It is based on the Linux 4.12 kernel series

Jul 4, 2017 19:04 GMT  ·  By

Alexandre Oliva announced the release and immediate availability of the GNU Linux-Libre 4.12 kernel, a 100% free and libre kernel that doesn't use any proprietary drivers.

Coming only one day after the release of Linux kernel 4.12, GNU Linux-libre 4.12-gnu kernel is based on the Linux 4.12 kernel series, but introduces deblobbing for many of the newly added drivers from upstream. These include for Realtek RTL8723BS Wi-Fi, for Intel Atom Image Signal Processing, for the Nokia H4+ protocol implementation, as well as for the Bluetooth HCILL protocol implementation.

In addition, it deblobbs the Tegra GPU driver that was already present in previous kernel releases but updated in Linux 4.12 to support more proprietary firmware for the tegra124/vic03 and tegra210/vic04 graphics cards. It also updates the deblobbing of many drivers that were previously deblobbed, including the AMDGPU, Nouveau and Intel i915 csr GPU drivers, and the Intel Skylake sound driver.

Deblobbing for the WiLink NFC driver is no more

Linux kernel 4.12 being one of the biggest releases, there are quite some changes in the GNU Linux-libre 4.12-gnu kernel, and it looks like the blob names of various other drivers needed to be updated, too, including for the si2157 media tuner, si2168 dvb frontend, iwlwifi, rtl8723be wifi, silead touchscreen, and ath10k wifi. Also, the deblobbing for the WiLink NFC driver is no more because it has been removed upstream.

"Deblobbing for the WiLink NFC driver is gone, since the entire driver was removed upstream. With that, plus the usual assortment of new false positives all over the place, the new release got clean enough to pass deblob-check testing, which indicates it's sanitized and recommended for consumption by publics of all ages," says Alexandre Oliva in the mailing list announcement.

Last but not least, the deblobbing of the Intel i915 csr graphics driver and the iwlwifi Linux kernel driver supports several Intel wireless LAN adapters were updated to remove URLs that were pointing to blob-supplying pages or repositories. If you want to run 100% free software on your GNU/Linux distribution, we recommend downloading and compiling the GNU Linux-libre 4.12 kernel.