GNU Linux-libre 5.15-gnu

Mon Nov 1 00:19:48 UTC 2021

GNU Linux-libre 5.15-gnu cleaning-up scripts, cleaned-up sources, and
cleaning-up logs (including tarball signatures) are now available from
our git-based release archive git://linux-libre.fsfla.org/releases.git/
tags {scripts,sources,logs}/v5.15-gnu.

Compressed tarballs and incremental patches are also available at
<https://www.fsfla.org/selibre/linux-libre/download/releases/5.15-gnu/>.

Jason Self mentioned the other day that Freesh build infrastructure was
all set for 5.15-gnu, so .debs are going to be available any moment now.
Thanks, Jason!

Freed-ora is going to take a while longer, as usual, because it tracks
builds from another upstream.  An fc36 build is expected some time
tomorrow, and then I'll base my *last* fc36 build on it.  I am willing
to take care of fc3[345] builds till the end of their cycles, if nobody
else steps up, but I am not going to proceed into the next cycle.  I'll
be very glad to lend a hand and share recommendations and procedures
with anyone willing to take it up.

Cleaning up scripts haven't changed since rc6, the first -gnu prerelease
in this series.  I've fixed our he cleaning-up of the mkspec script, so
rpm packaging should now work (thanks for the reports!), and while at
that I adjusted the name that goes in snap packages (IMHO no project
should label itself "upstream", and the project that we call upstream is
no exception :-)

There's also a new message printed at the end of cleaning-up, in case of
success, and comments next to it suggesting other steps to verify that
the cleaning up results are good.

The changes above have been backported to active branches, and they are
already present in last week's releases.

This upstream release introduced an option to enable -Werror during
compilation.  Most of our cleaning-up amounts to replacing undesirable
bits by /*(DEBLOBBED)*/, which often leaves unused variables and
functions behind.  Sometimes we clean up blob names or links to non-free
software in comments, which seems to start a nested comment.  Very
often, we clean up format strings used to construct firmware names,
which renders the printf arguments unused.  These are all expected for a
tree cleaned up with the current machinery, so I've arranged for
warnings about these issues to not be bumped to errors even if
CONFIG_WERROR is enabled.  The ongoing manual cleanup towards the git
history librewrite project, not constrained by the current machinery,
will clean things up at the point of introduction, in a less mechanical
way, so such warnings will probably not come up, but that's still going
to be a while.

As for the usual, this release needed updates to the cleaning-up of
adreno, btusb, btintel, and brcmfmac drivers, as well as to a new
aarch64 qcom variant's devicetree file.  The prism54 driver was removed
upstream (p54 remains), so we dropped its cleaning up.  The rtl8188eu
driver was also dropped upstream, in favor of the newly-added r8188eu.
Though we appreciate the removal of drivers that only work in the
presence of blobs, the replacement drivers are just as dependent on
blobs as the removed ones.

Another new driver that got cleaned up is gehc-achc.  I haven't been
able to figure out what this driver is for, nor find a distribution of
the firmware it loads to check for sources and license.  The requested
firmware does not appear to be user-supplied code, so I assumed it's
vendor-supplied non-Free Software, and inactivated its loading.  If you
find it's Free Software, user-supplied code, or plain data, please send
the evidence our way!

For up-to-the-minute news, join us on IRC (#gnu-linux-libre on
libera.chat), or follow me on P2P or federated social media (the link in
my signature has directions).

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/

  If you are the author of an awesome program and want to join us in
  writing Free (libre) Software, please consider making it an official
  GNU program and become a GNU Maintainer.  You can find instructions
  on how to do so at https://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation.  We look
  forward to hacking with you! :)

What is Linux?
--------------

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

(snipped from Documentation/admin-guide/README.rst)

-- 
Alexandre Oliva, happy hacker                https://FSFLA.org/blogs/lxo/
   Free Software Activist                       GNU Toolchain Engineer
Disinformation flourishes because many people care deeply about injustice
but very few check the facts.  Ask me about <https://stallmansupport.org>