The Linux Libre kernel has been updated to version 6.11. A whole bunch more blobs had to be removed to keep it fully libre. This continues to be one of the best kernels to use if privacy and security are your top concerns as it keeps closed source blobs to a miniumum that do God knows what. Updated my NovaCustom NV41 earlier today with no issues.
The main website for the project is located here:
https://www.fsfla.org/ikiwiki/selibre/linux-libre/
A good writeup of the release can be found here at 9-5 Linux:
https://9to5linux.com/gnu-linux-libre-6-11-kernel-released-for-software-freedom-lovers
The release notes for this update are available here:
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/info-gnu/2024-09/msg00007.html
It seems that the Linux kernel is getting even worse when it comes to how it includes non free code. Part of the release notes for 6.11 libre kernel is the following:
"# Bad news
When preparing 6.11-rc7-gnu, tutor Alex caught a long sequence of numbers that looked suspicious, contacted the contributor of the new driver, and got confirmation that it was indeed executable code generated from unreleased source code.
Back when upstream started adding binary blobs to Linux, they were argued to be separate programs, under different licenses. But this new one was contributed explicitly under the GNU GPL, so, as long as its source code remained unavailable, it could not be distributed at all.
The contributor agreed, and immediately proceeded to address the legal problem, posting patches to move the blob out. Unfortunately, the top maintainer of Linux doesn't seem to have seen a problem there, and proceeded to the final release without the fix.
IANAL, but even as a penguin I understand that distributing it that way fails to comply with the requirements of the stated license, and can thus get your license automatically terminated. So, those of you who plan on distributing that release, watch out and stay out of trouble!
Even more unfortunately, a deeper problem remains: the program that must be loaded onto the device for it to work remains nonfree, so the device remains incompatible with the freedoms that all users deserve.
# Good news
On the good side, that binary blob can still be obtained from upstream under the GNU GPLv2, so anyone interested in it can proceed to legally reverse engineer it, and get us all one more Free piece of firmware."
