GNU Linux-Libre 6.8 Kernel Released for Software Freedom Lovers

This kernel is targeted at those who want to build a 100% free computer that doesn't include any proprietary code.
Marius Nestorby Marius Nestor0
GNU Linux-Libre 6.8

The GNU Linux-libre project announced today the release and general availability of the GNU Linux-libre 6.8 kernel for those who seek 100% freedom for their GNU/Linux computers and software freedom lovers.

Based on the just-released Linux 6.8 kernel series, the GNU Linux-libre 6.8 kernel is here to clean up new drivers for Intel qat_420xx, Imagination PowerVR, Intel Xe, Chips and Media Wave5, Intel VSC, Aquantia PHY, and Realtek rtw8922a.

The GNU Linux-libre 6.8 kernel release also adjusts the cleaning of the coda driver as it was moved in the upstream “source” tree, cleans up new blob names in the ARM and AArch64 devicetree files, removes cleaning of the atmel, hermes, orinoco_usb, libertas_cs, and zd1201 drivers since they were removed upstream, adjusts wording in .deb packaging, and attempts to fix issues with the Intel i915 driver.

“Last year, we learned about infinite loops on certain i915 hardware variants, as they attempted to fall back to earlier blob variants that we had cleaned up to indistinguishable names,” said the devs. “We fixed that and even contributed the patch upstream. It wasn’t taken, but other changes were made in response to our patch, that made the driver much noisier in our case. Booting with i915.enable_guc=0 will avoid the apparent freeze on systems affected by this problem.”

The GNU Linux-libre kernel is targeted at software freedom lovers and Linux purists who want to build a 100% free GNU/Linux computer without any proprietary drivers or code. You can download the latest release’s compressed tarballs right now from the official website.

Ready-to-use binary packages for Debian-based (DEB) and Red Hat-based (RPM) distributions can be found at the Freesh project and RPM Freedom. The GNU Linux-libre kernel can be installed on virtually any GNU/Linux distribution alongside or as a replacement for the standard kernel.

Image credits: GNU Linux-libre project

Last updated 2 months ago

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