On 07.07.2012, suvayu ali wrote:
Can I freely choose to use proprietary (or for that matter
alternative
free) drivers for my hardware from whatever source I prefer?
As long as you use UEFI/secure boot, your driver has to be signed.
So you have to build and deploy your own keypair/signatures on your whole
system. Alternatively, you could switch off secure boot, if you have
hardware which allows this.
A few years back I was in a situation where my USB Wi-Fi dongle was
not
yet supported by Fedora and I had to get the binary blob firmware from
the linux kernel wireless page and manually install and load it by hand
to use my hardware. Will I be able to do that with ease in the future?
Both your kernel and your drivers have to be signed. See above.
Similarly, can I choose to install proprietary drivers or kernel
modules
not distributed with Fedora from what ever source I wish (RPMFusion,
Vendor etc.)?
See above.
I realise I can turn Secure Boot off, but hardware manufacturers
have
often dropped the ball on complying with standards. What if the next
generation of motherboards/laptops make it harder to turn off secure
boot?
Then you're f*cked up and HAVE to build your own keys and re-sign
your whole system.