Following last night's release of the [1]Linux 6.15 stable kernel , the FSF Latin America team has released GNU Linux-libre 6.15-gnu for their downstream kernel that strips out the ability to load non-free firmware/microcode and other elements of the Linux kernel deemed for not aligning with their software freedoms.

With the GNU Linux-libre 6.15-gnu release there is now neutered blob loading in nova core gpu, Qualcomm iris v4l2, Airoha NPU, Tehuti Networks TN40xx 10G ethernet, Realtek 8814A wifi, Apple Silicon SoC touchscreen, Renesas UFS hooks, and aw88166 audio drivers. As is the case with most modern hardware and in turn new drivers, firmware support is needed for working hardware support albeit the firmware/microcode not complying with the FSF free software requirements.

The neutering of the new open-source NVIDIA "NOVA" Rust-based driver in development makes this driver completely useless for GNU Linux-libre. The NOVA driver is designed around the NVIDIA GPU System Processor "GSP" firmware usage to ease in driver development and bringing up current/future generations of NVIDIA hardware support. The NVIDIA GSP firmware is not open-source and thus doing away with the ability to load those firmware blobs make this NVIDIA driver useless -- similar to the existing Nouveau driver support on NVIDIA hardware depending upon the signed GSP firmware.

The NOVA driver neutering also marks the start of the GNU Linux-libre developers having to deal with Rust kernel code. As mentioned in today's release announcement:

"Nova Core is in the infamous position of being the first driver to have been merged with the upstream kernel Linux that is written in Rust and that loads blobs.

We set out to clean it up, and we did, but... we don't speak Rust, so we've broken it in the process. Now, that's not so unconventional, is it? 🙂

Not a biggie: all the Rust bits in Linux are optional and likely turned off by default, so that won't prevent you from building GNU Linux-libre 6.15-gnu unless Rust bits get enabled.

Anyhow, we'd like to fix it for later stable releases, we're just not sure how, and we don't have the tools handy to experiment with.

If you know Rust and always wanted to make a short-term contribution to the GNU Linux-libre project, here's your chance: join us on the mailing list and/or on IRC, and please share your fixes and advice with us as to a workable blob-neutering strategy."

The GNU Linux-libre 6.15-gnu kernel also cleans up various other firmware blob names, works on neutering of firmware blobs from new Rust kernel code, and various other cleaning. As usual, they also have a new release image for GNU Linux-libre 6.15-gnu:

GNU Linux-libre developers also took opportunity in today's release announcement to criticize the approach of some Sound Open Firmware (SOF) support:

"Its sources are publicly available under Free Software licenses, and even signatures can be made using a published key.

The obnoxious catch? Few if any devices accept the signatures made with that key.

Most demand signatures made by another key, kept secret to prevent users from installing and running modified versions of these otherwise-freedom-respecting programs.

For this reason, we've recently cleaned up all active stable branches that used to point at seemingly-free distributions of S"O"F binaries.

We'd be happy to direct users to a libre distribution of SOF binaries instead, carrying none of the Tivoized and only the freedom-respecting binaries. Would you like to maintain one? Let us know!"

Downloads and more details on GNU Linux-libre 6.15-gnu via [2]FSFLA.org .



[1] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.15-Released

[2] https://www.fsfla.org/ikiwiki/selibre/linux-libre/#news