remove obsolete pages. they will me 301 redirected in nginx
Leah Rowe
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@ -21,8 +21,6 @@ rms.ru.md
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rms.tr.md
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rms.tr.md
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rms.vi.md
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rms.vi.md
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rms.zh.md
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rms.zh.md
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resignations.md
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libreboot202104xx.md
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libreboot20160907.md
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libreboot20160907.md
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libreboot20160902.md
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libreboot20160902.md
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libreboot20160818.md
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libreboot20160818.md
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@ -1,143 +0,0 @@
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% New Libreboot release, ETA late April 2021 / early June 2021
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% Leah Rowe
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% 30 March 2021
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Rapid progress is being made towards a new Libreboot release. It should be done
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by late April or early June 2021. Many new boards will be supported, with lots
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of bugs fixed, new features added and the latest coreboot/GRUB/SeaBIOS versions
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used on all boards. The Libreboot website will be massively overhauled.
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I, Leah Rowe, have re-taken full control of the Libreboot project after 4 years
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delay in bringing out a new release. Long story short, Libreboot began a new
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and ambitious re-write of its build system in 2017; as of 2021, that build
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system is still not ready; the design is fundamentally flawed and the code is
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unmaintainable so I have scrapped the rewrite entirely. The work will be
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preserved, for reference, but it has otherwise been abandoned.
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I, Leah Rowe, was not responsible for that re-write. The design of that
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re-written build system is fundamentally flawed, and it has too many bugs. The
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people working on it kept adding too many new features without fixing
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fundamental issues. I have revoked all of their access to project
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infrastructure; Libreboot is now lead by me. I have a completely different idea
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for how to run the project and what a *coreboot distro* should be.
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I, Leah Rowe, stepped down from Libreboot development in 2017. Since late 2020,
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I've been actively developing Libreboot again. I have been working on another
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project, forked via Libreboot 20160907 build system `lbmk` but on documentation
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from December 2020. That project is: <http://osboot.org/> - if Libreboot seems
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dead to you right now, it's because I've been doing the work exclusively in
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osboot, with the intention of adapting that work back into Libreboot.
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osboot has very different goals than Libreboot, but the build system there is
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vastly improved. I have focused on adding all *libre-friendly* boards to osboot
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which means anything that Libreboot does support, or can support. I am
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presently using a version of coreboot from December 2020, with patches applied
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on top to improve certain functionality on specific boards.
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osboot *does not comply* with Libreboot policy; it permits binary blobs. The
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purpose of osboot is to provide support for coreboot targets that aren't
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yet easy to support in Libreboot, for those who wish to use such hardware. This
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is because in many cases, such people will insist on using what hardware they
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already have, or they have a need for newer hardware. The coreboot software has
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support for lots of hardware. In my opinion, these people will likely not just
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install upstream coreboot with a payload; they will want something pre-built
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for them that is easy to install, with user-friendly instructions and support.
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In other words, they want a *coreboot distro* like Libreboot. In the name
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of *harm reduction*, I provide the osboot project precisely for such people, so
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as to reduce the amount of non-free software they use; the idea is that osboot
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is better, for those people, than using a *completely* non-free machine. osboot
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also contains support for most libreboot targets at this point, and the rest
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will be added soon; on *those* (and all other x86 machines), microcode updates
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are included by default. *Most* boards that coreboot supports do still require
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binary blobs; the ones that Libreboot supports represent a small minority of
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coreboot targets! This is a sad reality, which has limited the Libreboot
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project's possibilities for years.
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I wanted to start something like osboot for a long time. Well, I'm nearly done
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adding all *libre-friendly* x86 boards to it; in addition to ones already in
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Libreboot, I've added others such as the ThinkPad R500. More will be added
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soon. I have made vast improvements to the build system (compared to Libreboot
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20160907), so all I need to do now is add all the configs for those libre
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friendly boards and ensure that adequate documentation is provided. I can then
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provide a release with pre-compiled ROM images and full source code.
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As soon as this is ready, I will *fork osboot* to create `osboot-libre`. This
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will be FSF-endorseable and comply with the same criteria as Libreboot. The
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reason is because I want to create a source-based, rolling release coreboot
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distro with configurability similar to what you'd find in emerge and the
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OpenWRT build system. However, that's for much later:
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osboot-libre will be used as a reference to then create a new Libreboot release.
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The *source-based coreboot distro* aspect will not be implemented in osboot or
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osboot-libre until the new Libreboot release is ready.
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Aside from specific board support, here are some nice improvements currently
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in the osboot build system compared to Libreboot 20160907:
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* Generally it is much more cleanly written, and more modular
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* You no longer have to manually run individual commands within lbmk (in osboot
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it's called osbmk. osboot-make): each command checks if previous commands
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required were run, and runs them if not. **This means you can just type a
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single command to build a ROM image if you wish!**
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* Makefile included, making the build system even easier to use. The Makefile
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contains no logic, it just runs osbmk (osboot-make) commands
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* Vastly improved `grub.cfg`: un-hardcodes a lot of functionality, improved
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usability on i945 targets such as X60/T60/macbook21, USB HDD support out of
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the box
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* GRUB module missing errors fixed; all standard GRUB modules now included
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* LUKS2 now supported in the GRUB payload.
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* Geli now supported in the GRUB payload. (FreeBSD encryption thing)
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* The documentation is much cleaner
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* Tianocore payload supported, for UEFI
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* SeaBIOS now included as standard, on all ROM images; on images with the GRUB
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payload, SeaBIOS is an option in the boot menu.
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* The build system is *much* easier to use when adding new board configs
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* Each `board.cfg` for each board defines what payloads it is to use, what
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architecture, etc. Coreboot trees are now handled on a directory basis,
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instead of creating multiple branches in a newly initialized Git repository;
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this is less efficient on disk space, but it is simpler to maintain, so now
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the priority is to minimize how ever many coreboot revisions are used.
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* Boards can link to other boards; for example, X200 could use the same setup
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as T400. However, in this case the specific board would still have it's own
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specific coreboot configuration files.
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* Build system highly optimized; unnecessary steps are skipped. If you just
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want to build for 1 board, you can! Only the things necessary for that board
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will be compiled by osbmk, at least automatically that is!
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* In general, it is a *much more automated* automated build system!
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Check the hardware support compared to Libreboot:
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<https://osboot.org/docs/hardware/> (NOTE: some of the machines listed there
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cannot be added to Librbeboot, but you can see that a lot of Libreboot-friendly
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hardware is already present in osboot. Only those targets that can run blob
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free will be in Libreboot, and coreboot supports of lot more of such hardware
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nowadays).
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Plans:
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* Scrap libreboot.git
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* Split build system into `lbmk.git`
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* Split web/docs to into `lbwww.git`
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* Split images into `lbwww-img`
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* Split utils into separate repositories e.g. `ich9utils.git`
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This splitting of the repositories will make each part of Libreboot much more
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easily maintainable by contributors. This splitting up of the repository has
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already been implemented in osboot!
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**The entire `libreboot.org` website will be -->nuked<-- from orbit.**
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Stay tuned! The new site and new project will be much better.
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PS:
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Code of Conduct abolished
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-------------------------
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Libreboot has abolished its Code of Conduct. I no longer believe that a CoC is
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effective; in reality, it does not prevent bad behaviour and it discourages
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people from joining the project. CoCs are ultimately counter-productive. It's
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obvious when someone is behaving badly; common sense will prevail!
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All I want is code. Your code.
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Just try to behave yourself on IRC, OK?
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@ -1,118 +0,0 @@
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% swiftgeek and Andrew Robbins removed from the Libreboot project
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% Leah Rowe
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% 30 March 2021
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Introduction
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============
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As the title suggests, Andrew Robbins and swiftgeek (Sebastian Grzywna) are no
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longer a part of the Libreboot project. While I am sad to see them go, I say
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one thing freely: I wish both of them well. I'm extremely grateful for the work
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that they have done over the years; their passion, their burning desire to help
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others and their energy for Free Software is inspiring. Swiftgeek in particular
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has given me a lot of advice on things over the years. I *hope that they do*
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continue their work, and I've already told swiftgeek that I will provide him
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with the money/resources if he needs it, to help him set up physical hosting
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infrastructure for a new project forked from Libreboot. I will do it without a
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moment's hesitation.
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I also told swiftgeek that I would be happy to continue working with him, if
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he wished. So far I have not yet spoken to Andrew, but he learned of my recent
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decisions and has now denounced me on his website; I am not angry with him for
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this, in fact I would be angry if I were him. I will address his article later
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in this post. Unfortunately, Andrew's article means that I do not wish to talk
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to him anymore.
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Their work that they did in Libreboot is now archived. It will be preserved, in
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the Git repository, for historical purposes. If they wish to continue with the
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development on their version of libreboot, they may do so; in fact, I would not
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want to stop them! I merely disagreed on a lot of technical levels with the
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way their *build system* (the Paper build system) was implemented. Their build
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system is, as of today, an unfinished re-write of Libreboot that began in 2016
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by PaulK when he was a Libreboot project member, then continued in 2017 by
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Andrew Robbins under the guidance of swiftgeek.
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On 28 March 2021, I decided that I was nonetheless unhappy with their progress;
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they had failed to produce a release in the last few years, and my gut instinct
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told me that they would not make a new release at all for at least another few
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year. They would have kept being awesome, implementing all kinds of cool
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whacky features but their *Paper build system* (which is what it's called, the
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version they worked on) would have only got endlessly more complex. I did not
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want their code in Libreboot anymore.
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In [my last post earlier today](libreboot202104xx.md) I announced the
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extensive amounts of work that I've done on coreboot and related software, in
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preparation for a new Libreboot release; in that post, I described all of the
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major improvements and what is left to be done for the next Libreboot release
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ETA late April 2021 / early June 2021. I only started this work in early
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December 2020; I scrapped the re-write (Paper build system) and continued where
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I left off back in September 2016, continuing development
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of *lbmk* (libreboot-make). lbmk is much simpler and easier to maintain than
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Paper, and my argument to swiftgeek has always been that it could easily
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implement all of the advanced features Paper has (Paper is badly designed,
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but has nice features). I will indeed be doing this! For example: uboot
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integration in Libreboot, for ARM devices.
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In 5 months I've made a lot of progress; I am
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mere *weeks* away from having a totally new Libreboot release ready.
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Nothing has changed since that last post, in fact it's even still the same day,
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and the above is merely a summary, but a development has happened:
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Andrew's article
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----------------
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Andrew Robbins is rightly angry at me right now. I do not expect his
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forgiveness ever, but I would like to address some of the points he has made in
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an article about me. The article is here:
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http://web.archive.org/web/20210330215036/https://www.andrewrobbins.info/libreboot.html
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The only point I wish to address is:
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Yes, I made an arrangement with Andrew to set up an LLC for himself in
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USA (LLC = limited liability company). I told him that I would be shipping him
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laptops that I buy from USA suppliers, then he would install libreboot on those
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and ship them to my USA customer, and I would pay him 75% of the additional
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profits generated (because it's sales I wouldn't otherwise get: the 25% would
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cover my admin fees and overheads, while he gets the lion share of the profit).
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In Andrew's article, he says that I was *stringing him along* so let me be
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clear: although Andrew clearly no longer trusts me, I am still willing to do
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this with him. I told him in the beginning that it had nothing to do with his
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position in the Libreboot project; it just made good business sense, and it
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still does. I would not reduce my workload by doing this with him: I would
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keep my workload the same while giving *him* a workload for him to make his
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own money.
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Many months ago on IRC, I also proposed to swiftgeek that we start a repair
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company. Similar to Louis Rossman's macbook repair company, but for Thinkpads;
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swiftgeek has great knowledge of ThinkPad repair, and I could find him
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customers.
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I understand Andrew's anger, and fully expected it. I did not take the
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decisions I made in Libreboot lightly; I made those decisions because I think
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they were (are) the right decisions to make, for the good of the project.
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When I bring that new release out, I will be re-opening the Libreboot
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infrastructure for new outside contributors, including those who wish to have
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review/push/pull access.
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Needless to say, I reject Andrew's calls for me to hand over control of the
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Libreboot project. I'm back, and I have great plans for the project. I intend
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to implement them all, fully.
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Closing remarks
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---------------
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I will say once again:
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I wish swiftgeek and Andrew all the best, in whatever they choose to do.
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Sadly, I know all too well that Andrew and Swiftgeek will never trust me; such
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is even stated in Andrew's article.
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Their work in Libreboot's Git repository will be fully preserved. They are free
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to continue their work, and I hope they succeed! Another coreboot distro can
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only be a good thing!
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I have nothing else to say. I wasn't sure whether I should address any of this
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at all, but I think I made the right choice.
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Loading…
Reference in New Issue