Double Check That Ubuntu Runs Free Software - HowTo

[starkwether]

For those sticking with Ubuntu on the Teres, here is a simple way to ensure all your installed software is free (as in freedom). Note Teres is free by default.

vrms is a painless way to check your system. List info for the vrms package with:

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sudo apt-cache show vrms

As you can see this package is a "virtual Richard Stallman"  who checks Ubuntu or Debian for non-free software. Someone can correct me if vrms is available on Gentoo or others.

If that sounds useful, then:

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sudo apt install vrms

Simply run with:

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vrms or maybe

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vrms -e and check out the man page.

Also you can check in the System drop down menu > Preferences > Hardware > Additional Drivers
The bottom of that window should tell you if any proprietary drivers are installed.

Finally you can also use dpkg:

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dpkg-query -W -f='${Section}\t${Package}\n' | grep ^non-free

That dpkg command should terminate with no output if there are no non-free packages found.

vrms is lightweight enough that the truly cautious could run a check at every terminal startup by adding it to .bashrc Hope that's useful!

[khumarahn]

Nice. There is a gentoo version too,
https://github.com/z411/vrms-gentoo

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$ perl vrms-gentoo
Calculating...
          Non-free packages in teres

dev-texlive/texlive-latexextra-2017 (public-domai)
media-fonts/font-bh-ttf-1.0.3-r1 (bh-luxi)
media-fonts/font-bh-type1-1.0.3-r1 (bh-luxi)

      Possibly non-free packages in teres

app-text/yelp-tools-3.18.0 (freedist)
media-libs/glm-0.9.8.5-r1 (HappyBunny)

  3 non-free packages, 0.3% of 924 installed packages.
  2 possibly non-free packages, 0.2% of 924 installed packages.


[starkwether]

Good deal!