2022-11-15 22:23:17 +00:00
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% Osboot is now part of Libreboot
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% Leah Rowe
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% 15 November 2022
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Long live Libreboot!
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====================
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The former `osboot` project, started by the same founder as Libreboot, Leah
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2022-11-15 22:24:42 +00:00
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Rowe, has today shut down; the osboot website now automatically redirects, via
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2022-11-15 23:32:14 +00:00
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HTTP 301, to the libreboot website. Everything osboot had, has now been added
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to Libreboot, and development will now occur exclusively in Libreboot from now
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on.
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The result of this decision is that Libreboot does (and can) now support newer
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hardware, such as the ThinkPad X230 or T440p.
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2022-11-15 22:23:17 +00:00
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Such was alluded to in the previous Libreboot release announcement:
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<https://libreboot.org/news/libreboot20220710.html#planned-osbootlibreboot-merger>
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The exact method proposed in that previous announcement has not been adopted.
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Instead, Libreboot essentially now *is* osboot, under the Libreboot name.
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The *binary blob minimalisation* policy of osboot has replaced the previous
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policy used by Libreboot. It is a pragmatic policy revolved around providing
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as much freedom as possible per platform, while no longer sticking only to
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those *"pure"* platforms; all platforms from coreboot can now be supported, if
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someone wishes to maintain the board in `lbmk`. The new policy is here:
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<https://libreboot.org/news/policy.html> (same URL as the old one, but the
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text has been updated in line with osboot policy)
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To understand the full nature of this merge, you should read the policy
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document linked above. Both osboot and Libreboot were largely identical, and
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basically the same project. In order to make management of the projects much
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easier, they were simply merged into one.
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How the merge was conducted
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---------------------------
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Since 2020, Libreboot (and osboot) have both been through several reboots,
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forking off each other other to keep in sync. It was starting to become too
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much of a burden, which is the main reason the merger took place.
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On November 14th, I (Leah Rowe) literally diffed all of Libreboot since the
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last reboot (of the Libreboot repository) and checked each one against osboot,
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adding whatever was missing from that *in osboot*. This then put the osboot
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project in sync with Libreboot, but in line with osboot and with the additional
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boards (plus scripts and so on) in osboot, compared to Libreboot pre-merge.
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The same was *then* applied *in reverse*: differences in osboot were ported
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back to Libreboot, carefully and methodically. All of this took place in a the
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period of 1 day, because the overall structure of both projects was largely the
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same and the build systems in both projects are extremely modular, making this
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sort of work very easy indeed.
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A similar process was performed with the Libreboot website and the osboot
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website, but osboot already contained all the same documentation as Libreboot,
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plus extra. The differences were therefore ported over to Libreboot.
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Porting of documentation (from osboot over to Libreboot) was done by
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Caleb La Grange (IRC nick `shmalebx9`), and reviewed by myself prior to going
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live.
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As of writing this post, one utility from osboot (for changing MAC addresses
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inside Gbe regions on Intel machines that have an IFD) hasn't been moved over
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yet, but I'm considering merging all outside utilities maintained by us (bucts,
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ich9gen and nvmutil) into lbmk, making lbmk a BSD-like *monorepo* of sorts. We
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shall see.
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That's it really. Osboot and Libreboot are now operating as a single, unified
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project, the way it should have been from the beginning. Quite boring news,
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actually.
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New Libreboot release coming soon!!!
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====================================
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CrOS devices re-added to Libreboot
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----------------------------------
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Documentation needs to be updated, to reflect this and many other things, but
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ARM-based chromebooks are now once again supported in Libreboot, using the
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u-boot payload inside coreboot.
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This work is courtesy of Alper Nebi Yasak (`alpernebbi` on libera IRC) and it's
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also part of the merge.
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