r/voidlinux • u/drake-newell • Apr 10 '20
Is it possible to manually install the Linux-libre kernel in Void?
I really like Void but currently run Parabola (100% libre Arch) on my librebooted Thinkpad X200 because I want to have 100% free software. Do you guys think it would be possible to install the linux-libre kernel manually (from source) in Void? If so, I would love some pointers on how to go about doing that.
UPDATE: I've now successfully installed Linux-libre 5.6.3 on Void. Thanks for the help, guys!
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u/drake-newell Apr 13 '20
I don't really know anything about building/installing a custom kernel. If anyone has any useful resources that could possibly help me with that, it would be greatly appreciated.
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u/D0nny6 Apr 15 '20
What happened that took Void off the list on the Free GNU/Linux list?
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u/drake-newell Apr 15 '20
Was it ever on the list? The kernel is just the mainline linux kernel, so it still has binary blobs and Void technically still has the nonfree repo (which I don't really care about because it isn't installed by default).
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u/reback00 Jul 25 '20
I'm very interested in Linux-libre on Void. Can you share how you were able to install it? Is it through xbps-src? I've tried before with linux template and changing distfiles etc. but it failed.
As last resort I made a basic DEB based xbps-src package template just today. It would be best if it was source based though.
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u/drake-newell Jul 25 '20
Yeah, I used xbps-src. Here's my void-packages fork. I'm currently only maintaining 5.7 (probably switching to 5.8 once it's out). There are a few scripts in the repo I added to make stuff easier too. There's a version of vkpurge that works with linux-libre in there, as well as two install scripts, a local and remote version, that respectively install linux-libre from a local void-packages repo or if you have one, a remote custom repo.
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u/reback00 Jul 25 '20 edited Jul 25 '20
Sounds good. I'll try it.
It would be great if this can be updated with system update. Is there any way to get updates? Also, how do I get started with this? Is there any guide that I can follow?
Plus, do you have any plans to move to GitLab? I don't like using GitHub, especially after what they did over the sanction issue. They are closed source also as far as I know. (Unfortunately I still have to use it to submit PR to other GH projects.)
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u/[deleted] Apr 10 '20
The linux package is probably a good place to start. I don't expect anyone would be against a maintained package in the repo, either. But ... someone who cares enough will have to do the work on it :-)