GNU Linux-libre 6.5-gnu Released With More Kernel Deblobbing

[andyprough]

Absolutely works for bragging rights and some terribly outdated nearly unusable hardware.

Yes, like my 2-year old laptop. Very outdated. Works just as long as you don't allow nVidia trash anywhere near it.

[andyprough]

I was thinking exactly the same thing and, with all due respect to the team behind it, I have a hard time imagining a scenario where using it would be realistic and prolific.

If you like a very lightweight and responsive kernel and you aren't doing anything that requires lots of weird built-in non-free modules and you avoid allowing any nVidia trash near your system (which you should be doing anyway) then this kernel is for you.

[andyprough]

What exactly are you trying to achieve by running the deblobbed kernel? No one in the whole fucking world cares that you're running such a kernel. No one cares you're wasting your time trying to run it. I'm 1000% sure not a single person who runs such a kernel has actually read the code which makes this a perfect exercise in futility. And if you've not read the code, you're trusting it's "clean" which makes you exactly the same person who trusts the blobs.

I've read the code. Many times. It's not terribly lengthy. Next moronic question?

[avis]

Which means that at the very least you deliberately disabled hardware video acceleration for your GPU because it doesn't work without firmware. Nice to know that you installed the deblobbed kernel just to main your system and make it run hotter/noisier. And of course everyone believes you're running this kernel. We should just take your words for granted. LMAO.

[andyprough]

Which means that at the very least you deliberately disabled hardware video acceleration for your GPU because it doesn't work without firmware. Nice to know that you installed the deblobbed kernel just to main your system and make it run hotter/noisier. And of course everyone believes you're running this kernel. We should just take your words for granted. LMAO.

Yes, very noisy and hot. My desk is like a teakettle, bubbling and spitting and belching flames and steam and smoke. How I ever get any work ever done, I'll never know. Sometimes it just starts lurching and moving toward my office door and down the hallway like a runaway steam train, and I have to call the fire department. The folks in HR are starting to grumble about the constant interruptions I'm causing to the whole building.

Honest question - have you ever actually run a computer, or do you write all these genius comments from an iPhone or something?

You know what I miss? I miss birdie, his comments were always so intelligent and reasonable. May he rest in peace. He's proof that the good die young.

[avis]

You're good at creating prose, is there anything of essence you'd like to add? I guess not, considering the first long paragraph written in jest, the second being the question for the question and the third one being personal, and, no, I've never owned a single device made or designed by Apple in my entire life. I'm upset with myself today, as there is a number of people here I should be ignoring and I did a mistake of neglecting this. Thanks for proving I should stick to my rules. I expressed a very valid concern in regard to running the deblobbed kernel (the discussion started with people expressing doubts about this kernel applicability) and you did your best to completely turn it inside out. Hah, hah, so funny. Not.

BTW I own a laptop with Radeon 780M graphics and it simply won't initialize graphics and the kernel will instead panic (yes, exactly, panic) if there's no GPU firmware. It took me quite a while to make it work because I needed to run a yet to be released kernel. And without firmware its WiFi/BT adapter won't work either.

Speaking of AMD: I've discovered a major issue with this laptop's UEFI BIOS, AMD has the people and power to force the OEM to fix it (it's the issue with the AMD provided SMU) and AMD has told me to fuck off:

Since [redacted], I would recommend you contact [OEM] and let them know about it providing all this information.

Meanwhile I will also pass on your feedback and observations internally.

I appreciate your support and understanding.

That's it. I've contacted my OEM 12 times already. Been doing that for close to two months. No BIOS updates for a brand new AMD laptop with a Phoenix APU which is not working as intended.

But here on Phoronix forums, "the deblobbed kernel is perfectly usable" (a lie), AMD provides top notch support for its HW under Linux (also a lie). They provide support, which is neither perfect, nor complete.

[andyprough]

But here on Phoronix forums, "the deblobbed kernel is perfectly usable" (a lie)

Well, people who use deblobbed kernels do tend to check hardware compatibility prior to making a purchase. I mean, that's only wise. But yes, I am using "new" hardware just fine. Intel integrated graphics work best, for what it's worth. Wifi and bluetooth probably won't work unless you add an Atheros card or USB dongle of some sort, as nearly all of the rest of those devices use proprietary firmware. I have my own Atheros USB wifi devices, so I don't spend time worrying about it. You could simply add the non-free firmware to run non-free devices, but then what would be the point of using the Linux-Libre kernel?

[OneTimeShot]

Yawn... the usual Nvidia apologists are here I see.

If you've got hardware that works without BLOBs (I guess there's a hardware compatibility list), then using a deblobbed kernel doesn't seem too crazy to me... Each to their own, I guess...

[chocolate]

Is there a use case for this kernel build despite the absence of key features like hardware acceleration, which rely on binary blobs and firmware?

Yes. There exist machines, as well as peripherals and accelerators, that can be used just fine with this kernel. Users of such machines may be FOSS enthusiasts and/or people that are satisfied with a known hardware configuration which is considered all around reasonably safe for their purposes, and don't want to run the risk of updating their configuration to new, untrusted blobs, if applicable to their hardware (which is, after all, not a given).
The project has also historically pushed boundaries for code purity and quality, where for example a piece of kernel code could look like a blob, but was actually (generated) free software. This improves the quality of Linux upstream.
How much one values Linux being scrutinized this way is largely subjective. However, its stance of only accepting "unmistakably libre" kernel code objectively helps other projects, although you will probably find them, once again, of subjective importance. One such project is the FSF's RYF labeling, which allows the aforementioned groups of people to find hardware they may find suitable.

What exactly are you trying to achieve by running the deblobbed kernel? No one in the whole fucking world cares that you're running such a kernel. No one cares you're wasting your time trying to run it. I'm 1000% sure not a single person who runs such a kernel has actually read the code which makes this a perfect exercise in futility. And if you've not read the code, you're trusting it's "clean" which makes you exactly the same person who trusts the blobs.

As opposed to the world caring about people that get angry at other people for having a legitimate interest? Or even those interested parties caring about you telling them how to live their life?
The argument of the code being read by the end user gets us nowhere. We all rely on a chain of trust somewhere. Linux-libre not allowing non-libre kernel code is one piece of the puzzle toward shortening that chain of trust. You may disagree, but why antagonize the effort? Nowadays you can't just "read" all the code. Even if you had the time, you may read it all and miss all the important bugs. But you may launch automated tools on it in order to find bugs. This is done by developers and researchers alike, and in one instance has shown e.g. GNU coreutils being of higher quality than the equivalents on other OSes. The code being libre means you, or someone in your chain of trust, may compile it employing new compiler techniques to harden the binaries and make them more resistant to classes of malware, which yes, will still be a thing if needing to access untrusted websites or exchanging files and documents. There's a myriad other things to consider in a post-whistleblower world and this is no laughing matter. Hell, the Chinese even follow their dissidents in foreign states and prosecute them with an illegal police force.
You already know all this... you just choose to be needlessly antagonizing.

Which means that at the very least you deliberately disabled hardware video acceleration for your GPU because it doesn't work without firmware. Nice to know that you installed the deblobbed kernel just to main your system and make it run hotter/noisier. And of course everyone believes you're running this kernel. We should just take your words for granted. LMAO.

That's not very nice, there's a good chance someone adopting this kernel wouldn't want to leave explicit traces anywhere just to tell a disinterested stranger on a forum. Using it on all of one's machines, or just the one machine, or only a few out of many, doesn't change anything. birdie, whatever agreeable or useful comments you may leave here and there completely get overshadowed by your behavior in instances like these. It's about time to stop raining on other people's parades, especially at every single Linux-libre announcement. It's verging on pathological.

[mb_q]

Heh, they have changed their racist logo into one dangerously close to infringing Lego's IP (there were suits about it). And ugly (;