вторник, 17 января 2017 г., 10:16:18 UTC-5 пользователь [email protected] 
написал:
> On Saturday, January 14, 2017 at 3:26:04 PM UTC+4, [email protected] wrote:
> > 26 December 2016 г., 18:00:43 UTC-5 [email protected] написал:
> > > Lenovo is a shitty company if you care about security, they have stuck 
> > > irremovable rootkits their BIOS 4 separate times and they are partially 
> > > owned by the PRC government
> > 
> > Having a PRC backdoor is better than NSA one! (most laptop companies are 
> > American, so...) By the way, why not to get a Lenovo G505S laptop?
> > 1) It is the latest AMD-based laptop which is supported by coreboot open 
> > source BIOS (so no closed source BIOS backdoors), and it does not have 
> > Intel ME backdoor. G505S's APUs are Richland - the last generation before 
> > AMD started to embed their own version of Intel ME, "AMD Security 
> > Processor" or PSP ( 
> > http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/AMDRoadmap-Mobility.png
> >  ) Although a closed source vga blob is still required for working 
> > graphics, luckily a coreboot's YABEL prevents the possible undocumented 
> > accesses of vga blob to other PCI devices
> > 2) Supported by Qubes 3.2 - see HCL, 
> > https://groups.google.com/d/msg/qubes-users/TS1zfKZ7q8w/JQFkVF4xBgAJ . Most 
> > likely to be supported by Qubes 4.0 ( HVM=y, IOMMU=y, SLAT=y) and seems to 
> > meet its certification criteria so far - 
> > https://www.qubes-os.org/news/2016/07/21/new-hw-certification-for-q4/ <-- 
> > webcam could be covered, speakers and wireless card are not soldered and 
> > could be removed, and just checked the last concerning thing - embedded 
> > microphone is a PCI device, not USB connected ;) 
> > 3) High end version of G505S has a top of the Richland generation A10-5750M 
> > APU, 3352 score at Passmark cpu-benchmark. If to compare with i5-6200U of 
> > Lenovo T460s, 3933 score - 17% faster. But i5-6200U is dual core, while 
> > A10-5750M is quad core. Also, despite being three years older, A10-5750M 
> > integrated graphics is faster than of i5-6200U. According to Passmark: 
> > Intel HD 520 - 844 G3D score, AMD HD 8650G - 950 G3D score, 13% faster.
> > 3) In contrast with many modern laptops, G505S has two slots for RAM 
> > (instead of one) and its RAM is not soldered. That means: when your RAM 
> > fails a memtest after some years, instead of paying a fortune for the RAM 
> > chips replacement you could just remove RAM and install a new one. Also you 
> > could easily upgrade to 16 GB RAM (2x8GB), which helps not to think of RAM 
> > usage while using Qubes (currently running 14 VMs at the same time, with a 
> > lot of applications started, and they eat just 13 GB out of 16 GB)
> > 4) G505S has either integrated or both integrated and discrete graphics 
> > (depends on G505S version). In any case, it is AMD only - which has great 
> > open source drivers for Linux. No need for NVIDIA closed source proprietary 
> > drivers with telemetry...
> > 5) Almost all the components could be replaced by user, even a CPU is not 
> > soldered. Easy to tear down a laptop and assemble it back. Thanks to open 
> > source BIOS, no WiFi card whitelist, so possible to install any wireless 
> > card which has open source drivers for Linux (such as AR9462)
> > Currently it is almost impossible to buy a new G505S, but the used ones are 
> > selling for cheap (e.g. 3 auctions currently at eBay for G505S version with 
> > A10-5750M APU, 1 UK and 2 US-based, one of them with buy it now price $250 
> > - half of the original $500)
> 
> I have an old G505 kicking around somewhere, will give it a go with Qubes 3.2 
> and then try Coreboot. Thanks for the reminder ! Wonder if this means I can 
> get the KDE Desktop Cube animation to work.

Steve, do you have G505 or G505S ? This "S" letter is important: while Lenovo 
G505S is supported by coreboot, tested and works OK, - there is no information 
if G505 is supported. Luckily G505 and G505S hardware seems to be quite 
similar, but there are some differences which could result in that G505S 
coreboot build does not work for G505. Some additional coreboot coding could be 
required - or maybe not required, please read till the end...

G505 and G505S have different motherboard model: G505S has either Compal 
LA-A091P (with discrete graphics) or LA-A092P (without discrete), while G505 
has either LA-9911P (with discrete) or LA-9912P (without discrete). If you make 
the google requests like "motherboard-model pdf" you will find their datasheets

There are similarities in these motherboards (the same hardware could be found 
in both of them, such as ENE KB9012 Embedded Controller) as well as differences:

G505S has a fusion controller hub FCH A76M Bolton-M3, while G505 has FCH A70M 
Hudson-M3 . https://www.coreboot.org/pipermail/coreboot/2014-May/078000.html  
tells that A76M is upgraded A70M, means their FCH are different but probably 
not by much. Go to coreboot github mirror 
(https://github.com/coreboot/coreboot), at right upper corner you could search 
their repository and see - it mentions both Hudson and Bolton. Also, if you go 
to Kolibri forum thread mentioned in my HCL message here ( 
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/qubes-users/TS1zfKZ7q8w/JQFkVF4xBgAJ ), 
download coreboot.zip with G505S config, you could see - despite G505S has 
Bolton, that config mentions CONFIG_SOUTHBRIDGE_AMD_AGESA_HUDSON=y and no 
mention of Bolton, which could mean that this build is compatible with both 
Hudson and Bolton (but needs to be tested!)

Physical differences: G505 has a more convenient board shape, but it has a 
soldered CPU (which sucks a bit - couldnt upgrade or replace, and results in 
more expensive replacement motherboards), while G505S CPU is socketed CPU ; 
also, in case of motherboards with discrete graphics, G505S has a better 
heatsink - two heatpipes (one heatpipe is shared between CPU and discrete GPU, 
but GPU rarely gets hot if you dont play games, means two heatpipes for CPU), 
while Lenovo was greedy while making G505 and there is only one heatpipe which 
is shared between CPU and discrete graphics - higher temperatures, must use 
good thermal paste!

It will be interesting if you could test my coreboot build - will be great if 
it works not just on Lenovo G505S but on G505 as well ;)

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