Making Debian GNU/Linux Free
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I have a user case that I need to use Debian instead of trisquel. The fist step was of course to install Debian using only free repos.
Then I installed the linux-libre kernel from here: https://www.fsfla.org/ikiwiki/selibre/linux-libre/freesh
Lastly I removed firefox and thunderbird and installed abrowser and Icedove as shown here by Magic Banana: https://trisquel.info/en/forum/state-web-browsers-debian#comment-163429
The problem I have is when I try to update Debian packages I get an error about trisquel-keyring:https://paste.debian.net/1263871
I have searched for the problem and it seems that zstd compression support has been added to newer versions of Ubuntu but not to yet to Debian stable :https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=892664
For now '$sudo apt-mark hold trisquel-keyring' stoped apt from complaining every time I update my packages.
Is there anybody with a better solution?
Instead of using the packages you could just extract the keyring from the package and copy it to /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/
Also, you don't need to install the Linux-libre kernel, the default Debian kernel already doesn't contain blobs.
"Also, you don't need to install the Linux-libre kernel, the default Debian kernel already doesn't contain blobs."
...but doesn't target GNU FSDG compatibility. (Debian's does not.) Either way the OP's decision's made.
Back to the OP's actual question: yes extracting the contents of the .deb and manually updating as needed would be the easiest. It would mean not getting package updates but this only probably doesn't get updated very often.
I am a member!
> Instead of using the packages you could just extract the keyring from the package and copy it to /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/
Thank you, this will solve the problem for now. I wonder if there is a solution for the long run. For example when the signature is not valid anymore. I do not want the people that I will help to call me and ask me for new instructions when that happen.. ;)
> Also, you don't need to install the Linux-libre kernel, the default Debian kernel already doesn't contain blobs.
As long as I have an alternative I will avoid using debian's kernel: https://www.debian.org/vote/2022/vote_003
"Thank you, this will solve the problem for now. I wonder if there is a solution for the long run."
Another idea could be to extract and then re-package the .deb using a compression method that Debian supports. Merely re-making the .deb on Debian should be sufficient for that. However that doesn't fully solve the problem because it still means not being able to get the .deb directly from the repo itself. For that to be able to happen, Debian will need to include the compression.
Unless you put the re-made .deb file into a repo of your own making. But this seems to be quickly adding on more layers.
>> Also, you don't need to install the Linux-libre kernel, the default Debian kernel already doesn't contain blobs.
>
> As long as I have an alternative I will avoid using debian's kernel: https://www.debian.org/vote/2022/vote_003
Alright (I personally try to keep non-Debian packages to a minimum), but note that the decision doesn't affect the kernel, nor is it already in force.
Official debian kernel contein nonfree software in form of blobs of firmware to run amdgpu and others nonfree programs.
It doesn't. Debian keeps all non-free firmware in the optional non-free section: https://www.gnu.org/distros/common-distros.html#Debian
For now. As a result of that vote the firmware will be moved out of non-free and into a new section called non-free-firmware (which doesn't currently exist but is being created.) Further "The included firmware binaries will normally be *enabled by default* where the system determines that they are required" and "Where non-free firmware is found to be necessary, the target system will also be configured to *use the non-free-firmware component by default* in the apt sources.list file."
Try to install official ISO of debian in a amdgpu laptop, and you see how to force the use of the blobs inside the official kernel of Debian