GNU Linux-libre 5.8 Required A Lot Of Deblobbing

Linux 5.8 is one of the biggest releases in a while but that newly-stable kernel also means a lot of the new drivers need to be stripped out or otherwise modified over being reliant on binary-only firmware/microcode or contingent upon other dependencies deemed not free to the Free Software Foundation standards.

GNU Linux-libre 5.8-gnu was released today by Alexandre Oliva of the FSF Latin America team. He commented of the Linux 5.8 changes, "This was quite a big release. New drivers that required cleaning up were for Atom ISP Video, MediaTek 7663 USB and 7915 PCIe and Realtek 8723DE WiFi, Renesas PCI xHCI, HabanaLabs Gaudi coprocessor, Enhanced Asynchronous Sample Rate Converter, Maxim Integrated MAX98390 Speaker Aimplifier, Microsemi ZL38060 Connected Home Audio Processor, and I2C EEPROM Slave. Drivers for Adreno GPU, HabanaLabs Goya coprocessor, x86 Touchscreen, vt6656 and btbcm, and various documentation files needed adjustments to their cleaning-up details."

He also noted that for the scripts they use in purifying the kernel, a transition is underway for using Python and Perl rather than GNU awk or Sed. GNU Awk is much faster for the GNU Linux-libre purposes but consumes several GB of RAM where as Python/Perl can complete in "a few tens of MBs." GNU Sed meanwhile appears to be performing slower than in the past for their deblob checking.

The deblobbed GNU-blessed Linux 5.8 kernel is available from FSFLA.org.