Hi Xavi, Thanks for your interest in coreboot. This is a long email! :)
I have made some small comments below. On Mon, Apr 12, 2010 at 3:07 PM, xdrudis <[email protected]> wrote: > Hello. > > First things first: thank you all for working in coreboot, yet another > free software project I wouldn't think possible if you hadn't made it > real. > > I've been reading the archives and browsing coreboot.org, but I have > little clue about firmware so I still have doubts I would like to > clear beforing buying/building my next computer > > > VGA BIOS . > > Is it necessary ?. I've seen some reports of using coreboot with a > propietary VGA BIOS, either run from the graphics card ROM or reaped > from the motherboard propietary BIOS. Is this an intermediate state in > development and it is eventually replaced with free code ? or we're > not there (yet?). Can one live without any VGA BIOS ? Leaving it out > means coreboot boots blindly but then (a deblobed) linux/X initializes > the graphics hardware all right and you have display just like with > VGA BIOS, only later in the boot process ? Or the GPU can't be used > without the propietary VGA BIOS ? Can GRUB display a menu without VGA > BIOS ? (SGA BIOS doesn't seem useful here, since I don't want to use a > serial link forever) Btw, can GRUB show background images without VGA > BIOS ? Do these answers depend on the GPU or northbridge ? > VGA BIOS is not required. You could have a headless system. Or a system with a framebuffer driver like Geode. > > Double graphics is a problem ? > > As far as I know the only modern desktop class chipsets supported by > the manufacturer, are AMD RS780/SB700 , am I wrong ? (thanks, AMD!). I > think all come with an ATI IGP , which requires blobs in the linux/X > driver (AtomBIOS). I may be misinformed on AtomBIOS, but I think I > don't want to use it. I've heard nouveau has just deblobed its > driver, so I might add an Nvidia graphics card to it (at least while > Open Graphics Project isn't ready for consumers). I'll try to buy one > second hand, as lesser evil, since I dislike buying directly from > vendors not supporting free software. Does having both the ATI IGP and > the Nvidia card give any additional complication ? (besides it's going > to be less tested than more usual setups). I wish Intel supported > coreboot or radeonhd didn't use AtomBIOS (like it once was). > This is a continued area of development, but yes, many drivers use the vbios too hold proprietary information. Again, not an issue if you are running a headless machine. > > Any AMD RS780/SB700 boards roadmap ? > > Any hints which AMD RS780/SB700 boards are going to be supported first ? > (I'm using the suggestions I see on the mailing list, but I've heard of > GSoC potential effort and I don't know if there're priorities already set > for it) > > There is no specific roadmap. This is usually driven by board availability. I think some boards will be ported during GSoC. If you have a preferred board, send an email to the list. Someone might be working on it. > DDR3 coming soon ? > > I've heard optimism on DDR3 but I believe it's not yet supported by coreboot. > Do you have any estimation on how long can it take or how much would it cost > if someone was to pay for it ? (I don't think I can pay, it's just to > quantify the > effort). For now I'm planning to avoid DDR3 just in case. I'm not sure it's > a huge performance benefit. > I think that DDR3 support will be critical for coreboot this year. I am optimistic that we will get some help from AMD this summer. > > How to choose socketed boards ? > > How can one know whether a card has socketed or soldered BIOS ROMs besides > looking at it or some photos ? Should it be in the specs or manual ? > (I don't trust myself with a soldering iron). > This will usually be in the manual. Many boards are SPI flash now and you need an external programmer with a test clip to program them. This is an area we need to improve on the wiki. > > TPM > > I don't like Treacherous Computing and the like so I would prefer to > buy a motherboard without TPM. If I can get coreboot to run then the TPM may > become harmless, but I still don't want to encourage vendors to put TPM in. > The question is, are there security benefits if you control the firmware, > like you would eventually increase security by using your own keys, or > are the keys hardwired and unreplaceable so that the best you can hope > for is to disable them? I don't really know how many boards without TPM > are in the market, anyway. > > > > Thanks for reading so far and sorry for abusing this list thus. I'm > going to include a little background now, but your answers can help me > even without you reading further. > .... > If this is a tall order, then I just want to get as close to it as > possible. I would like to buy and/or build a computer soon which is > as close as possible to someday reach that goal, maybe after some > more effort in software/firmware, or after hardware upgrades. > > And of course I'm just a consumer, with no business plans about any of > this. > These are great goals. It sounds like you have a lot in common with the folks at the FSF. :) There are a couple AMD and Intel platforms that might meet your needs. I expect more boards (like the 780/710) to be supported this summer if you are willing to wait. I am also hopeful that we see coreboot on systems available from vendors in the future. Marc -- http://se-eng.com -- coreboot mailing list: [email protected] http://www.coreboot.org/mailman/listinfo/coreboot
