14 DAY TRIAL // GNU Linux-libre, a non-profit organization chartered to develop and promote a deblobbed, libre Linux kernel for GNU/Linux distributions, announced the official availability of the GNU Linux-libre 4.11-gnu kernel.
The GNU Linux-libre 4.11-gnu kernel is, of course, based on the recently released Linux 4.11 kernel, which introduces initial support for Intel Gemini Lake SoCs, better power management of the AMDGPU open-source graphics driver for AMD Radeon GPUs, and journaling support for the device-mapper RAID 4/5/6 implementation.
Linux kernel 4.11 also adds support for OPAL drives, support for the SMC-R (Shared Memory Communications-RDMA) protocol, an all new statx() system call to replace stat(2), persistent scrollback buffers for VGA consoles, support for SMB3 per-share encryptions landed in the CIFS file system, and many other goodies.
Here's what's new in the GNU Linux-libre 4.11-gnu kernel
In the good tradition of every GNU Linux-libre kernel release, today's GNU Linux-libre 4.11-gnu kernel is shipping deblobbed of numerous proprietary drivers, including those for Cavium Crypto accelerator, Silead touchscreen, Netronome NFP 4000/6000 Ethernet, and Rockchip GPU.
However, this version also seems to add .nffw and .out to the list of extensions regarded as suspected blobs, and updates the deblobbing of AMD Radeon and Intel graphics drivers, the Chips&Media Coda media codecs, the Qualcomm peripheral blob loader, the Atheros ath10k and wil6210 Wi-Fi drivers, the Intel iwlwifi driver, as well as the Intel Skylake audio drivers.
If you're looking to run a GNU/Linux-libre operating system, you need to install the GNU Linux-libre kernel, and the latest version, GNU Linux-libre 4.11-gnu, is available for download right now from our website, but you'll have to compile it yourself from sources.