Are there blobs in antiX and what can be done about it?
 

Are there blobs in antiX and if yes, what can be done about it?

Most due to hardware, I'd think? There's open source hardware but not much... also open drivers for reverse engineered hardware.

Have fun! :hattip:

I think AntiX Core has a completely libre kernel.

had - not any more.

To O/P

antiX is not libre, but you can make it so (if your hardware allows).

1. antiX-19-full comes with the following that according to vrms are non-free.
Just use apt to remove them.

2. Change the debian and antiX sources.list to remove contrib and non(-)free

3. Install a libre kernel: https://jxself.org/linux-libre/

Again,,, assuming your hardware is, that's where I fail as well.

I love this: https://www.crowdsupply.com/sutajio-kosagi/novena :)
or maybe we could 3-D print our own? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_hardware :D


Add: Don't forget about your Bois, for that you'd have to get tricky with eg Libreboot &c!

Thanks. Maybe the installer should offer a libre install if you do not have any hardware that requires blobs. Or if you can live without some hardware. What is that CPU microcode? What would you be missing without it?

Ulysses_, maybe you'd like to fork AntiX?

From Debian:

On antiX, you can run liveusb with persistence, make the 3 changes I mentioned above, remaster, use live kernel updater to set libre kernel as default and bingo - you have a libre-antiX on your usb device ready to install.

Off-topic, could checkout: https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html

What about virtualization? All hypervisors require you to build the kernel don't they. Let's go for virtualbox plus open-source usb support (there are instructions for integrating the usb support from kqemu). Would building the kernel be way too hard and a hack if you start with the libre kernel?

I've done automated remastering of antiX before.

If anybody in this thread is interested in a script to make a completely libre version of antiX, that's what the goal of "distro-libre" is (but for more than one distro.) Script takes existing iso, makes changes, creates new iso. But I haven't worked on antiX in a long time. If this is something people are interested in doing I'll go rejoin their forum, but let me know.

Does your script parse the text in #5?

Let's say you make an exception and you include one non-free driver. But you do it in a virtual machine. Can it change the CPU microcode and affect all virtual machines and the host?

The text is a list of packages, which I could use the script to remove.

You run the script, it downloads the iso (unless it is already downloaded) and it makes the changes and gives you a modified iso as output. You can do whatever you want with that iso, host it on the Internet Archive for example.

It's actually really trivial, but it still requires maintenance.

Is this a project you would like to be part of? I'm not asking for much, mostly this is the sort of thing I'm only likely to work on (at this time) if there is interest in it. If it interests you, I'll go join the antiX forums.