184 lines
8.7 KiB
Markdown
184 lines
8.7 KiB
Markdown
% Libreboot 20230423 released!
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% Leah Rowe
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% 23 April 2023
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Introduction
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============
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Libreboot provides boot firmware for supported x86/ARM machines, starting a
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bootloader that then loads your operating system. It replaces proprietary
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BIOS/UEFI firmware on x86 machines, and provides an *improved* configuration
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on ARM-based chromebooks supported (U-Boot bootloader, instead of Google's
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depthcharge bootloader). On x86 machines, the GRUB and SeaBIOS coreboot
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payloads are officially supported, provided in varying configurations per
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machine. It provides an automated build system for the configuration and
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installation of coreboot ROM images, making coreboot easier to use for
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non-technical people. You can find the list of supported hardware in the
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Libreboot documentation.
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The last Libreboot release, version 20230413, was released on 13 April
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in 2023. *This* new release, Libreboot 20230423, is released today on
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April 23rd, 2023.
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This is marked as a *testing* release, though it is *basically stable*.
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We've been going at it like crazy, on a big spree adding more mainboards from
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coreboot. Some fixes to the build system were also made, since the last release
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only *10 days ago*.
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The *priority* for Libreboot is to add as many new boards as possible, from now
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to the next stable release (ETA Q3 2023), with many testing releases in
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between. Release early, release often. Rigorious testing ensues.
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Build from source
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-----------------
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*This* release was build-tested on Debian *Sid*, as of 23 April 2023. Your
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mileage may vary, with other distros. Refer to Libreboot documentation.
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KCMA-D8 and KGPE-D16 wanted!
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----------------------------
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[ASUS KGPE-D16 and KCMA-D8 needed for testing!](kgpe-d16.md)
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These boards still haven't made it back to Libreboot, but I wish to re-add
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them in a future release. If you can give/loan me a fully assembled workstation
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with one (or both) of these, I would appreciate it. Please
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[get in touch](../contact.md)!
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Work done since last release
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============================
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This is in the last *10 days*, since the previous release was 10 days ago!
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Ergo, this is a very conservative changelog. It seems Libreboot has been
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releasing almost fortnightly, as of late; perhaps this could continue from
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now on.
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New mainboards now supported:
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-----------------------------
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* **Dell Latitude E6400 (laptop)** (GM45, blob-free, flashable entirely in
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software, no disassembly required!) - courtesy Nicholas Chin, `nic3-14159` on
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Libreboot IRC.
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* HP Compaq 8200 Elite SFF (desktop), courtesy Riku Viitanen (`Riku_V` on
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Libreboot IRC) - *Sandybridge* hardware generation, really nice machine,
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cheap, easy to flash, supports 32GB RAM, multiple HDDs etc.
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* HP EliteBook Folio 9470m (laptop), courtesy Riku Viitanen (IvyBridge gen)
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* HP EliteBook 2560p (laptop), courtesy Riku Viitanen (*seriously* cool guy) -
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Sandybridge hardware gen
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Build system changes:
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---------------------
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* **GM45 no-microcode bug mitigations re-added: revert to old SMRR handling
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and disable PECI (for e.g. X200/T400 users who want to [remove microcode
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updates](gm45microcode.md), using `cbfstool`) - fixes broken reboot/speedstep
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CPU scaling in such configuration.** - Patch:
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<https://browse.libreboot.org/lbmk.git/commit/?id=bd4ea9a02845b22a09b73ebb015ce134234d100b>
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(patch by Leah Rowe) - this also affects Dell Latitude E6400, and it can be
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used there on that board. We recommend *keeping* microcode updates, but these
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mitigations were re-added to satisfy users of older releases that excluded
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them, who want to still have the option to feasibly run without them.
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[This is ill advised, due to bugs that the microcode updates
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fix](gm45microcode.md)
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* `blobutil/inject`: Fixed bad variable expansion pattern. Patch courtesy
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Leah Rowe.
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* GRUB patch: fix hanging on HP EliteBooks, by implementing a 200ms timeout
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for PS/2 keyboard initialisation. Patch courtesy of Riku Viitanen, and it
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fixes this issue which has existed in coreboot *for years*:
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<https://browse.libreboot.org/lbmk.git/plain/resources/grub/patches/0005-at-keyboard-timeout.patch?id=20192c08488104f5cacc1f3842ae8e0ee74c44ef>
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* `build/release/roms`: HP KBC1126 EC firmware scrubbed from release ROMs, for
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re-insertion later via `./blobutil download` and `./blobutil inject` like
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with ME images via `me_cleaner` - for HP laptops. Patch courtesy Leah Rowe.
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* `build/dependencies/parabola`: New script for installing build dependencies
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in Parabola GNU+Linux, courtesy of Riku Viitanen (`Riku_V` on Libreboot IRC)
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* `util/nvmutil`: sorted includes alphabetically; `sys/` first (puffy!) -
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courtesy Leah Rowe.
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* `util/e6400-flash-unlock`: New utility for Dell Latitude E6400 added, written
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by Nicholas Chin (`nic3-14159` on Libreboot IRC). It sends EC commands to
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pull a GPIO connected to `GPIO33`/`HDA_DOCK_EN` in the chipset to a low logic
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state, disabling IFD-based flash protections. Additionally, it bypasses the
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SMM BIOS lock protection by disabling SMIs, and since Dell's own BIOS offers
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no other protections, the machine can be flashed *entirely with software on
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the host CPU*, from Dell BIOS to Libreboot! See:
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<https://browse.libreboot.org/lbmk.git/tree/util/e6400-flash-unlock>
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* GRUB payload: `grub.cfg` menu timeout now 30s, not 5s (courtesy Leah Rowe)
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* `blobutil/download`: support downloading KBC1126-based EC firmware for HP
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laptops. (patch by Leah Rowe)
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* `blobutil/download`: Support extracting `me.bin` from full archives, when
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running `./blobutil download` - this is done, using the `-M` option
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in `me_cleaner` (some vendors put whole ROM images with IFD, GBE, ME and BIOS
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regions in them, inside their BIOS update archives - we only need to get ME
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from them, to run through `me_cleaner`) in `me_cleaner`. Ninja'd into lbmk by
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Leah Rowe.
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Hardware supported in this release
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==================================
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All of the following are believed to *boot*, but if you have any issues,
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please contact the Libreboot project. They are:
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Desktops (AMD, Intel, x86)
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-----------------------
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- [Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L motherboard](../docs/hardware/ga-g41m-es2l.md)
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- [Acer G43T-AM3](../docs/hardware/acer_g43t-am3.md)
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- [Intel D510MO and D410PT motherboards](../docs/hardware/d510mo.md)
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- [Apple iMac 5,2](../docs/hardware/imac52.md)
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- [HP Elite 8200 SFF](../docs/hardware/hp8200sff.md) (HP 6200 Pro Business probably works too)
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### Laptops (Intel, x86)
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- **[Dell Latitute E6400](../docs/hardware/e6400.md) (easy to flash, no disassembly, similar
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hardware to X200/T400)**
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- ThinkPad X60 / X60S / X60 Tablet
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- ThinkPad T60 (with Intel GPU)
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- [Lenovo ThinkPad X200 / X200S / X200 Tablet](../docs/hardware/x200.md)
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- Lenovo ThinkPad X230
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- Lenovo ThinkPad X301
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- [Lenovo ThinkPad R400](../docs/hardware/r400.md)
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- [Lenovo ThinkPad T400 / T400S](../docs/hardware/t400.md)
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- [Lenovo ThinkPad T500](../docs/hardware/t500.md)
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- [Lenovo ThinkPad T530 / W530](../docs/install/ivy_has_common.md)
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- [Lenovo ThinkPad W500](../docs/hardware/t500.md)
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- [Lenovo ThinkPad R500](../docs/hardware/r500.md)
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- [Apple MacBook1,1 and MacBook2,1](../docs/hardware/macbook21.md)
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- [Lenovo ThinkPad T440p](../docs/install/t440p_external.md)
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- [Lenovo Thinkpad X220](../docs/install/ivy_has_common.md)
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- [Lenovo Thinkpad X220t](../docs/install/ivy_has_common.md)
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- [Lenovo Thinkpad T420](../docs/install/ivy_has_common.md)
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- [Lenovo ThinkPad T420S](../docs/install/ivy_has_common.md)
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- [Lenovo ThinkPad T430](../docs/install/ivy_has_common.md)
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- [Lenovo Thinkpad X230](../docs/install/x230_external.md)
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- [Lenovo Thinkpad X230t](../docs/install/x230_external.md)
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- [Lenovo ThinkPad W541](../docs/install/ivy_has_common.md)
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- [HP EliteBook 2560p](../docs/hardware/hp2560p.md)
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- [HP EliteBook Folio 9470m](../docs/hardware/hp9470m.md)
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### Laptops (ARM, with U-Boot payload)
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- [HP Chromebook 14 G3 (nyan-blaze)](../docs/install/chromebooks.md)
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- [Acer Chromebook 13 (CB5-311, C810) (nyan-big)](../docs/install/chromebooks.md)
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- [ASUS Chromebook Flip C101 (gru-bob)](../docs/install/chromebooks.md)
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- [Samsung Chromebook Plus (v1) (gru-kevin)](../docs/install/chromebooks.md)
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More boards soon!
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=================
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I've purchased about ~10 HP mainboards, all of the viable sandybridge,
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ivybridge and haswell ones from coreboot. I'm going to add them all.
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I also have Dell Optiplex 7020 and 9020; these are on coreboot gerrit and
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will also be added, in the next Libreboot release (Haswell gen).
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I'm going to re-work a lot of the merged Haswell boards, so that they can
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also make use of Angel's experimental libre MRC raminit and such, currently
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available on ThinkPad T440p and W541 as an option in Libreboot (including in
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this release!)
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Downloads
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=========
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You can find this release on the downloads page. At the time of this
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announcement, some of the rsync mirrors may not have it yet, so please check
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another one if your favourite one doesn't have it.
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