Re: [GNU-linux-libre] Building recent linux-libre and icecat packages for more GNU/Linux distributions

[Rubén Rodríguez Pérez]

> I'm in the process of using the Ubuntu documentation to build a
> 2.6.28-libre for Trisquel amd64 based on Ubuntu 2.6.28 most recent
> tagged jaunty git + linux-libre 2.6.28 deblob - I'll also be building
> that for gNewSense to close the above-referenced ticket soon :-)

The Trisquel/gNewSense way: Add the upstream deb-src repo where you want
to get the kernel from, and then

apt-get source linux
apt-get --yes build-dep linux
[debblobing and customizing scripts]
dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc

Of course the deblobbing part is the tricky one, you need to apply the
matching deblob script from linux-libre, and then deblob-check the files
that ubuntu changes (you can list them from the patch file), usually by
adding some deblob routines from a newer deblob script -Ubuntu guys tend
to backport some drivers- and also adding the needed whitelist to the
script, to avoid false positives. Is not a fully scriptable process.



> 
> (2) For building linux-libre (and perhaps other pieces of freed
> software, like GNU IceCat) for more GNU/Linux distributions (most
> important I think are to have easy to install recent linux-libre
> packages for all of the Libre GNU/Linux platforms, but if it isn't much
> harder I don't think it's a mistake to also do for for the upstream
> distributions).

I think that this is the distro part of the job, there is no need to
provide a kernel for everyone if the deblob scripts are generic. It's
the same for other packages too: you don't know the specifics of every
distro, and they would want to customize the packages too.