Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot
i have flash a libreboot x200 the i flashed intel ME removed or is alive inside ?
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot
You can configure and compile Coreboot blobless (no non-free), but the problem is the hardware. X220-X230-X220t, are great computers, but those won't boot without some Intel ME code. So, yes, Coreboot is free software but people can build it with blobs. Libreboot only want stable version and fully non-blob software.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot
No.
[Trisquel-users] Coreboot
Is coreboot totaly free like libreboot? Is thinkpad x230 with coreboot free? what hardware is free ?
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot Ported To The Librem 13 Laptop, Without Purism
It makes it possible to control your computer remotely in a really advanced way. Can be used to counter theft, restart down servers remotely, stuff like that.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot Ported To The Librem 13 Laptop, Without Purism
They did seem to be deluded,even claiming they would reverse engineer the 5th generation Intel chip and "talk to Intel about the ME key" even though Google couldn't get it out of Intel after a fleet of Chromebooks
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot Ported To The Librem 13 Laptop, Without Purism
But, I can not understand, why they need/want these features?
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot Ported To The Librem 13 Laptop, Without Purism
https://libreboot.org/faq/#librem
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot Ported To The Librem 13 Laptop, Without Purism
Let's be perfectly clear: there was never a chance at all for Purism's laptops to be "free hardware", or 100% libre software, or even privacy-respecting. The hardware they have sold to people is hardware which will not run without the Intel ME, which must be signed by Intel and which Intel couldn't release as libre software even if it wanted to. If the people behind Purism aren't frauds, they are massively deluded. They also have not given up. Giving up, in my opinion the only ethical thing they could do after all the false statements they have used to convince people to pay premiums for average laptops, would mean offering to refund all of their customers in full and shutting down their operations. They have not done this.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot Ported To The Librem 13 Laptop, Without Purism
They actually can't; some of the software in question is licensed from third parties.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot Ported To The Librem 13 Laptop, Without Purism
Maybe, but that would be quite a large effort. That's the point: the state of how the ME is made makes it so that no "sinister interest" is needed to prevent it from becoming libre. All that's needed is a lack of massive inclination toward making it libre. Of course, Intel has no inclination whatsoever toward making the ME libre.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot Ported To The Librem 13 Laptop, Without Purism
I think I understand. The ME is not required to boot the computer and most people never use its 'features'. So they should just release a way of removing it; that would not require effort on their part. They could just release instructions and specification sheets. However corporate interests (and maybe 'sinister' motives) mean that it won't happen.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot Ported To The Librem 13 Laptop, Without Purism
Libreboot removes it all, using painful reverse-engineering. Although some firmware does remain in the embedded controller (which controls various bits of hardware), it is considered 'trivial' because it is low-level; it can't be updated easily so is considered 'hardware'. However someone is working on a free replacement. Libreboot is removes the really concerning Intel firmware, essentially.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot Ported To The Librem 13 Laptop, Without Purism
...leaving Librem a tiny bit freer than Chris' laptops (a tad ironic considering how Chris doesn't do false kickstarters and all those things)?
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot Ported To The Librem 13 Laptop, Without Purism
They made false statements, so I would say they misled their customers. They thought they could bring free hardware to the mainstream audience but the only way they could see how to do this was by using hardware known to be flawed, and in doing so alienated the people who have been interested in free hardware for a long time (and other people who read the small print). If they had the resources to produce their own hardware, then they should have chosen some sort of ARM chipset. Certainly they did mislead people about what free hardware really is. It is difficult to tell why they did this, though.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot Ported To The Librem 13 Laptop, Without Purism
> But, I don't know how dangerous it is It can do anything you can at your computer and then some.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot Ported To The Librem 13 Laptop, Without Purism
Sorry, what is AMT?
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot Ported To The Librem 13 Laptop, Without Purism
It's the backdoor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Active_Management_Technology Look at what's listed in "Applications" to see what is possible remotely. And what's worse: "Almost all AMT features are available even if PC powered is off, the OS is crashed, the software agent is missing, or hardware (such as a hard drive or memory) has failed."
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot Ported To The Librem 13 Laptop, Without Purism
Thanks you jxself, yes, I know what it is. Just forgot that AMT is Active Management Technology. But, I don't know how dangerous it is, and what they can do with your computer. I use a desktop computer with i7 2600, cuz I need it for play games. Yes, I know, it is backd00red and blobed, but not my OS. Is ATM (and other Intel's crap) is removed from Librebooted laptops? (I am using Macbook 2,1 and x60).
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot Ported To The Librem 13 Laptop, Without Purism
What I don't understand is if Libreboot can work without proprietary software, why can't Intel make a libre version of the 'management' engine? If there are free alternatives to components such as ThreadX, can't Intel just build and release a libre replacement of the engine, and release the signing key to it?
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot Ported To The Librem 13 Laptop, Without Purism
It is rather disappointing that the Librem guys just gave up on what was at the very least,a worthy attempt at free hardware. From their recent commentary it seems they won't be bothering with total freedom anymore but rather privacy and openness.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot Ported To The Librem 13 Laptop, Without Purism
I think that the main problem with proprietary BIOSs is the Intel 'management' engine. Coreboot is barely better other than being faster. Intel simply don't care about releasing the source, or they have some kind of sinister interest in keeping it proprietary...
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot Ported To The Librem 13 Laptop, Without Purism
As I can see, here still no freer computers, that librebooted laptops.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot Ported To The Librem 13 Laptop, Without Purism
They are using Intel chips, so it has the backdoor. So they aren't really catering to privacy, except for the fact they have removed Windows.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot Ported To The Librem 13 Laptop, Without Purism
That is terrifying and unbelievable. I never look that up before but I'm glad you pointed that out. Makes me real glad that I started using Libreboot last year.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot Ported To The Librem 13 Laptop, Without Purism
"But, I don't know how dangerous it is, and what they can do with your computer." Look at the "Applications" section in the Wikipedia link I provided earlier to see what AMT can do. * Remotely power up, power down, power cycle, and power reset the computer. * Remote boot the PC by remotely redirecting the PC's boot process, causing it to boot from a different image, such as a network share, bootable CD-ROM or DVD, remediation drive, or other boot device. (So someone could boot the computer using their own remote disk image.) * etc.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot Ported To The Librem 13 Laptop, Without Purism
The fact that the ME is required to boot the computer depends on the generation of the intel platforms. On older platform such as GM45/GS45 it's not. On some more recent platform it is. Code has to run and initialize things that are required to permit code execution on the main CPU (I don't remember exactly what, probably clock lines). The issue is that the ME firmware is signed on most laptops. It's totally unknown if it's signed on the puri.sm laptops. Some early silicon revision (I don't remember on which generation) have the ability of having the bootrom replaced by a flash chip, making it possible to bypass the signature check. Having the ME chip disable is good, but not good enough for me to actually use a computer with such chip as my main computer. Without free software running on it, we won't have good documentation of what that chip is actually capable of. Most of us probably know the dangers of such chips when running proprietary software, but do we know its dangers when it's supposedly off? Hard to say without documentation. -> As far as I know, the ARC architecture (which used in older ME) permits defining your instructions, I've no idea if that's permanent or if it permits to override instructions. -> Part of the code running on the ME is in rom, and it cannot easily be dumped. So, is the ME bootrom responsible for powering itself off when reading some flash descriptor bits? If so can the modification of instructions be enough to have persistent code execution even when no firmware is given to that ME? What else would that ME be capable of? Having a free firmware would also permit us to run 100% free sofware on more recent computers. Given the amount of RAM that is reserved to the ME, having GNU/Linux on it would make sense. That can probably result in some creatives uses of it. According to some blog posts, there are actually people using AMT under GNU/Linux volountarly, because of the out of band features it offers. I wound't use that but that could still be useful, for instance, to create a test farm for coreboot/libreboot. I don't have other ideas (yet) to use it. Denis.
[Trisquel-users] Coreboot Ported To The Librem 13 Laptop, Without Purism
There is some interesting news about the Librem project: "The controversial, crowd-funded Librem laptop that aimed to be fully open down to the firmware but ended up shipping with an AMI UEFI firmware for the initial release has now been ported to Coreboot for the Librem 13 model. The Coreboot support wasn't done by Purism, the company behind the Librem, but rather a Coreboot developer at Google." (https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Coreboot-Hits-The-Librem-13) Please note, that "the port allows for Coreboot to boot the Librem 13 with Coreboot. However, it's not fully-open but relies upon the Intel firmware blobs, as is sadly the case for all recent generations of Intel processors." Thus, there's still no chance to boot these laptops with libreboot
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot Now Supports The Sandy Bridge MacBook Air 4.2
Dam i was thinking that apple as intel partner can be able to remove ME but it seems mac are not so custom
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot Now Supports The Sandy Bridge MacBook Air 4.2
I asked on #libreboot, and yes, it needs the ME blob.
[Trisquel-users] Coreboot Now Supports The Sandy Bridge MacBook Air 4.2
http://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Coreboot-SNB-MacBook-Air The MacBook Air 4,2 is the 2011 model that ships with an Intel Sandy Bridge processor. With Sandy Bridge hardware already being supported by Coreboot, Vladimir Serbinenko committed the auto-generated port for the MacBook Air 4,2 this morning to Coreboot Womder is this need ME blob ? http://libreboot.org/faq/#intelme
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot to boot USB
Installing libftdi1 was enough to run flashrom. I don't recall removing it, but I did remove quite a few packages.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot to boot USB
See my note below (in this thread) about gdnewhat.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot to boot USB
Your hostname in the past tells me that you use Debian. Although I don't (won't) use this myself, the dependencies should be the same as Trisquel. You should probably recompile it. So install these dependencies (as per the readme): sudo apt-get -y install libpci-dev pciutils zlib1g-dev libftdi-dev (libftdi is needed, this command will install it. The output says that you don't have it) And then: make clean make Then try again: sudo ./flashrom -p internal -w coreboot.rom If it says "VERIFIED" at the end, then it worked! At that point, shut down then wait a few secs, and turn it back on. If it doesn't say VERIFIED, then it would have complained about multiple flash chips. In that case, do this instead: sudo ./flashrom -p internal -w coreboot.rom -c "MX25L1605D/MX25L1608D" Note, you can also install flashrom from the repository. sudo apt-get install flashrom Then do instead, like so: sudo flashrom -p internal -w coreboot.rom or (if the above doesn't work): sudo flashrom -p internal -w coreboot.rom -c "MX25L1605D/MX25L1608D"
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot to boot USB
s/past/paste
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot to boot USB
root@debian-gluglug:/home/junichiro/X60_binary/flashrom# ./flashrom -p internal -w coreboot.rom ./flashrom: error while loading shared libraries: libftdi.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory root@debian-gluglug:/home/junichiro/X60_binary/flashrom#
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot to boot USB
Note, I am also "fchmmr" (same nick as on this forum) on IRC freenode. /query me there if you get stuck.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot to boot USB
For those who are reading this, this assumes you already have coreboot. This won't work if you have Lenovo BIOS (there are some extra steps involved). -- wget http://gluglug.org.uk/X60/release/3/X60_source.tar.gz Here is what I did: tar -xf X60_source.tar.gz cd X60_source/flashrom or cd X60_binary/flashrom Note: I already have flashrom dependencies installed. Get the list in README. make clean make cp ../coreboot/build/coreboot.rom . Note: if you downloaded X60_binary.tar.gz, do this instead: cp ../coreboot.rom . sudo ./flashrom -p internal -w coreboot.rom If it shows *VERIFIED* written at the end, then it worked. At this point, shut down the machine (shut it down fully! Do not sleep/reboot). --- If you didn't see that output above, you will have seen this instead: $ sudo ./flashrom -p internal -w coreboot.rom [sudo] password for user: flashrom v0.9.7-r on Linux 3.12.4-gnu (i686) flashrom is free software, get the source code at http://www.flashrom.org Calibrating delay loop... OK. Found chipset "Intel ICH7M". Enabling flash write... OK. Found Macronix flash chip "MX25L1605" (2048 kB, SPI) at physical address 0xffe0. Found Macronix flash chip "MX25L1605A/MX25L1606E" (2048 kB, SPI) at physical address 0xffe0. Found Macronix flash chip "MX25L1605D/MX25L1608D" (2048 kB, SPI) at physical address 0xffe0. Multiple flash chip definitions match the detected chip(s): "MX25L1605", "MX25L1605A/MX25L1606E", "MX25L1605D/MX25L1608D" Please specify which chip definition to use with the -c option. So I do this instead (on my X60): sudo ./flashrom -p internal -w coreboot.rom -c "MX25L1605D/MX25L1608D" And then I see that same successful output as above: $ sudo ./flashrom -p internal -w coreboot.rom -c "MX25L1605D/MX25L1608D" flashrom v0.9.7-r on Linux 3.12.4-gnu (i686) flashrom is free software, get the source code at http://www.flashrom.org Calibrating delay loop... OK. Found chipset "Intel ICH7M". Enabling flash write... OK. Found Macronix flash chip "MX25L1605D/MX25L1608D" (2048 kB, SPI) at physical address 0xffe0. Reading old flash chip contents... done. Erasing and writing flash chip... Erase/write done. Verifying flash... VERIFIED.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot to boot USB
Tested gdnewhat. Doesn't work but you can now use "cat". So you can use, eg: cat (usb0)/isolinux/isolinux.cfg It might link to another .cfg file. So cat that instead. Then get the options, and adapt them. For example, I found the menu entry in there with those options on the APPEND line. Then I found where those vmlinuz and initrd Then you do (with those options): linux (usb0)/isolinux/vmlinuz0 root=live:CDLABEL=hatrack20 rootfstype=auto ro rd.live.image quiet rhgb rd.luks=0 rd.md=0 rd.dm=0 initrd (usb0)/isolinux/initrd0.img boot You can boot any distro, but not all of them work properly with the parser so in those cases you still hvae to do it manually. That is how I manually booted the ISO. This is necessary in those cases where the "parse" options don't work properly. (for example, it couldn't boot gdnewhat or gnewsense - but it worked with Trisquel Mini, Trisuel and Parabola) (usb0) means I'm assuming you used "dd" on the flash drive directly, and not on a partition.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot to boot USB
The instructions are in FLASH_INSTRUCTION (file): WARNING! Updating your firmware has a risk of bricking the machine. You have been warned, and do so at your own risk. also see: README --- this assumes that you already have coreboot running and are updating it. put coreboot.rom in the flashrom directory (coreboot.rom is in ./coreboot/build) a flashrom executable is already compiled for convenience. so if you don't want to compile, just make sure it has execute permission: chmod +x ./flashrom or if you want to compile it again: make clean make --- with coreboot.rom in the flashrom directory, do this: sudo ./flashrom -p internal -w coreboot.rom -- or this command, if 3 flash chips are detected (in the case of X60's with the macronix flashchip): sudo ./flashrom -p internal -w coreboot.rom -c "MX25L1605D/MX25L1608D" shut down your machine after it says VERIFIED. Note: you can also use the flashrom version provided by your distro. Note: look in README for flashrom dependencies.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot to boot USB
The new updates (see this thread) improve things. SeaBIOS is no longer included. GRUB can do everything (without those bugs from before) now.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot to boot USB
This is no longer true (or it is less true). I'm testing some USB drives that used to fail, and they are working perfectly now. (see notes below about updating)
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot to boot USB
It will remain unchanged but now you can easily change the default grub.cfg using "cbfstool" (the config is in CBFS now). I will write a tutorial about this at some point. cbfstool is included in coreboot source code, until ./util I have another update planned: Next update planned: - enumerate list of all ISO's on the root of a flash drive, generate menu entries for loopback mounting and booting those directly. - automatically use "scan" and boot the 1st menu by default* *an error appears, because the wrong prefix is set. (there are modules that most distro grub configs try to load, which aren't included in the grub payload) (the idea is to test it by setting the prefix in GRUB to use the modules provided by the distro) I think you can fix this by setting the right prefix to use the grub modules on the HDD instead of in the boot flash. I'll be testing this.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot to boot USB
See my reply below regarding the updated coreboot image (plus source code).
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot to boot USB
I've tested this on a drive that had the "USB Mass Storage request failed" bug. Now it works perfectly. I've also tested Trisquel Mini ISO. The "parse" options also boot that (directly from GRUB, without seabios), without having to type any commands. When selecting "Parse" it switches to a new GRUB menu with all the isolinux.cfg entries converted to GRUB entries. Next I'll test this on a USB DVD drive.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot to boot USB
Parse options tested with Trisquel 6 (gnome3) iso, Parabola iso.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot to boot USB
To put one's money where one's mouth is: 4th release. 2014 February 21st Compiled version () (pre-compiled coreboot.rom, flashrom/bucts source code. Documentation.): - useful if you just want to flash the new version: - http://gluglug.org.uk/X60/release/3/X60_binary.tar.gz Source code () (coreboot, bucts, flashrom, grub2, memtest86+. Config files. Documentation.): - useful if you want to study and hack the source code: - http://gluglug.org.uk/X60/release/3/X60_source.tar.gz Changes: - Removed SeaBIOS (redundant) - New GRUB version (2.02~beta2) --> Fixes some USB issues --> Includes ISOLINUX/SYSLINUX parser - New grub.cfg --> Removed useless options: * options for booting sda 2/3/4 * seabios boot option - Added new menu entries: --> Parse ISOLINUX config (USB) --> Parse ISOLINUX config (CD) --> Added "cat" module for use on GRUB command line. * "set pager=1" is set in grub.cfg, for less-like functionality The "Parse" options read ./isolinux/isolinux.cfg on a CD or USB, and automatically converts it to a grub config and switches to the boot menu of that distro. This makes booting ISO's *much* easier than before.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot to boot USB
Adding to note: working on a new update which should solve these issues. (on the weekend of Saturday, February 15th)
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot to boot USB
To view serial output, connect the null modem cable to the dock and connect the other end via the USB serial adapter, to your other machine. On that other machine, there are several ways to monitor serial output. The way I use is: sudo screen /dev/ttyUSB0 115200 (if you don't have GNU Screen: sudo apt-get install screen) The SeaBIOS payload is redundanty, strictly speaking. It will not be included in later updates. (instead, a SYSLINUX parser from the latest GRUB will be included, which makes booting ISO's much easier).
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot to boot USB
chainloader will not work as this requires a bios* (this is why it is necessary to boot a kernel and ramdisk directly). *the gluglug x60 uses GRUB2 payload instead of SeaBIOS.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot to boot USB
Problem solved thanks to Mr. Rowe. I'll be back with more details.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot to boot USB
I just tried the SeaBIOS with the Gluglug X60 docked. Serial means not access to a serial port, but a second computer to read the Serial output and give a particular input based on that output?
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot to boot USB
Most probably it is a stupid thing, but can't it chain somehow? Let the drive do the job. I have no idea how the magic of the proprietary BIOS works.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot to boot USB
http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/grub.git/tree/grub-core/commands/syslinuxcfg.c And an example that uses it: http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/grub.git/tree/docs/osdetect.cfg
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot to boot USB
You can boot USB in GRUB2 but you have to directly boot the kernel/ramdisk. Some example entries are in the menu. There is a newer version of GRUB available that can parse the SYSLINUX menu (isolinux.cfg) of most ISO's and automatically create GRUB menu entries. I plan on issuing an updated coreboot image in the near future, with this parses included and some menuentries that use it. This should make booting ISO's easier. Currently there are some pre-defined menuentries for common FSDG distros (Trisquel, Parabola, gNewSense).
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot to boot USB
When booting with SeaBIOS, your distro's grub config is used. In Trisquel, you can add "idle=halt" option to /etc/default/grub on the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT= variable and then run "update-grub" command as root.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot to boot USB
You can boot with USB. Not all drives work currently (GRUB2 USB mass storage support is incomplete). This is a common issue that will hopefully be addressed in the near future. The ones I have and recommend: Kingston DT101 G2 (8GB). There are others but this is what I have. (they work flawlessly in GRUB).
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot to boot USB
Example (USB): linux (usb0)/vmlinuz idle=halt initrd (usb0)/initrd.gz boot Or CD (on the dock): linux (ata0)/vmlinuz idle=halt initrd (ata0)/initrd.gz boot idle=halt turns off CPU throttling, which removes the whining noise. This is a workaround for a bug in the way coreboot handles power states. It happens when the CPU is idle (running at a lower speed).
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot to boot USB
Thank you. It beats the purpose of a Live system. But it looks workable.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot to boot USB
So the only way out is plugging the docking station for those who have it and bare with the noise till they install another system. Not a nice perspective.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot to boot USB
It seems booting into USB is buggy currently. In the readme included in the sources I found this sentence: "GRUB2 USB support is buggy/temporamental at the time of writing" I also get the high-pitched noise when trying to boot using the SeaBios.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot to boot USB
Sure. One of the many options says 'Boot SeaBIOS (requires serial ouput, baud 115200) (for booting USB drives)' Only it's one of those useless options. After a dark screen it defaults to normal boot. And a strange rather faint high pitch sounds that remains until I shut the system down. Weird, because Mr. Rowe, in one of the messages prior to the purchase wrote to me that coreboot can boot USB without the need of SeaBIOS.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot to boot USB
You may want to use SeaBIOS as a payload to have support for USB devices.
[Trisquel-users] Coreboot to boot USB
I searched high and low and found a few ways to put GRUB2 on the USB, that coreboot can have GRUB2 as a payload, but not GRUB1 and so on. My Gluglug X60 comes with coreboot that boots amazingly fast. I am almost instantly presented with a GURB2 menu. And I am lost here. I badly want to boot a USB stick. No option would work, but anything that has to do with USB leads to a faint high pitched noise. Sticks and carrots? I learned my lesson. Can somebody help me boot one stick any regular proprietary BIOS from the last decade can boot. Nothing about specifying a vmlinuz path.
Re: [Trisquel-users] coreboot flashing
Thank you guys for the infos, appreciate, I will start to read, hope to understand how everythings works, seems little bit complicated to me, but I'll try. THX
Re: [Trisquel-users] coreboot flashing
A few days ago I did the same with a x60. It took me about a week to 1) read, 2) understand most parts, or at least understand enough for success and 3) actually upgrading the BIOS. Once you know which steps to do, it will take a few minutes only. You might want to read a few more pages. GNUtoo has a spearate coreboot branch with removed microcode and a so-called native vga code that replaces the non-free vga code. this branch is used by gluglug too, as far as I understood and thus this branch is what is ryf-certified by fsf http://www.coreboot.org/User:GNUtoo https://www.gitorious.org/gnutoo-for-coreboot/coreboot/source/0c4ce5539a16ea32c903e7596f12a412f9afe2ca: make sure to checkout the production-x60+v5 branch, not the master branch. On GNUtoo's page the description is mostly about how to flash (this means write) the new BIOS to the eeprom chip (aka flash chip). To my understanding you should not skip the step that says: get to know which chip is installed in you computer by inspection. I had to remove almost all parts from the x60 inside to find this chip and I had to use a magnifier glass and good zoom photo to be able to read the chip name. The lenovo hardware manual is a very good resource for how to install and deinstall all the parts. For actually learning how to build coreboot, which results in a file named coreboot.rom and which is to be flashed/written to the eeprom chip you might read the generic HowTo http://www.coreboot.org/Build_HOWTO and for me this was even more helpful: http://www.coreboot.org/User:Fchmmr it uses GNUtoo's code. For me it was very new that the bootloader grub now is stored in the eeprom chip, it is not stored at the hard disk anymore. well there are other possibilities, you should read about it. hope this helps a little, cheers Mono
Re: [Trisquel-users] coreboot flashing
В 21:13 +0100 на 20.01.2014 (пн), debianli...@libero.it написа: > In few days I will recieve a thinkpad T60 with non free BIOS > I decided to flash by myself the machine, this is the instruction: > https://www.coreboot.org/Board:lenovo/x60/Installation > > I read it, and I cannot understand well what I have to do... > If any of you has some more detailed infos on how to proceed will be very > helpful I haven't done it for the x60, though that was the idea when I bought the laptop. Lack of time and too many tasks. :/ I've flashed Coreboot on a desktop motherboard, where there is one advantage - the flash chip can be replaced (in some cases). Basically, Coreboot has a sister project which is a general purpose flash (&& EEPROM) chip programmer. You have to use it to install Coreboot. It communicates with the flash/BIOS chip over a system bus from GNU/Linux. The procedure describes how to change flashrom source code to work-around the proprietary BIOS restrictions which prevents BIOS flashing on the entire chip. It seems the modification is flash chip specific. The proprietary BIOS is read from the chip for backup (recovery if necessary). The Coreboot image is prepared and the flash chip is programmed with the special image. When Coreboot is flashed and the laptop boots, the entire chip is reprogrammed. This procedure uses the internal system bus for programming. If an external programmer and a SO-8 IC clip mentioned in the recovery section is used, the modifications should not be needed. The external programmer approach is more complicated. If you need more help, I would be glad to help. You can also find me on the Trisquel IRC channel as thedreamer. I'm usually online most of the time (UTC+2:00), but during work hours I'm at work, (duh! :)) so I won't be able to spare more than 10 minutes. signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part
[Trisquel-users] coreboot flashing
In few days I will recieve a thinkpad T60 with non free BIOS I decided to flash by myself the machine, this is the instruction: https://www.coreboot.org/Board:lenovo/x60/Installation I read it, and I cannot understand well what I have to do... If any of you has some more detailed infos on how to proceed will be very helpful
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot for my laptop
That's just a naming scheme of Samsung. He's notebook is definitely not supported.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot for my laptop
It looks like your laptop is supported! http://www.coreboot.org/Chromebooks
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot for my laptop
I want that too (who not), but this isn't this simple. Unless you're a professional, willing to spend your time getting coreboot to work on your rig, you will be not able to run coreboot with binary-blobs. Here you can find information on how to begin: http://www.coreboot.org/Laptop#HOWTO_to_find_a_way Also, special equipment is required during unsuccessful flashes.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot for my laptop
My laptop is a Samsung 3 series.
[Trisquel-users] Coreboot for my laptop
I want to put Coreboot on my laptop but I don't found any refernce for my laptop. i only saw Coreboot for Chromebook. The Coreboot installation depends on what? Video card? Processor? What must be compatible ? I have a intel i5 2410m peocesor and a Nvidia 520mx video card. So my laptop is compatible? I searched the web and coreboot site but I didn't find any information about this.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot & Triquel Computers
Contrary to popular belief most of the free code written is done by companies like Redhat, IBM, and others. At least they are paying the developers to write said code. There are other industries which have no interest in non-free code. They contribute to projects like Coreboot. Coreboot is used on servers for instance. There are things you can do with Coreboot that you can't do otherwise. Or not in a cheap and effective manor. So while there are developers being paid they are not being paid to work on porting Coreboot to the hardware we need it on. They are being paid to port it to new server boards and similar. There have been ATOM boards with Coreboot. At least one exists. Unfortunately it isn't manufactured and there is nobody with the resources interested in funding another port.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot & Triquel Computers
It is difficult to understand the GNU Operating System's software development model. All the development seems to have been done at no cost to the Free Software Foundation and then the code was released under the GPL (and copyright was assigned to FSF? http://live.gnome.org/CopyrightAssignment How does it make it into the package list? http://www.gnu.org/software/software.html#allgnupkgs or the Gnome Foundation List? Who can decide to relicense/dual license a package). It seems that Coreboot is no exception, programmer charity to support an ideal. Hopefully, one of the Coreboot developers (past or future), or companies sponsoring Coreboot, will reach out and offer their talents and services gratis, in charity, pro bono, to develop mainboards that are desired by ThinkPenguin, InaTux, and Los Alamos Computers. This shouldn't cost any money or require resources from the vendors distributing computers with Trisquel pre-installed. Maybe one of the team at Google Summer of Code could work on this. http://www.gnu.org/links/companies.html http://www.coreboot.org/Sponsors http://www.coreboot.org/Contributors http://www.coreboot.org/Products
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot & Triquel Computers
We are trying to solve these issues. Right now we are working on USB wireless N chipset as we feel this is a critical issue. The BIOS is not the only non-free code running and requires more resources than the community could possibly finance at this time. Really- there isn't any way it is going to happen. We have in the works agreements which we hope will significantly increase our revenue. Money is key to getting things done. I think there will come a point where it'll happen. It is going to require adoption by the masses though. Right now even if every consumer purchased a computer from us and no one else we probably still couldn't finance a coreboot port. This is not to say there isn't any other way to finance a coreboot port. It has been done before. I'm not sure who got these laptops or if it was done after the fact (there may not have been any actual users or availability with coreboot installed). I know of one which was financed by a government in Europe (if I recall). Again- this system was not free software friendly. It used an ATI graphics chipset and still had other non-free microcode. This is off the top of my head. Please correct if I have made any factual errors or if you have additional info. The coreboot web site does have a number of laptops which coreboot was ported. Each is not completely free or remotely free software friendly.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot & Triquel Computers
Chris and Cyberhawk thank you for the comments. Disheartening. There is over 50 motherboards in that list. They have done quite a lot of work, which doesn't seem to benefit Trisquel or the vendors that sell Trisquel Computers. "The coreboot project was started in the winter of 1999 in the Advanced Computing Laboratory at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) by Ron Minnich." One assumes that something so important to the Free Software Foundation there would be direct efforts by FSF to get important hardware BOISes released under the GPL, or structure financing to have a dedicated team earning their livelihood on this project. To ask a single Linux computer system vendor to finance this on their own doesn't make sense. Not even to work on motherboards that dedicated GNU/Linux computer system vendors such a ThinkPenguin, InaTux, and Los Alamos Computers are currently selling or are planning on selling...they way the project is structured I can't imagine they even asked. http://www.coreboot.org/FAQ http://www.coreboot.org/Contributors http://www.coreboot.org/Sponsors
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot & Triquel Computers
Every body is making compromises and we are trying mitigate those compromises. Nobody sells a coreboot compatible laptop for instance. The reason we don't ship coreboot is for the reason Cyberhawk mentions. It is a non-trivial task to port coreboot from one board to another. If we were to finance it (this is not happening in the near future- although is something we would like to eventually do) the board most likely to get a port would be an Intel Atom desktop board. Lets back up a moment though. Why are we not shipping a desktop system right now with coreboot when there are all these boards available. Cost and availability. A board actually has to be supported before it is discontinued. These discontinued boards are significantly more expensive and most people aren't willing to pay 3x as much for a system. Go through that list and point me to a motherboard under $100 that isn't discontinued and supports 16GB of ram. It also can't have an NVidia or ATI chipset. You aren't going to find such a motherboard.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot & Triquel Computers
The problem is the following: there is only one company that makes videocards that run with fully free drivers. It is ironically Intel. For example the x3000 and x4500 have free drivers and do not require binary blobs in the kernel. However, the motherboards that use those videocards run on chipsets that have no support by coreboot. I asked on the coreboot mailing list and that's more or less what one of the devs answered me: "coreboot does not run with this type of chipset. It would require a lot of difficult backwards engineering to make coreboot run on these motherboards. It will not happen in the foreseeable future." So at the moment you cannot run a fully free system, that has 3D acceleration. You either have 3D acceleration plus a non-free bios, or a free bios with no 3D acceleration (a system with an AMD CPU and a Radeon/GeForce card running in a kind of limited mode with free software drivers).
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot & Triquel Computers
Some confirmation from Chris would be nice if he only supports coreboot systems.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Coreboot & Triquel Computers
And, of course, ThinkPenguin sells "free" computers.
