Sometimes, there are drivers aren't available from official Linux kernels such as specific drivers and device trees for ARM architecture adapted for certain SoCs, however a lot of them contains nonfree drivers or blobs, then is needed deblob them to protect your freedom.

A Blob is a piece of object code distributed without source, usually firmware to run some device. That firmware is distributed only in object code form, under a nonfree license.

Deblobbing is the way to remove blobs from the source or patches.

deblob-check is a script written by Alexandre Oliva. It is the easiest way to looking for blobs to remove them from kernel sources and kernel patches.

The command to begin deblob a patch is check the sequences that match the blob detector test with -B, eg:

./deblob-check  -B name.patch

Common results could be such as:

err = request_firmware_direct(&ditem->fw, item->overlay_name, dev);

and

#define WL18XX_CONF_FILE_NAME "ti-connectivity/wl18xx-conf.bin"

In this case, you should check if those references were deblobbed in deblob-x.y of the kernel version that you are using. You can get it at the Linux-libre scripts page (eg. 4.9-gnu).

If those references aren't available in Linux-libre source yet, then you should check if those references aren't false positives. If the first reference (eg. request_firmware_direct) is requesting a blob, then you should rename request_firmware_direct to reject_firmware_direct and if the second one (wl18xx-conf.bin) is a blob, you must replace it with /*(DEBLOBBED)*/ , eg:

err = reject_firmware_direct(&ditem->fw, item->overlay_name, dev);

and

#define WL18XX_CONF_FILE_NAME "ti-connectivity/wl18xx-conf/*(DEBLOBBED)*/