new libreboot release soon
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Leah Rowe
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libreboot202111xx.md
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libreboot20210522.md
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fsf-thank-you.md
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rms.md
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% New Libreboot release soon: ETA November 15th, 2021
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% Leah Rowe
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% 9 November 2021
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Rapid progress is being made on the next release of Libreboot. The overall goal
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of this upcoming release is stability; development was intentionally frozen
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after the Libreboot 20210522 testing release, to allow time for people to submit
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lots of bug reports. Sure enough, people submitted reports.
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I've been fixing bugs and polishing up what's there, ready for another release.
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You can already build Libreboot from the latest Git repository, and it's known
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to be stable on all currently supported laptops. Desktops still require a bit
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more polishing and tweaking.
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Work done so far since the 20210522 release:
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* `memtest86+` included on more ROMs by default (where text mode startup is used)
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* `memtest86+`: Now coreboot's own fork is used, instead of upstream. This fork
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works much more reliably on coreboot targets, when running on bare metal.
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* More 16MB configs added, for more boards. This will be finished by the time
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of the next release. Already, several older laptops such as the ThinkPad X60
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or T60, have these configs in the latest `lbmk.git`. If you upgrade the
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default SPI flash to 16MByte / 128MBit (maximum size possible), you can then
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easily put an entire busybox+linux system in the flash.
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* `coreboot`: Added persmule's 2016 patch to enable more SATA/eSATA ports on
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ThinkPad T400. This change benefits T400S users.
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* `grub.cfg`
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* `grub.cfg`: LUKS setups are now detected on mdraid setups.
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* `grub.cfg`: Default timeout changed to 10 seconds, instead of 1. This benefit
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desktop users, who previously complained about not having time to respond if
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they wanted to interact with the boot menu.
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* `grub.cfg`: Performance optimization when scanning for encrypted LUKS volumes.
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GRUB will stall a lot less often, and feel more responsive, when dealing with
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LUKS-encrypted setups.
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* `coreboot`: cstate 3 now supported on MacBook2,1 and Macbook1,1. This results
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in lower CPU temperatures and higher battery life on idle.
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* Reset bug fixed, on GM45 platforms (ThinkPad X200/T400/T500 and so on). These
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laptops did not reliably reboot, on the Libreboot 20210522 testing release.
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They now reboot reliably, with this fix. See:
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<https://notabug.org/libreboot/lbmk/issues/3>
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* `lbmk`: Use `env` instead of hardcoding the bash path, in bash scripts. This
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should make the build system slightly more portable between distros.
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* Turkish keyboard layout added on GRUB payloads
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Further plans
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-------------
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The only major plans left before the actual release, are as follows:
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* Add more 16MB configs
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* Re-do desktop/server configs: currently, only text-mode startup is provided
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and it is assumed that SeaBIOS will be the first payload, then you can use
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onboard graphics or an add-on graphics card more easily. This is not ideal.
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The configs will be split: corebootfb and textmode startup, or "normal" where
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there is no video init from coreboot, and instead an option ROM can be loaded
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from a graphics card.
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* Random documentation improvements, especially the addition of ThinkPad X301
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and G43T-AM3 documentation.
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PS:
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As some of you know, I run a company at <https://minifree.org/> selling laptops
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with Libreboot pre-installed on them.
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Although the new stable release isn't out yet, what's currently in the Libreboot
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git repository is stable, as of November 3rd, 2021. Until that release comes
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out, I'm giving customers a version of Libreboot build from `lbmk.git`. I will
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immediately switch to the stable release when it comes out, but the only thing
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that will change basically is the version number and build date printed by
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the `lscoreboot` command in GRUB. I'm making no further changes to the laptops
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until after the upcoming release.
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Plans for after release
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=======================
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After the next stable release, I have the following immediate plans:
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* Add a lot more boards from coreboot, because there are a lot more boards
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ready to add in Libreboot. Mostly x4x intel platforms, same as on the Gigabyte
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GA-G41M-ES2L board.
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* u-root based boot experience (see below about BusyBox+Linux+Musl)
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That's for 2021. The purpose of my 2021 efforts has been to reboot the Libreboot
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project, adding all viable x86 targets from coreboot, and adding some nice
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features. The upcoming stable release will be during November 2021, and I plan
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to have the next stable release afterwards, released on 2 January 2022, but
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with a possible early December or late November testing release inbetween.
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The work never ends. From 2022 onwards, my focus will shift towards non-x86
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targets. ARM and RISC-V are becoming increasingly more viable for the Libreboot
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project these days, and I want to take advantage of that.
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BusyBox+Linux+Musl
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------------------
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I've been studying Heads, LinuxBoot and coreboot's LinuxBoot integration.
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I'm attempting to create my own busybox+linux distro, with musl libc, similar
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to these projects. I want to do this so that I can provide u-root on 16MB ROM
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configs in Libreboot.
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Coreboot's own build system has a Makefile in it, defining how to build
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LinuxBoot. LinuxBoot is another such distro.
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u-root is a powerful bootloader written in Go, which runs in a minimal busybox
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and linux environment. It provides many of the same features as GNU GRUB, while
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also providing kexec based loading of Linux kernels. Because it's running on
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a Linux kernel, that also means you get superior drivers. For example, Linux
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has very mature LUKS drivers, but GRUB does not. Linux also has great netboot
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features. u-root also implements a minimal UEFI environment.
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More info here:
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<https://github.com/u-root/u-root>
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Info about LinuxBoot:
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<https://www.linuxboot.org/>
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In the future, I want u-root to become a standard feature in Libreboot. This
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will not make it into the upcoming stable release, but I plan to put it in a
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testing release afterwards.
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oreboot project
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---------------
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Oreboot is a special fork of coreboot, re-written in Rust. Coreboot without C,
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hence Oreboot. It focuses on RISC-V hardware:
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<https://github.com/oreboot>
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