Trying to create a libre version of openSUSE Tumbleweed, suggestions welcome
I compiled Linux-libre 4.17.6 last night, and was pleased to see that my simple old laptop with an i3 and Intel graphics and an atheros wifi card is working perfectly with it today on openSUSE Tumbleweed running KDE Plasma.
I've used Trisquel and Parabola on my laptops for several years, but always wanted to see if I could strip out the non-libre parts from Tumbleweed and have a very interesting bleeding edge libre distro with some tools like YaST.
Unfortunately, despite using Trisquel and Parabola, my reading on free and non-free packages is not up to speed. I'd be interested to hear any suggestions in trying to find and strip out the non-libre parts from openSUSE. Possibly it's just an impossible task, but I think it would be fun to try.
So the questions I have are if there are any built-in freedom problems? Are there freedom issues with KDE Plasma or YaST that I won't be able to overcome? I've studied them both in a cursory fashion, and both projects seem to claim that they are "open", but I know that claims of "openness" often don't equate to the 4 freedoms. Obviously I could run it with a free desktop if Plasma is a problem. Getting rid of YaST may not be so simple.
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Andy
> I'd be interested to hear any
> suggestions in trying to find and strip out the non-libre parts from
> openSUSE. Possibly it's just an impossible task, but I think it would be fun
> to try.
Plasma shouldn't be a problem. It's LGPL and included in Trisquel. Since you've already taken care of the kernel, these are the questions I'd ask:
(1) Does YaST avoid recommending or helping to install proprietary software?
(2) Can openSUSE's "repository of nonfree software"[1] be completely disabled?
(3) Is openSUSE committed to keeping proprietary software out of their main repository?
(4) Does all free software in the main repository work without nonfree dependencies and avoid recommending free software?
If the answer to all of these is "yes" then I think replacing the kernel and disbling the nonfree repository should result in a free system. Otherwise, you may have to check licenses manually and/or investigate software behavior, at which point I'd say it's probably not worth it.
Yes, thank you mason, that worked. I removed the non-OSS repository, and ran a distro update, which got rid of the remaining "non-OSS" packages. Here's a screen shot of the current setup (attached).
One step closer to libreSUSE, although I would imagine that some of openSUSE's "OSS" packages aren't going to meet the strict FSF definition of libre. This will take some time to audit their packages and see what's truly free and what's not. But so far, everything still seems to be working just fine on the laptop and with KDE Plasma, which is a far better outcome than I expected.
If anyone ever wants to replicate this work, the instructions to compile and install the Linux-libre kernel on openSUSE are here: http://www.anahuac.eu/linux-libre-on-opensuse/
There were 3 additional dependencies that I needed in order to compile the kernel that the author of that page had not needed back in 2015: bc, libopenssl-devel, and libelf-devel
Regarding your questions, mason, I answered a couple up above. But here are answers to some more:
> (1) Does YaST avoid recommending or helping to install proprietary software?
YaST doesn't care - it's just a front-end package manager drawing directly from your repositories when it comes to installing software. It does not offer suggestions or make recommendations of any sort.
> (4) Does all free software in the main repository work without nonfree dependencies and avoid recommending free software?
Yes, it seems to. I haven't found anything in SUSE that recommends any other software. I still need to go through all the YaST control panel modules and audit them - I may find some modules I need to drop because they are dependent on non-free software.
> (3) Is openSUSE committed to keeping proprietary software out of their main repository?
That's what we are going to find out. Neither Icecat or abrowser or Iceweasel is available in the OSS repository, so I'm stuck with Firefox, epiphany, and some supposedly libre Opera clone called "Otter Browser" for now. There's definitely going to be some work to do if this were to ever qualify as FSF-approved.
> I would imagine that some of
> openSUSE's "OSS" packages aren't going to meet the strict FSF definition of
> libre. This will take some time to audit their packages and see what's truly
> free and what's not.
Yes, I had suspected that this would be the case. If you are interested in auditing software for freedom issues, jxself makes a good point that you'd make much more of a difference by focusing on a freedom-respecting distro like Trisquel or Parabola. Unlike openSUSE, they'd consider freedom-hostile software to be a bug. In finding and reporting such a bug, you would help to improve the distro and possibly earn yourself a GNU Buck. https://www.gnu.org/help/gnu-bucks.html
It is here: https://trisquel.info/files/Screenshot_20180716_174123.png
I wouldn't want you to miss my beautiful Tibetan wallpaper!
It seems better to help the existing free distros, which could use help, rather than fragmenting effort by working on your own.