard latency guarentees.[18] In addition, a realtime kernel is available in Trisquel as an optional download.
See also
References
- ^ Free Software Foundation Latin America (May 19, 2008). "Index of /download/linux-libre/releases/old/gen1/2.6.26-libre-rc". http://www.fsfla.org/download/linux-libre/releases/old/gen1/2.6.26-libre-rc/?C=M;O=A. Retrieved December 6, 2011.
- ^ Free Software Foundation Latin America (January 9, 2011). "Index of /download/linux-libre/releases". http://fsfla.org/svnwiki/selibre/linux-libre/download/releases/?C=M;O=A. Retrieved December 6, 2011.
- ^ Free Software Foundation. "Linux (BLOB free version)". Free Software Directory. http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Linux_%28BLOB_free_version%29. Retrieved December 6, 2011. "[...] in the interest of freedom, we are providing a link to a version of the kernel in which this proprietary code has been removed so that it is entirely free software"
- ^ Free Software Foundation Latin America. "How it is done". Linux-libre, Free as in Freedo. http://fsfla.org/svnwiki/selibre/linux-libre/index.en.html#how. Retrieved December 6, 2011.
- ^ "fsfla - Revision 8200: /software/linux-libre/scripts". Free Software Foundation Latin America. http://fsfla.org/svn/fsfla/software/linux-libre/scripts/. Retrieved December 6, 2011.
- ^ Delugré, Guillaume (2010-11-21). "Reversing the Broacom NetExtreme's Firmware" (PDF). hack.lu. Sogeti. http://esec-lab.sogeti.com/dotclear/public/publications/10-hack.lu-nicreverse_slides.pdf. Retrieved 2012-04-18.
- ^ "LinuxLibre:Devices that require non-free firmware". LibrePlanet. 2011-02-05. http://libreplanet.org/wiki/LinuxLibre:Devices_that_require_non-free_firmware. Retrieved 2012-04-17.
- ^ Free Software Foundation Latin America. "Linux-libre's Freed-ora project". http://fsfla.org/svnwiki/selibre/linux-libre/freed-ora. Retrieved December 6, 2011. "Freed-ora is a sub-project that prepares and maintains 100% Free RPMs that track Fedora's non-Free kernels"
- ^ Millan, Robert (April 23, 2009). "Linux-libre for Debian Lenny". [Debian Mailing Lists] Announcements for developers mailing list. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2009/04/msg00010.html. Retrieved May 12, 2009. "This is to announce that Debian packages of Linux-libre [...] are now available for Lenny users who want to use them [...]"
- ^ Gündüz, Ali. "Uncle Gnufs' World Famous Home Baked Free Kernel Shoppe". aligunduz.org. http://aligunduz.org/gNewSense/. Retrieved December 6, 2011.
- ^ Arch Linux (August 9, 2011). "linux-libre 3.1-2". AUR. https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=51364. Retrieved December 6, 2011.
- ^ Fossi, Damián (August 24, 2009). "Linux-Libre: Resumen del proyecto [Linux-Libre: Proyect abstract]" (in Castilian). Forja. http://forja.softwarelibre.gob.ve/projects/linux-libre/. Retrieved December 6, 2001.
- ^ "ConnochaetOS". http://www.connochaetos.org/wiki/. Retrieved December 6, 2011. "ConnochaetOS [...] feature: a current Linux-Libre “LTS” kernel [...]"
- ^ O'Kelly, Tim (April 14, 2009). "Bug 266157". Gentoo's Bugzilla. Gentoo Linux. https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=266157. Retrieved December 6, 2011.
- ^ RMS GNU/Linux-libre (2011). "RMS GNU/Linux-libre". http://rmsgnulinux.com.ar/. Retrieved December 6, 2011.
- ^ The Trisquel Project. "How Trisquel is Made". Trisquel GNU/Linux. https://trisquel.info/en/wiki/how-trisquel-made. Retrieved December 6, 2011. "To provide our users with a fully free kernel we use a set of scripts based in the ones from Linux-libre, with some modifications of our own"
- ^ "Index of /repos/venenux/pool/principal/l/linux-source-2.6.28.7-venenux-libre". VENENUX GNU/LINUX. August 24, 2009. http://venenux.org/repos/venenux/pool/principal/l/linux-source-2.6.28.7-venenux-libre/. Retrieved December 6, 2011.
- ^ a b jaromil (September 10, 2008). "[LAT] hello, dyne:bolic -rt and freeeee". [Fundación Software Libre América Latina] Linux-audio-tuning mailing list. http://lists.linuxaudio.org/pipermail/linux-audio-tuning/2008-September/000059.html. Retrieved December 6, 2011.
- ^ "ftp://musix.ourproject.org/pub/musix/deb/kernel/2.6.26-libre-rt [Index of ftp://musix.ourproject.org/]" (in Castilian). Índice de ftp://musix.ourproject.org/. ftp://musix.ourproject.org/pub/musix/deb/kernel/2.6.26-libre-rt. Retrieved December 6, 2011.
External links
- Linux-libre, Free as in Freedo (official site)
- Linux (BLOB free version)
- The Linux Kernel Archives
- Free Software Corsica official .deb builder for the Free Software Latino America since 2010
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