Kernel questions and Intel ME
Some days ago while the Intel ME thing was fresh, jxself had a fix in the 4.14.12 kernel, now there's a 4.14.13 on the releases page: http://linux-libre.fsfla.org/pub/linux-libre/releases/ , my question is simple: how important is it to always have the latest kernel?
Are you referring to Meltdown and Spectre? Those attacks have absolutely nothing to do with the Management Engine.
Having up-to-date is important to be protected against known attacks such as Meltdown and Spectre. Newer kernel may better support your hardware too, especially if it is recent. And, well, there are other features and improvements that are added to newer versions of the kernel.
Also what's the difference between all the places where one can get kernels?
You have jxself https://jxself.org/linux-libre/
and fsfla https://www.fsfla.org/ikiwiki/selibre/linux-libre/
and probably many more...
https://www.fsfla.org/ikiwiki/selibre/linux-libre/ is the homepage of the Linux-libre project. The resulting source code is then compiled and packaged to be easily installed (by package managers). Jxself not only works for that project but also packages the kernels for distributions that use APT, including Trisquel. https://jxself.org/linux-libre/ is the page of his repository.
roger that
There is also another place to get source code which is:
https://jxself.org/git/?p=linux-libre.git
I started this because I found that Alexandre Oliva, who runs fsfla.org, deletes older kernel source code when disk space runs low and this raised some questions when people wanted to get some of those deleted things.
This git repository has every version of Linux-libre ever, it all fits into ~350MB, and versions will never disappear.
smooth
I am a member!
> This git repository has every version of Linux-libre ever, it all fits into
> ~350MB, and versions will never disappear.
Assuming those disks are backed up.
--
Caleb Herbert
OpenPGP public key: http://bluehome.net/csh/pubkey
You're being just a bit too literal there, of course, but I meant not disappearing as a matter of policy of deleting old versions when disk space gets low.
Obviously I have backups. 7 of them. In different locations. On different continents. In different hemispheres of the world. And other people have backups too. One example is that the libreCMC people mirror it:
https://gogs.librecmc.org/libreCMC/linux-libre
I think the Linux-libre source code is reasonably well secured. :)