GNU Linux-libre 4.9-gnu is now available

[Alexandre Oliva]

GNU Linux-libre 4.9-gnu sources and tarballs are now available at
<http://www.fsfla.org/selibre/linux-libre/download/releases/4.9-gnu/>.
It didn't require any deblobbing changes since -rc7-gnu.  Binaries are
expected to show up over the next few days.

The change that enabled radeon r600 cards to initialize successfully
without blobs, that was introduced back in 4.6-gnu, extended to radeon
evergreen in 4.8-gnu, is extended to RV7xx cards in 4.9-gnu, thanks to
Edwin Török.

Besides the assorted updates to blob names and new false positives all
over the tree, the following new drivers required deblobbing: sun8i (dts
files), hci_mrvl, ziirave_wdt, and greybus.  r8723au was removed
upstream, so deblobbing for it is gone.

Another significant change was a fix for a longstanding problem in b43
and b43legacy drivers: there was a possibility that a blob name would
appear in error messages.  Once it was determined that the file prefix
that could leak always named a blob, even when the driver sought
firmware from the b43-open openfwwf implementation, I decided to clean
up all such prefixes to avoid leaks in case the code is further
rearranged upstream.  This problem has been present but undetected at
least as far back as 3.2-gnu1.  I apologize for the error, and I'll look
into backporting the fixes, though I'm not sure they justify reissuing
so many older releases and bumping the release counter: regardless of
the somewhat confusing error messages, the blobs are not requested or
loaded.



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Be Free! with GNU Linux-libre.


WHAT IS GNU Linux-libre?

  GNU Linux-libre is a Free version of the kernel Linux (see below),
  suitable for use with the GNU Operating System in 100% Free
  GNU/Linux-libre System Distributions.
  http://www.gnu.org/distros/

  It removes non-Free components from Linux, that are disguised as
  source code or distributed in separate files.  It also disables
  run-time requests for non-Free components, shipped separately or as
  part of Linux, and documentation pointing to them, so as to avoid
  (Free-)baiting users into the trap of non-Free Software.
  http://www.fsfla.org/anuncio/2010-11-Linux-2.6.36-libre-debait

  Linux-libre started within the gNewSense GNU/Linux distribution.
  It was later adopted by Jeff Moe, who coined its name, and in 2008
  it became a project maintained by FSF Latin America.  In 2012, it
  became part of the GNU Project.

  The GNU Linux-libre project takes a minimal-changes approach to
  cleaning up Linux, making no effort to substitute components that
  need to be removed with functionally equivalent Free ones.
  Nevertheless, we encourage and support efforts towards doing so.
  http://libreplanet.org/wiki/LinuxLibre:Devices_that_require_non-free_firmware

  Our mascot is Freedo, a light-blue penguin that has just come out
  of the shower.  Although we like penguins, GNU is a much greater
  contribution to the entire system, so its mascot deserves more
  promotion.  See our web page for their images.
  http://linux-libre.fsfla.org/

WHAT IS LINUX?

  Linux is a clone of the Unix kernel [...]

(snipped from the README in the source distribution of GNU Linux-libre)

-- 
Alexandre Oliva, freedom fighter    http://FSFLA.org/~lxoliva/
You must be the change you wish to see in the world. -- Gandhi
Be Free! -- http://FSFLA.org/   FSF Latin America board member
Free Software Evangelist|Red Hat Brasil GNU Toolchain Engineer