Alexandre Oliva has been proud to announce the GNU Linux-libre 4.2 kernel, based on the upstream sources of Linux kernel 4.2, which was officially released by Linus Torvalds the other day, August 30, 2015.

The GNU Linux-libre project aims to create a version of the Linux kernel that is 100% free, designed from the ground up to be compatible with the GNU Operating System, but also suitable for use within various GNU/Linux-libre distributions. If you are interested in the GNU Linux-libre project, we recommend reading the wiki found at http://linuxlibre.org.

The final and stable version of the GNU Linux-libre kernel 4.2 is now available for download (check out the link at the end of the article) and comes after six RC (Release Candidate) versions. This final build doesn't have many changes when compared with the last RC version, with the exception of the fact that it cleans and updates numerous drivers.

Probably the most interesting feature of the GNU Linux-libre 4.2 kernel is the addition of support for AMDGPU, the AMD GPU LLVM (formerly Low Level Virtual Machine) backend. However, it would appear that AMDGPU doesn't work at all without blobs, similarly to the Radeon driver. GNU Linux-libre kernel 4.2 also adds a freedom-friendly Intel i915 driver.

"The greatest new offender is amdgpu that, like radeon, refuses to work at all without blobs, even though in theory it could offer degraded functionality," says Alexandre Oliva, maintainer of the GNU Linux-libre project. "The other unfortunate surprise is the traditionally Freedom-friendly i915 driver, that, in 4.2 upstream, attempts to load blobs on some recent variants."

All users need to update as soon as possible

As with every major release of the GNU Linux-libre kernel, all users are urged to upgrade to the new version as soon as possible. You can download GNU Linux-libre kernel 4.2 right now from Softpedia, but if you don't know how to compile and install it, it's recommended that you wait until your GNU/Linux distribution vendor updates the packages to this latest release.