lbwww/site/news/hp8470p_and_dell_t1650.md

% HP EliteBook 8470p and Dell Precision T1650 support added to Libreboot
% Leah Rowe
% 14 August 2023

Introduction
============

I've ported and tested two new boards, and merged them into the `lbmk` master
branch. They will be available in the next regular release:

HP EliteBook 8470p
------------------

HP EliteBook 8470p is another IvyBridge platform, similar to other EliteBooks
that Libreboot already supports, such as the HP EliteBook 9470m that Riku
added.

<img tabindex=1 class="r" style="max-width:35%" src="https://av.libreboot.org/hp8470p/hp8470p.jpg" /><span class="f"><img src="https://av.libreboot.org/hp8470p/hp8470p.jpg" /></span>

It was added in this patch:
<https://browse.libreboot.org/lbmk.git/commit/?id=6075fed84912be82cb03a99ad5a5a82547872463>

It should be noted: there are *two* variants of this machine. One variant has
Intel graphics, and this is what was tested. The other variant has discrete
AMD graphics, and is not supported, but could be added - if you have one of
these AMD variants, please [contact Leah Rowe](../docs/maintain/testing.html).

Another quirk: SOIC16 flash IC, but it's 16MB in size (Winbond W25Q128).

This will be available in the next Libreboot release. For now, you
can [download Libreboot from Git](../git.md) and [build from
source](../docs/build/) if you wish to use this board. Read those instructions
first; with build dependencies then installed, you can build the board like
so:

	./build boot roms hp8470pintel_16mb

There is currently no documentation on the coreboot website, but installation
instructions will be written for the Libreboot website.

Dell Precision T1650
--------------------

This machine is truly unique, among most desktop boards in coreboot. It's yet
another IvyBridge desktop, same platform as [HP 8300
USDT](../docs/hardware/hp8300usdt.html), but it supports *ECC* memory, if you
use a Xeon E3 model CPU (ivybridge variant).

<img tabindex=1 class="l" style="max-width:35%" src="https://av.libreboot.org/t1650/t1650.jpg" /><span class="f"><img src="https://av.libreboot.org/t1650/t1650.jpg" /></span>

My model had 

You can find a list of IvyBridge CPUs here:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_Bridge_(microarchitecture)#List_of_Ivy_Bridge_processors>

*My* one, that I tested, has Intel *Xeon E3 1270v2* - this model does not have
an Intel graphics chip built in, so I could not test coreboot's libgfxinit for
this board, but it should work. I've since ordered a 1275v2 which does have
graphics, but I didn't have it at the time of this news post.

<img tabindex=1 class="r" style="max-width:35%" src="https://av.libreboot.org/t1650/t1650_seabios.jpg" /><span class="f"><img src="https://av.libreboot.org/t1650/t1650_seabios.jpg" /></span>

Native video init for Intel graphics *is* enabled, in this Libreboot port, but
because I haven't tested it yet, I've done *this* in the port that was merged:
SeaBIOS-only at startup, but GRUB is available in the SeaBIOS menu. SeaBIOS
is relied upon to execute the VGA Option ROM on an add-on graphics card (the
one I had was Nvidia Quadro K420, tested with the `nouveau` driver under
Debian Linux).

<img tabindex=1 class="l" style="max-width:35%" src="https://av.libreboot.org/t1650/t1650_grub.jpg" /><span class="f"><img src="https://av.libreboot.org/t1650/t1650_grub.jpg" /></span>

If you want GRUB-only setup, you could configure SeaBIOS bootorder to only
load the GRUB payload, and disable the SeaBIOS menu. This can be done by
only booting `img/grub2` from CBFS. More info available here:
<https://www.seabios.org/Runtime_config> - just insert the appropriate files
into CBFS, as per the instructions on that page. Make sure you have external
flashing equipment to recover in case you brick it!

<img tabindex=1 class="r" style="max-width:35%" src="https://av.libreboot.org/t1650/t1650_libreboot_website.jpg" /><span class="f"><img src="https://av.libreboot.org/t1650/t1650_libreboot_website.jpg" /></span>

With ECC memory, this board is easily suitable for running a server of some kind,
in cases where data integrity matters (many userspace programs will use `read()`
and `write()` to manipulate data on the HDD/SSD, so it's best to ensure that the
memory is as reliable as possible) - the board also has *four* SATA slots, so
you could easily do RAID10 or RAID6 - a filesystem like ZFS running under FreeBSD
would be a boon. Stick 32GB of ECC RAM with RAID10 HDDs on FreeBSD and run
OpenBSD virtual servers in bhyve!

Other works currently in progress
=================================

A similar report was made in the [HP EliteBook 2170p news
page](hp2170p.md). Some of that is now done, so the list is updated (and more
work is also being done):

More boards coming soon
-----------------------

I'm *still* on a spree, adding more boards to Libreboot, especially HP
EliteBooks. These boards are of interest, to the Libreboot project, at this
present time:

* Dell OptiPlex 9010 - similar to the T1650 (same platform, same vendor)
* HP ProBook 6360b - it has been added today to Libreboot, but it's not yet
  tested. Patch (WIP):
  <https://browse.libreboot.org/lbmk.git/commit/?h=hp2170p_wip&id=7badbf224b4ac80f73bb64a39aef518d790848c4>
  (further testing still needed)
* HP Revolve 810 G1
* HP EliteBook Folio 9480m - it has been added already to Libreboot (WIP), but
  currently does not boot (more testing needed - not sure what my problem is
  yet, but it was added today). WIP patch:
  <https://browse.libreboot.org/lbmk.git/commit/?h=hp2170p_wip&id=25477d9ed44cea19bca8a875a7e334e8d4fa01b3>
* HP EliteBook 820 G2 (broadwell generation)
* HP EliteBook *840* G2 - not supported in coreboot yet, but should be similar
  to 820 G2 and I've ordered one for testing. It's probably an easy port.
* HP Z220 workstation
* Dell Precision T1650
* Dell Optiplex 7020 and 9020 - not mentioned in the last post, but I also have
  these.
* Dell Latitude E6320 - not supported in coreboot yet, but there's a patch
  under review on gerrit for Latitude E6220, and the E6320 should be similar
  enough for an easy port. This is the gerrit patch for E6220:
  <https://review.coreboot.org/c/coreboot/+/74287>

Another build system audit
--------------------------

I've also started another audit of the Libreboot build system; the [last
one](audit.md) was quite intense and a lot more work is going in for the
next release.

The next Libreboot release is going to be an absolute banger. I can promise you
that. But I can't give you an ETA yet :)