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% Censored Libreboot c20230710 released! % Leah Rowe % 10 July 2023

Warning

This is not a regular Libreboot release. The Libreboot 20230625 release is still considered to be the official stable release, at this time. This release, that you will read about now, the Censored Libreboot c20230710 release, is provided to illustrate a point, serving as a proof of concept to support the merits of Libreboot's Binary Blob Reduction Policy. You are well-advised not to use today's release, because it intentionally re-introduces certain flaws that were present in Libreboot releases prior to the new policy's introduction.

This release is engineered under the assumption that the policy change never occured. It provides a glimpse into a parallel reality, showing what state the Libreboot project would be in otherwise. I did it on a whim, for fun, and I did it in two days, from scratch. Not 8 months. 2 days. I even made a website for this Libreboot release, here: https://censored.libreboot.org/ - the actual Git branches for Censored Libreboot can be found here:

Introduction

Libreboot provides boot firmware for supported x86/ARM machines, starting a bootloader that then loads your operating system. It replaces proprietary BIOS/UEFI firmware on x86 machines, and provides an improved configuration on ARM-based chromebooks supported (U-Boot bootloader, instead of Google's depthcharge bootloader). On x86 machines, the GRUB and SeaBIOS coreboot payloads are officially supported, provided in varying configurations per machine. It provides an automated build system for the configuration and installation of coreboot ROM images, making coreboot easier to use for non-technical people. You can find the list of supported hardware in Libreboot documentation.

Libreboot's main benefit is higher boot speed, better security and more customisation options compared to most proprietary firmware. As a libre software project, the code can be audited, and coreboot does regularly audit code. The other main benefit is freedom to study, adapt and share the code, a freedom denied by most boot firmware, but not Libreboot! Booting Linux/BSD is also well supported.

Context

Libreboot previously complied with GNU FSDG policy, banning (removing) all binary blobs from coreboot. Coreboot requires binary blobs on a lot of boards, though it does provide something very close to full freedom on a lot of them, so the old Libreboot policy resulted in very weak hardware support.

Libreboot, in regular releases, adopted a more pragmatic Binary Blob Reduction Policy in November 2022, with the aim of providing support for a lot more hardware (the goal is to support everything coreboot supports), while reducing the impact (in terms of security and reliability) that certain binary blobs have; for example, it automatically uses me_cleaner during build time, to disable Intel ME after bringup, on newer Intel platforms that require Intel ME.

You can find out about the current status of binary blobs, on the Freedom Status page. It describes how Libreboot policy is implemented, in great detail.

About this release

This new release, Censored Libreboot c20230710, released today 10 July 2023, is a special spin-off of Libreboot based on the 20230625 release, provided as a proof of concept; it shows what state the Libreboot project would likely be in, if it never adopted the new Binary Blob Reduction Policy. A lot of mainboards and documentation has been removed (censored), in this version, hence the name: Censored Libreboot. More information available here: https://censored.libreboot.org/censorship.html

This version of Libreboot was not created from the master branch of lbmk, but this special branch: fsdg20230625. There is a website for this version, hosted at https://censored.libreboot.org/ and the branch of lbwww.git for that is c20230710

This release is not recommended for general use. You should still use the Libreboot 20230625 release. This censored release is a proof of concept, made to provide a concrete example of the sort of thing the new Libreboot policies are opposed to, so as to provide a clearer understanding. In order to so do, an actual release must be provided. People need to see evidence/examples, and this release provides that.

A note about the changelog

There are going to be two changelogs written in this page: one in reference to the recent Libreboot 20230625 release, showing what was removed (censored).

Then, after that, a separate changelog will be provided in this article, in reference to the Libreboot 20220710 release, while ignoring any changes since then that do not comply with the old Libreboot policy, which you can read here. In other words, this will be the censored changelog.

This release announcement is mirrored on the Censored Libreboot website, but heavily censored to reflect only the latter changelog, written as though Libreboot never changed its policies; in other words, it's a view into a parallel universe, another reality. You can read that censored announcement here:

https://censored.libreboot.org/news/censored-libreboot20230710.html

Build from source

This release was build-tested on Debian Sid, as of 9 July 2023. Your mileage may vary, with other distros. Refer to Libreboot documentation.

KFSN4-DRE, KCMA-D8, KGPE-D16 re-added

FUN FACT: This includes building of ASUS KFSN4-DRE, KCMA-D8 and KGPE-D16 boards, which were re-added based on coreboot 4.11_branch. ROM images are provided for these boards, in this Libreboot release. The toolchain in this coreboot version would not build on modern Linux, so I spent time patching it. I want to use coreboot 4.11_branch to study code differences between the D8 and D16 boards, which are mostly otherwise identical code-wise, so that I can port KCMA-D8 to Dasharo, and then use that for D8/D16 in Libreboot. Dasharo is based on a much newer coreboot version, with many new fixes/features.

I won't be adding this release's D8/D16/DRE support to the master branch of Libreboot, because coreboot 4.11_branch is horribly out of date; I will add these boards there, after I've integrated the Dasharo version of coreboot.

Uncensored changelog, relative to Libreboot 20230625

You can actually view the changes yourself, in great detail, by looking at these special branches of lbmk.git (build system) and lbwww.git (Libreboot website files, markdown):

I've implemented this Censored Libreboot release, in these special branches. These changes are not (and will not be) merged in the master branches.

Removed mainboard support

These mainboards are not supported in Censored Libreboot, and have been removed (regular Libreboot does support them):

  • HP EliteBook 2560p (laptop)
  • HP EliteBook 2570p (laptop)
  • HP 8200 SFF (desktop)
  • HP 8300 USDT (desktop)
  • HP EliteBook 9470m
  • Lenovo ThinkPad T420
  • Lenovo ThinkPad T420S
  • Lenovo ThinkPad T430
  • Lenovo ThinkPad T440p
  • Lenovo ThinkPad T520
  • Lenovo ThinkPad T530
  • Lenovo ThinkPad W530
  • Lenovo ThinkPad W541
  • Lenovo ThinkPad X220

All of the above mainboards have fully libre, zero-blob initialisation code available in coreboot, and that code is used by Libreboot. However, the flash is divided into regions (partitions), namely: IFD(config), GBE(config), ME(Intel ME firmware), BIOS(coreboot firmware).

The Ifd/GbE regions are not software, and their format is well-documented. Libreboot even includes utilities that can re-configure them!

The ME is configured via me_cleaner, automatically by Libreboot's build system, in such a way that the Intel ME initialises itself, and then does nothing. In other words, it is disabled. More information about all of this is explained in the Freedom Status page.

Removed/modified code, in the build system

Here is an overview of the code changes in lbmk:

  • coreboot and u-boot download scripts: Binary blobs are now removed during download. A list of blobs is programmed into the build system, based on scanning of each tree with the linux-libre deblob-check script. (yes, it works on other code bases, besides Linux). This means that most mainboards no longer compile, in coreboot, and many u-boot targets no longer compile.
  • build/boot/roms: These scripts build ROM images. For zero-blob boards, in other words boards that do not require binary blobs, regular Libreboot inserts CPU microcode by default, but copies each ROM to produce a corresponding, parallel zero-blobs version without CPU microcode. This censored version of Libreboot modifies the script in the following way: since the coreboot and uboot download scripts remove blobs anyway, including CPU microcode, the default compiled ROMs exclude microcode. Therefore, this version simply removes that logic, because it's not needed.
  • blobutil: Anything pertaining to blobutil has been removed. This includes me_cleaner, ME7 Update Parser and the like. It is not needed, in this version of Libreboot. Directories such as resources/blobs/ (containing code and config data) has been removed. In regular Libreboot, there are certain required binary blobs that we cannot legally distribute on certain mainboards, so blobutil auto-downloads them from the vendor while compiling ROM images, then it processes them (if needed) and inserts them; the scripts that produce release archives will delete these blobs, for the release, and those same scripts can be re-run on release ROMs, to re-insert binary blobs. It is completely automated, removing any need for manual intervention by the user, thus saving hours of time in some cases. Blobutil snaps them up like that and everything Just Works. It does this for many different types of blobs, including: Intel ME, Intel MRC, HP KBC1126 EC firmware, VGA ROMs - you just run 1 command on 1 ROM (or an entire collection of ROMs) and it does it, automatically detecting what is needed for the given ROM image, per mainboard definition. Very easy to use. This highly innovative technology does not exist in Censored Libreboot.
  • Blobs: Removed Intel Flash Descriptors and GbE configuration files. These are non-copyrightable, non-software blobs, just binary-encoded config. They are not needed, in this Libreboot version.
  • Blobs: Anything downloaded and inserted by blobutil, during the build process or post-release. This includes: Intel ME firmware, Intel MRC firmware, HP KBC1126 EC firmware and VGA option ROM for Nvidia GPU variant of Dell Latitude E6400.
  • lbmk: Code that executes blobutil has been removed.
  • Patches: Any custom coreboot patches, for mainboards that require binary blobs, have been removed. They are not needed in this Libreboot version.
  • build/release/roms and build/release/src: correspondingly deleted files are no longer copied by these scripts (they are the scripts that generate tar archives for Libreboot releases, after everything is compiled). The roms script no longer bothers to scrub non-redistributable inserted binary blobs from certain ROM images, because 1) those corresponding mainboards are no longer supported anyway and 2) the logic for downloading/inserting those blobs no longer exists. So there's nothing to do.

It's not actually a lot of code that was removed. The actual diff that did this is very large, because it also removed the coreboot configs for the removed boards, and those configs are very large. The diff is about 40,000 deleted lines. Fourty thousand.

Censored changelog, relative to Libreboot 20220710

Libreboot 20220710 was the last regular Libreboot release to comply with the old Binary Blob Extermination Policy adhering to GNU FSDG ideology. Between then and now, there have been these releases of Libreboot that follow the new Binary Blob Reduction Policy: 20221214, 20230319, 20230413, 20230423 and 20230625.

However, the purpose of Censored Libreboot is to provide a glimpse of what Libreboot would be like, had it kept the old policy. The website for Censored Libreboot has its own version of this release announcement, with only this censored version of the changelog present. You can view that here:

https://censored.libreboot.org/news/censored-libreboot20230710.md

The following changelogs cherry-pick only the old-policy-compliant changes from the above listed Libreboot release announcements:

New mainboards supported

These laptops would have been compatible with Libreboot, under the old policy, and they were added in recent regular releases of Libreboot:

Build system changes

This is not intended to be an exhaustive list. It is a high-level overview. For more details, you should always check the log in lbmk.git.

All of these changes are present in regular Libreboot releases, but these are the changes from regular Libreboot that would have complied with the old Libreboot policy:

  • MASSIVE build system audit - the entire build system was re-written in a much cleaner coding style, with much stricter error handling and clear separation of logic. A lot of bugs were fixed. A LOT of bugs. Build system auditing has been the main focus, in these past 12 months.
  • cros: Disable coreboot-related BL31 features. This fixes poweroff on gru chromebooks. Patch courtesy of Alper Nebi Yasak.
  • u-boot: Increase EFI variable buffer size. This fixes an error where Debian's signed shim allocates too many EFI variables to fit in the space provided, breaking the boot process in Debian. Patch courtesy Alper Nebi Yasak
  • Coreboot build system: don't warn about no-payload configuration. Libreboot compiles ROM images without using coreboot's payload support, instead it builds most payloads by itself and inserts them (via cbfstool) afterwards. This is more flexible, allowing greater configuration; even U-Boot is handled this way, though U-Boot at least still uses coreboot's crossgcc toolchain collection to compile it. Patch courtesy Nicholas Chin.
  • util/spkmodem-recv: New utility, forked from GNU's implementation, then re-written to use OpenBSD style(9) programming style instead of the originally used GNU programming style, and it is uses OpenBSD pledge() when compiled on OpenBSD. Generally much cleaner coding style, with better error handling than the original GNU version (it is forked from coreboot, who forked it from GNU GRUB, with few changes made). This is a receiving client for spkmodem, which is a method coreboot provides to get a serial console via pulses on the PC speaker.
  • download/coreboot: Run extra.sh directly from given coreboot tree. Unused by any boards, but could allow expanding upon patching capabilities in lbmk for specific mainboards, e.g. apply coreboot gerrit patches in a specific order that is not easy to otherwise guarantee in more generalised logic of the Libreboot build system.
  • util/e6400-flash-unlock: New utility, that disables flashing protections on Dell's own BIOS firmware, for Dell Latitude E6400. This enables Libreboot installation without disassembling the machine (external flashing equipment is not required). Courtesy Nicholas Chin.
  • Build dependencies scripts updated for more modern distros. As of this day's release, Libreboot compiles perfectly in bleeding edge distros e.g. Arch Linux, whereas the previous 20220710 required using old distros e.g. Debian 10.
  • cbutils: New concept, which implements: build coreboot utilities like cbfstool and include the binaries in a directory inside lbmk, to be re-used. Previously, they would be compiled in-place within the coreboot build system, often re-compiled needlessly, and the checks for whether a given util are needed were very ad-hoc: now these checks are much more robust. Very centralised approach, per coreboot tree, rather than selectively compiling specific coreboot utilities, and makes the build system logic in Libreboot much cleaner.
  • GRUB config: 30s timeout by default, which is friendlier on some desktops that have delayed keyboard input in GRUB.
  • ICH9M/GM45 laptops: 256MB VRAM by default, instead of 352MB. This fixes certain performance issues, for some people, as 352MB can be very unstable.
  • U-Boot patches: for gru_bob and gru_kevin chromebooks, U-Boot is used instead of Google's own depthcharge bootloader. It has been heavily modified to avoid certain initialisation that is replaced by coreboot, in such a way that U-Boot is mainly used as a bootloader providing UEFI for compliant Linux distros and BSDs. Courtesy Alper Nebi Yasak.
  • lbmk: The entire Libreboot build system has, for the most part, been made portable; a lot of scripts now work perfectly, on POSIX-only implementations of sh (though, many dependencies still use GNU extensions, such as GNU Make, so this portability is not directly useful yet, but a stepping stone. Libreboot eventually wants to be buildable on non-GNU, non-Linux systems, e.g. BSD systems)
  • nvmutil: Lots of improvements to code quality, features, error handling. This utility was originally its own project, started by Leah Rowe, and later imported into the Libreboot build system.
  • build/boot/roms: Support cross-compiling coreboot toolchains for ARM platforms, in addition to regular x86 that was already supported. This is used for compiling U-boot as a payload, on mainboards.
  • U-boot integration: at first, it was just downloading U-Boot. Board integration for ARM platforms (from coreboot) came later, e.g. ASUS Chromebook Flip C101 as mentioned above. The logic for this is forked largely from the handling of coreboot, because the interface for dealing with their build systems is largely similar, and they are largely similar projects. Courtesy Denis Carikli and Alper Nebi Yasak.
  • New utility: nvmutil - can randomise the MAC address on Intel GbE NICs, for systems that use an Intel Flash Descriptor
  • General build system fixes: better (and stricter) error handling
  • Fixed race condition when building SeaBIOS in some setups.
  • GRUB configs: only scan ATA, AHCI or both, depending on config per board. This mitigates performance issues in GRUB on certain mainboards, when scanning for grub.cfg files on the HDD/SSD.
  • GRUB configs: speed optimisations by avoiding slow device enumeration in GRUB.

The number of changes are vast, too big to be readable on a release announcement. Again, I say: check log in lbmk.git.

Hardware supported in Censored Libreboot c20230710

All of the following are believed to boot, but if you have any issues, please contact the Libreboot project. They are:

Desktops (AMD, Intel, x86)

Laptops (Intel, x86)

Laptops (ARM, with U-Boot payload)

Downloads

You can find this release on the downloads page. At the time of this announcement, some of the rsync mirrors may not have it yet, so please check another one if your favourite one doesn't have it.

This censored version is in the directory named censored, on Librbeoot rsync and https mirrors. For example:

https://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/libreboot.org/release/censored/c20230710/

tl;dr yes, I made this special release of Libreboot specifically so that I could crap all over it. Any project that tries (whether or not they succeed) to replicate the old Libreboot project (as illustrated by this special release of Libreboot) are doing themselves, and their users, a major disservice by providing completely inferior firmware, and mostly on very outdated hardware that normal people don't want to use.

Ideological purity is all well and good, but you have to meet people where they're at. If someone approaches you with hardware that can have certain proprietary code replaced (thus increasing software freedoms), they should be accomodated, and Libreboot's mission is to do exactly that. We believe passionately in free software, and we want everyone to use it!

Coreboot is one of humanity's greatest achievements. It should be respected, not shunned. All coreboot ports are valid, and Libreboot will eventually assimilate all of them.