On Mon, 24 Jan 2022 08:23:27 +0000 Leah Rowe via libreplanet-discuss <[email protected]> wrote:
> In fact, access to schematics, boardviews, datasheets and any other > documentation is *critical* to software freedom. > > Much of the work that goes into porting a single mainboard to coreboot > requires knowledge of the hardware, and you actually need to read the > schematics to get the code working on specific board configurations. I have an example for you that is much closer to home. You use a ThinkPad T400S with Libreboot, right? I personally read Intel datasheets to understand how the Intel Flash Descriptor is laid out on your board, and a separate Intel datasheet defining the "Gigabit Ethernet Non-Volative Memory" region (GbE NVM) in order to write the "ich9gen" program. The ich9gen program generates an Intel Flash Descriptor and GbE NVM binary, from scratch. The descriptor is what Libreboot uses to disable the Intel ME on your machine; it's possible to boot your machine without one, but then you wouldn't have functional ethernet support using the onboard NIC in your machine. The GbE NVM region is defined by the Flash Descriptor. In a descriptorless mode, the Intel ME would be disabled on your machine, and this is how things were done in the old days. My work on ich9gen was specifically to have a flash descriptor, with functional GbE, while still disabling the ME. Info available here: https://libreboot.org/docs/install/ich9utils.html I semi-regularly also repair those mainboards, the ones used on libreboot ThinkPads, and for this I need knowledge of those boards. I'm able to repair issues with these boards by looking at schematics and boardview files, telling me where everything is. The most recent repair I did was to a fan circuit; a dodgy fan had shorted and caused a current surge, which shorted the fuse supplying current to the PWM circuitry regulating the fan. I knew of that fuse because of schematics. I was able to check for dead shorts and eliminate them, then replace the fuse and fan, and the result was a happy customer who could once again use their Libreboot machine (the machine had been sent in to me for repair). I sometimes get boards that won't turn on, and once again I'm able to repair them because I have the schematics. I can fo by process of elimination and isolate the cause of a fault, and fix it! Every board I repair causes an additional person in the world to be able to use Libreboot hardware. Much of the code in coreboot for these machines was also written literally by looking at schematics, in addition to datasheets. Intel provides very good documentation about some of their hardware, which the coreboot developers are able to use. Your dismissive attitude about hardware freedom is indeed damaging, if left unignored. People should be fighting for the right to hardware freedoms, especially schematics, boardviews and chip datasheets. Free hardware designs like RISCV are an essential part of our movement. Hardware and software do not exist in a vacuum. One cannot exist without the other. All of this leads me to a conclusion: We should no longer call it the Free Software movement. No, we need a new term instead that combines both hardware and software. We need robust ideological leadership that is currently lacking from the FSF, when taking hardware into account. Richard, I think you should listen to the people telling you these things, because they are giving you good advice. They are not your enemy. People like me are just looking at the movement nowadays and dismayed because the FSF is largely ignoring the current realities. You outright reject the term "free hardware" but the free hardware movement already exists. Some refer to it as OSHW (open source hardware) but I myself call it the free hardware movement. There is good reason for people to be disillusioned with your FSF, and those reasons are expressed quite well by the original post in this thread. My only advice to you is this: Stop seeing criticism as a threat. Listen to people, they want to help! I think even the original poster on this thread probably has that same desire, otherwise this thread wouldn't exist (the OP would just disregard the FSF and move on, instead of trying to effect positive change). That's my two cents. Take it or leave it. -- Think for yourself. Live free!
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