diff --git a/site/contrib.md b/site/contrib.md index 388955b..efc3eac 100644 --- a/site/contrib.md +++ b/site/contrib.md @@ -13,255 +13,86 @@ entry) Information about who maintains GNU Boot, and how the project is run, can be found on this page: [git.md](git.md). -You can know the history of the Libreboot project, simply by reading this page. -It goes into detail about all of the major contributions to the project, and in -general how the project was created (and who helped create it). - -Leah Rowe ---------- - -**Founder of the Libreboot project, and currently the lead developer.** Leah -works on all aspects of Libreboot, such as: - -* General management. Leah handles all outside contributions to Libreboot, - reviews pull requests, deals with bug reports, delegates tasks when necessary - or desirable. Leah controls the libreboot.srht.site server infrastructure, hosted - in her lab (of course it runs Libreboot!) -* Leah has the final say on all decisions, taking input via discussion with - members of the public, mostly on IRC. Leah oversees releases of Libreboot, - and generally keeps the project going. Without Leah, there would be no Libreboot! -* The build system (lbmk, short for Libreboot Make). This is the automated build - system that sits at the heart of Libreboot; it downloads, patches, configures - and compiles the relevant components like coreboot, GNU GRUB and generates - the Libreboot ROM images that you can find in release archives. -* Upstream work on coreboot, when necessary (and other projects that Libreboot - uses). This means also working with people from outside of the Libreboot - project, to get patches merged (among other things) on the upstream projects - that Libreboot uses -* Providing user support on IRC -* *Commercial* user support via her company listed - on [the suppliers page](/suppliers.md) - -Leah is also responsible for [osboot.org](https://osboot.org/) which is heavily -based on Libreboot, but with different project goals. - -Other people are listed below, in alphabetical order: +You can know the history of the GNU Boot project, simply by reading this page. +It goes into detail about all of the major contributions to the project. Alyssa Rosenzweig ----------------- Switched the website to use markdown in lieu of handwritten HTML and custom -PHP. **Former libreboot project maintainer (sysadmin for libreboot.srht.site).** +PHP. Alyssa wrote the original static site generator (bash scripts converting -markdown to html, via pandoc) for libreboot.srht.site. This static site generator has -now been heavily modified and forked into a formal project, by Leah Rowe: +markdown to html, via pandoc) that was forked into a formal project, by Leah Rowe: - (untitled is Leah's work, not Alyssa's, but it's based on -Alyssa's original work on the static site generator that Libreboot used to use; -the Libreboot website is now built with Untitled) + Andrew Robbins -------------- -Worked on large parts of Libreboot's old build system and related documentation. -Andrew joined the Libreboot project as a full time developer during June 2017, -until his departure in March 2021. - -I, Leah Rowe, am very grateful to Andrew Robbins for his numerous contributions -over the years. +Worked on large parts of a more older build system and related documentation. Arthur Heymans -------------- -Merged a patch from coreboot into libreboot, enabling C3 and C4 power -states to work correctly on GM45 laptops. This was a long-standing issue -before Athur's contribution. Arthur also fixed VRAM size on i945 on -GM45 systems, allowing maximum VRAM allocation for the onboard GPUs on -these systems, another longstanding issue in libreboot. +Merged a patch from coreboot, enabling C3 and C4 power states to work correctly +on GM45 laptops. This was a long-standing issue before Athur's contribution. +Arthur also fixed VRAM size on i945 on GM45 systems, allowing maximum VRAM +allocation for the onboard GPUs on these systems, another longstanding issue. -Arthur also did work on the Libreboot build system, when he was a member of the -project. He still works on coreboot, to this day, and Libreboot greatly -benefits from his work. His contributions to the coreboot project, and Libreboot, -are invaluable. +Arthur also did work on the build system, when he was a member of the +project. He still works on coreboot, to this day, and we greatly +benefits from his work. His contributions to the coreboot project are invaluable. Damien Zammit ------------- Maintains the Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L coreboot port, which is integrated -in libreboot. Also works on other hardware for the benefit of the -libreboot project. - -Damien didn't work directly on Libreboot itself, but he worked heavily with -Leah Rowe, integrating patches and new board ports into Libreboot, based on -Damien's upstream work on coreboot. +in GNU Boot. Also works on other hardware for the benefit of the project. Denis Carikli ------------- Based on the work done by Peter Stuge, Vladimir Serbineko and others in the coreboot project, got native graphics initialization to work on the -ThinkPad X60, allowing it to be supported in libreboot. Denis gave -a lot of advice and helped found the libreboot project. - -Denis was a mentor to Leah Rowe in the early days, when she founded the -Libreboot project. A lot of the decision decisions taken, especially with the -Libreboot build system (lbmk), were inspired from talks with Denis. - -Denis taught Leah about registers used by Intel GPUs for backlight control. In -the early days, the ThinkPad X60 and T60 laptops in Libreboot did not have -backlight control working, so the brightness was always 100%. With Denis's help, -Leah was able to get backlight controls working by reverse engineering the -correct values to write in those registers. Based on this, a simple fix was -written in coreboot; however, the fix just wrote directly to the register and -didn't work with ACPI based brightness controls. Others in coreboot later -improved it, making ACPI-based backlight controls work properly, based on this -earlier work. +ThinkPad X60, allowing it to be supported in GNU Boot. Also he helped about +many different issues with valuable council, e.g. Intel GPUs backlight control. Jeroen Quint ------------ -Contributed several fixes to the libreboot documentation, relating to -installing Parabola with full disk encryption on libreboot systems. +Contributed several fixes to the documentation, relating to installing Parabola +with full disk encryption. -Joshua Gay ----------- - -Joshua is former FSF staff. - -Joshua helped with the early founding of the Libreboot project, in his capacity -(at that time) as the FSF's licensing and compliance manager. It was his job to -review products sent into to the FSF for review; the FSF has a certification -program called *Respects Your Freedom* (RYF) where the FSF will promote your -company's products if it comes with all Free Software. - -I, Leah Rowe, was initially just selling ThinkPad X60 laptops with regular -coreboot on them, and this included CPU microcode updates. At the time, I didn't -think much of that. Joshua contacted me, in his capacity at the FSF, and asked -if I would be interested in the FSF's RYF program; I was very surprised that the -FSF would take me seriously, and I said yes. This is what started the early -work on Libreboot. Joshua showed me all the problems my products had, and from -that, the solution was clear: - -A project needed to exist, providing a fully free version of coreboot, without -any binary blobs. At the time (and this is still true today), coreboot was not -entirely free software and shipped with binary blobs by default. In particular, -CPU microcode updates were included by default, on all x86 machines. Working -with Joshua who reviewed my work, I created a fully free version of coreboot. -At first, it wasn't called Libreboot, and the work was purely intended for my -company (at that time called Gluglug) to be promoted by the FSF. - -Joshua used his media connections at the FSF to heavily promote my work, and -on December 13th, 2013, the Libreboot project was born (but not called that). -Joshua made sure that everyone knew what I was doing! - -A few months later, the name *Libreboot* was coined, and the domain name -*libreboot.srht.site* was registered. At that point, the Libreboot project (in early -2014) was officially born. Once again, Joshua provided every bit of help he -could, heavily promoting the project and he even wrote this article on the FSF -website, announcing it: - - Klemens Nanni ------------- -Made many fixes and improvements to the GRUB configuration used in -libreboot, and several tweaks to the build system. +Made many fixes and improvements to the GRUB configuration used, and several +tweaks to the build system. -Leah Rowe initially helped Klemens get his project, autoboot, off the ground. -Autoboot (website autoboot.org) is no longer online, but was a fork of Libreboot -with different project goals; in late 2020, Leah Rowe decided to create her -own new fork of Libreboot called *osboot*, heavily inspired by Klemens's earlier -work. See: -The following is an archive of autoboot.org, from when it was online back in -2016: (the -autoboot website went offline a few months later, after Klemens abandoned the -project) - -Lisa Marie Maginnis -------------------- - -Lisa is a former sysadmin at the Free Software Foundation. In the early days of -the project, she provided Leah with a lot of technical advice. She initially -created Libreboot IRC channel, when Leah did not know how to -use IRC, and also handed +F founder status to Leah for the channel. As an FSF -sysadmin, it was Lisa's job to maintain a lot of the infrastructure used by -Libreboot; at the time, mailing lists on the GNU Savannah website were used by -the Libreboot project. Lisa was also the one who originally encouraged Leah to -have Libreboot join the GNU project (a decision that was later, rather -regrettably, reversed). When Paul Kocialkowski was a member of the project in -2016, she helped him get help from the FSF; he was the leader of the Replicant -project at the time, which had funding from the FSF, and the FSF authorized him -to use some of that funding for his work on Libreboot, thanks to Lisa's -encouragement while she worked at the FSF. - -Lisa also stepped in when Leah Rowe missed her LibrePlanet 2016 talk. Leah was -scheduled to do a talk about Libreboot, but didn't show up in time. Lisa, along -with Patrick McDermott (former Libreboot developer, who was present at that -conference) did the talk in Leah's place. The talk was never recorded, but the -Free Software Foundation has these photos of that talk on their LibrePlanet -website (the woman with the blue hair is Lisa, and the long-haired dude with the -moustache is Patrick): - - -(archive link: ) - - -(archive link: ) - -Fun fact: Patrick is also the lead developer of ProteanOS, an FSF-endorsed -embedded OS project: (uses BusyBox and Linux-libre) - -Leah Rowe ran *2* LibrePlanet workshops; one in 2015 and another in 2016, while -visiting Boston, MA, USA on both occasions to attend these conferences. These -workshops were for Libreboot installations. People came to both workshops, to -have Libreboot installed onto their computers. As FSF sysadmin, at that time, -Lisa provided all of the infrastructure and equipment used at those workshops. -Without her help, those workshops would have not been possible. - -When the ASUS KGPE-D16 mainboard (high-end server board) was ported to Libreboot, -Leah, working with Timothy Pearson (the one who ported it), shared patches back -and forth with Lisa around mid 2016, mostly raminit patches, to get the board -running at the FSF offices. This work ultimately lead to a most wonderful -achievement: - -The and websites now run on -Librebooted ASUS KGPE-D16 based servers, on a fully free GNU+Linux distro. This -means that the FSF now has full software freedom for their hosting infrastructure. - -The FSF also provides access to this infrastructure for many other projects -(besides GNU projects); for example, Trisquel uses a D16 provided by the FSF -for their development server used for building Trisquel releases and testing -changes to the Trisquel GNU+Linux distribution. Trisquel is a fully free -GNU+Linux distribution, heavily promoted by the FSF. - -Lisa was a strong supporter of Libreboot in the very early days of the project, -and her contributions were invaluable. I, Leah Rowe, owe her a debt of gratitude. - -Marcus Moeller --------------- - -Made the libreboot logo. +Leah Rowe +--------- +Leah worked on all aspects of a previous project we are continuing, such as the +build system. This is the automated build system that currently sits at +the heart of GNU Boot; it downloads, patches, configures and compiles the +relevant components like coreboot, GNU GRUB and generates the ROM images that +you can find in release archives. + Patrick "P. J." McDermott --------------------------- -Patrick also did a lot of research and wrote the libreboot FAQ section +Patrick also did a lot of research and wrote the FAQ section relating to the [Intel Management Engine](../faq.md#intelme), in addition -to making several improvements to the build system in libreboot. **Former -libreboot project maintainer.** - -In 2016, Leah Rowe ran a Libreboot installation workshop at the FSF's -LibrePlanet conference. Working alongside Leah, Patrick helped run the workshop -and assisted with installing Libreboot onto people's machines. +to making several improvements to the build system. Paul Kocialkowski ----------------- -Ported the ARM (Rockchip RK3288 SoC) based *Chromebook* laptops to -libreboot. Also one of the main [Replicant](http://www.replicant.us/) +Ported the ARM (Rockchip RK3288 SoC) based *Chromebook* laptops. +Also one of the main [Replicant](http://www.replicant.us/) developers. Paul Menzel @@ -274,21 +105,19 @@ when initializing the Intel video chipset, was mapping *GTT Stolen Memory* in the wrong place, because the code was based on kernel code and the Linux kernel had the same bug. When Linux fixed it, it exposed the same bug in coreboot. -Paul worked with Libreboot on -this, sending patches to test periodically until the bug was fixed -in coreboot, and then helped her integrate the fix in libreboot. +Paul worked on this, sending patches to test periodically until the bug was fixed +in coreboot. Peter Stuge ----------- -Helped write the [FAQ section about DMA](../faq.md#hddssd-firmware), and provided -general advice in the early days of the project. Peter was a coreboot developer -in those days, and a major developer in the *libusb* project (which flashrom -makes heavy use of). +Helped write the [FAQ section about DMA](../faq.md#hddssd-firmware). +Peter was a coreboot developer in those days, and a major developer in the +*libusb* project (which flashrom makes heavy use of). Peter also wrote the *bucts* utility used to set Backup Control (BUC) Top Swap (TS) bit on i945 laptops such as ThinkPad X60/T60, which is useful for a -workaround to flash Libreboot without using external hardware; on this machine, +workaround to flash without using external hardware; on this machine, with Lenovo BIOS present, it's possible to flash everything except the main bootblock, but Intel platforms have 2 bootblocks, and you specify which one is to be used by setting the TS bit. You then boot with only one bootblock flashed @@ -304,81 +133,18 @@ bitfields in C) this descriptor region. With some clever tricks, he was able to discover the existence of a bit in the descriptor for *disabling* the Intel ME (management engine) on those platforms. -His initial proof of concept only defined the descriptor, and would do this: - -* Read the default descriptor and GbE regions from a Lenovo X200 ROM (default - firmware, not coreboot) -* Disable the ME, by setting 2 bits in the descriptor -* Disable the ME region -* Move descriptor+GbE (12KiB in total) next to each other -* Allocate the remaining flash space to the BIOS region -* Generated the 12KiB descriptor+GbE region, based on this, to insert into a - coreboot ROM image. - -In the early days, before Libreboot supported GM45+ICH9M platforms such as -ThinkPad X200/T400, you could use those machines but to avoid the Intel ME you -had to flash it without a descriptor region. This worked fine in those days, -because the ME only handled TPM and AMT on those machines, and the system would -work normally, but that Intel Flash Descriptor also handles the Intel GbE NVM -region in flash, which is used for the Intel Gigabit Ethernet interface. - -So you either had Intel ME, or no ethernet support. Steve figured out how to -disable the Intel ME via 2 toggle bits in the descriptor, and also how to -remove the Intel ME region from flash. - -Based on his research, I, Leah Rowe, working alongside Steve, also reverse -engineered the layout of the Intel GbE NVM (non-volatile memory) region in the -boot flash. This region defines configuration options for the onboard Intel -GbE NIC, if present. - -Based on this, I was able to take Steve's initial proof of concept and write -the `ich9gen` utility, which generates an Intel Flash Descriptor and GbE NVM -region, from scratch, without an Intel ME region defined. It is this tool, -the `ich9gen` tool, that Libreboot uses to provide ROM images for GM45+ICH9M -platforms (such as ThinkPad X200/T400/T500/W500), with a fully functional -descriptor and functional Gigabit Ethernet, but *without* needing Intel -Management Engine (ME) firmware, thus making those machines *libre* (the ME -is fully disabled, when you use a descriptor+gbe image generated by `ich9gen`). - -With *my* `ich9gen` tool (Steve's tool was called `ich9deblob`), you didn't -need a dump of the original Lenovo BIOS firmware anymore! I could not have -written this tool, without Steve's initial proof of concept. I worked with him, -extensively, for many months. All GM45+ICH9M support (X200, T400, etc) in -Libreboot is made possible because of the work he did, back in 2014. - Swift Geek ---------- -Contributed a patch for ich9gen to generate 16MiB descriptors. +Contributed a patch for ich9gen to generate 16MiB descriptors and upstream +development on GNU GRUB, and technical advice. -After that, Swift Geek slowly became more involved until he became a full time -developer. Swift Geeks contributions were never really in the form of *code*, -but what he lacked in code, he made up for in providing excellent support, both -to users and other developers, helping others learn more about technology at a -low level. - -When Swift Geek was a member of the project, his role was largely providing -user support (in the IRC channel), and conducting research. Swift Geek knows a -lot about hardware. Swift Geek also did some upstream development on GNU GRUB. - -Swift Geek has provided technical advice on numerous occasions, to Leah Rowe, -and helped her to improve her soldering skills in addition to teaching her -some repair skills, to the point where she can now repair most faults on -ThinkPad mainboards (while looking at the schematics and boardview). - -Swiftgeek left the project in March 2021. I, Leah Rowe, wish him all the best -in his endeavours, and I'm very grateful to his numerous contributions over the -years. Timothy Pearson --------------- Ported the ASUS KGPE-D16 board to coreboot for the company Raptor -Engineering of which Timothy is the CEO. -Timothy maintains this code in coreboot, -helping the project with the libreboot integration for it. This person's -contact details are on the raptor site, or you can ping **tpearson** on -the Libera IRC network. +Engineering of which Timothy is the CEO. Timothy maintains this code in coreboot. vitali64 -------- @@ -389,11 +155,11 @@ CPU temperatures on idle usage. vitali64 on irc Vladimir Serbinenko ------------------- -Ported many of the thinkpads supported in libreboot, to coreboot, and -made many fixes in coreboot which benefited the libreboot project. +Ported many of the thinkpads supported in GNU Boot, to coreboot, and +made many fixes in coreboot which benefited the project. Vladimir wrote a lot of the original video initialization code used by various -Intel platforms in Libreboot, when flashing it (now rewritten +Intel platforms, when flashing it (now rewritten by others in Ada, for libgfxinit in coreboot, but originally it was written in C and included directly in coreboot; libgfxinit is a 3rdparty submodule of coreboot).