142 lines
6.5 KiB
Markdown
142 lines
6.5 KiB
Markdown
% New Libreboot release soon: ETA November 15th, 2021
|
|
% Leah Rowe
|
|
% 9 November 2021
|
|
|
|
**UPDATE on 16 November 2021:**
|
|
|
|
**I've received reports on IRC that SpeedStep is broken in the Libreboot 20210522 release, on some GM45 laptops; W500 and T400 have been reported.**
|
|
|
|
**Since the release I'm working on is based heavily on 20210522, I'm holding back the Libreboot release to get this fixed.**
|
|
|
|
The original article, prior to the above update, is as follows:
|
|
|
|
Rapid progress is being made on the next release of Libreboot. The overall goal
|
|
of this upcoming release is stability; development was intentionally frozen
|
|
after the Libreboot 20210522 testing release, to allow time for people to submit
|
|
lots of bug reports. Sure enough, people submitted reports.
|
|
|
|
I've been fixing bugs and polishing up what's there, ready for another release.
|
|
You can already build Libreboot from the latest Git repository, and it's known
|
|
to be stable on all currently supported laptops. Desktops still require a bit
|
|
more polishing and tweaking.
|
|
|
|
Work done so far since the 20210522 release:
|
|
|
|
* `memtest86+` included on more ROMs by default (where text mode startup is used)
|
|
* `memtest86+`: Now coreboot's own fork is used, instead of upstream. This fork
|
|
works much more reliably on coreboot targets, when running on bare metal.
|
|
* More 16MB configs added, for more boards. This will be finished by the time
|
|
of the next release. Already, several older laptops such as the ThinkPad X60
|
|
or T60, have these configs in the latest `lbmk.git`. If you upgrade the
|
|
default SPI flash to 16MByte / 128MBit (maximum size possible), you can then
|
|
easily put an entire busybox+linux system in the flash.
|
|
* `coreboot`: Added persmule's 2016 patch to enable more SATA/eSATA ports on
|
|
ThinkPad T400. This change benefits T400S users.
|
|
* `grub.cfg`
|
|
* `grub.cfg`: LUKS setups are now detected on mdraid setups.
|
|
* `grub.cfg`: Default timeout changed to 10 seconds, instead of 1. This benefit
|
|
desktop users, who previously complained about not having time to respond if
|
|
they wanted to interact with the boot menu.
|
|
* `grub.cfg`: Performance optimization when scanning for encrypted LUKS volumes.
|
|
GRUB will stall a lot less often, and feel more responsive, when dealing with
|
|
LUKS-encrypted setups.
|
|
* `coreboot`: cstate 3 now supported on MacBook2,1 and Macbook1,1. This results
|
|
in lower CPU temperatures and higher battery life on idle.
|
|
* Reset bug fixed, on GM45 platforms (ThinkPad X200/T400/T500 and so on). These
|
|
laptops did not reliably reboot, on the Libreboot 20210522 testing release.
|
|
They now reboot reliably, with this fix. See:
|
|
<https://notabug.org/libreboot/lbmk/issues/3>
|
|
* `lbmk`: Use `env` instead of hardcoding the bash path, in bash scripts. This
|
|
should make the build system slightly more portable between distros.
|
|
* Turkish keyboard layout added on GRUB payloads
|
|
|
|
Further plans
|
|
-------------
|
|
|
|
The only major plans left before the actual release, are as follows:
|
|
|
|
* Add more 16MB configs
|
|
* Re-do desktop/server configs: currently, only text-mode startup is provided
|
|
and it is assumed that SeaBIOS will be the first payload, then you can use
|
|
onboard graphics or an add-on graphics card more easily. This is not ideal.
|
|
The configs will be split: corebootfb and textmode startup, or "normal" where
|
|
there is no video init from coreboot, and instead an option ROM can be loaded
|
|
from a graphics card.
|
|
* Random documentation improvements, especially the addition of ThinkPad X301
|
|
and G43T-AM3 documentation.
|
|
|
|
PS:
|
|
|
|
As some of you know, I run a company at <https://minifree.org/> selling laptops
|
|
with Libreboot pre-installed on them.
|
|
|
|
Although the new stable release isn't out yet, what's currently in the Libreboot
|
|
git repository is stable, as of November 3rd, 2021. Until that release comes
|
|
out, I'm giving customers a version of Libreboot build from `lbmk.git`. I will
|
|
immediately switch to the stable release when it comes out, but the only thing
|
|
that will change basically is the version number and build date printed by
|
|
the `lscoreboot` command in GRUB. I'm making no further changes to the laptops
|
|
until after the upcoming release.
|
|
|
|
Plans for after release
|
|
=======================
|
|
|
|
After the next stable release, I have the following immediate plans:
|
|
|
|
* Add a lot more boards from coreboot, because there are a lot more boards
|
|
ready to add in Libreboot. Mostly x4x intel platforms, same as on the Gigabyte
|
|
GA-G41M-ES2L board.
|
|
* u-root based boot experience (see below about BusyBox+Linux+Musl)
|
|
|
|
That's for 2021. The purpose of my 2021 efforts has been to reboot the Libreboot
|
|
project, adding all viable x86 targets from coreboot, and adding some nice
|
|
features. The upcoming stable release will be during November 2021, and I plan
|
|
to have the next stable release afterwards, released on 2 January 2022, but
|
|
with a possible early December or late November testing release inbetween.
|
|
|
|
The work never ends. From 2022 onwards, my focus will shift towards non-x86
|
|
targets. ARM and RISC-V are becoming increasingly more viable for the Libreboot
|
|
project these days, and I want to take advantage of that.
|
|
|
|
BusyBox+Linux+Musl
|
|
------------------
|
|
|
|
I've been studying Heads, LinuxBoot and coreboot's LinuxBoot integration.
|
|
I'm attempting to create my own busybox+linux distro, with musl libc, similar
|
|
to these projects. I want to do this so that I can provide u-root on 16MB ROM
|
|
configs in Libreboot.
|
|
|
|
Coreboot's own build system has a Makefile in it, defining how to build
|
|
LinuxBoot. LinuxBoot is another such distro.
|
|
|
|
u-root is a powerful bootloader written in Go, which runs in a minimal busybox
|
|
and linux environment. It provides many of the same features as GNU GRUB, while
|
|
also providing kexec based loading of Linux kernels. Because it's running on
|
|
a Linux kernel, that also means you get superior drivers. For example, Linux
|
|
has very mature LUKS drivers, but GRUB does not. Linux also has great netboot
|
|
features. u-root also implements a minimal UEFI environment.
|
|
|
|
More info here:
|
|
|
|
<https://github.com/u-root/u-root>
|
|
|
|
Info about LinuxBoot:
|
|
|
|
<https://www.linuxboot.org/>
|
|
|
|
In the future, I want u-root to become a standard feature in Libreboot. This
|
|
will not make it into the upcoming stable release, but I plan to put it in a
|
|
testing release afterwards.
|
|
|
|
oreboot project
|
|
---------------
|
|
|
|
Oreboot is a special fork of coreboot, re-written in Rust. Coreboot without C,
|
|
hence Oreboot. It focuses on RISC-V hardware:
|
|
|
|
<https://github.com/oreboot>
|
|
|
|
However, coreboot will still be used for most targets, including the current
|
|
x86 targets. I plan to integrate oreboot at a future date, separately, for
|
|
a few boards.
|