@libreleah@mas.to
@libreleah@mas.to avatar

libreleah

@libreleah@mas.to

passionate nut who rants on irc and likes coreboot and openbsd. libreboot founder and lead developer (libreboot.org). bios on social media accounts are so asinine because you can't really say much that is meaningful. everyone has a different perception than you do. judge me on merit. every post by me reflects the opinion of my employer (also me). i don't know everything but i try to know enough - if i say something wrong, i want you to challenge me. they/them

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libreleah, to random
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This customer is getting FreeBSD. Libreboot T440p laptop, with stable release FreeBSD 13.2 and Xfce. Everything configured.

Yeah and the first thing I do is install Vim when configuring a system, FreeBSD included!

My company: https://minifree.org/

I sell laptops with Libreboot pre-installed, which replaces proprietary BIOS/UEFI firmware. Libreboot offers greater security and faster boot speeds, plus many more features. I'm the lead developer and founder of Libreboot; sales fund the project.

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libreleah, to random
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2400 sloc now. Was 3300 pre-audit. Libreboot Build System Audit 2 continues.

Patch:
https://browse.libreboot.org/lbmk.git/commit/?id=9031bb7ba79022f1334b05d4d8d5caaadf775bac

Dependencies scripts are unified into the main build script. Files for each supported distro simply list packages, and specify what package manage command to use.

I'm aiming for <2k sloccount on resources/scripts/ in lbmk. It can and will be done. The design of Libreboot's build system is highly efficient, but there's a lot of old cruft in there that I'm purging.

libreleah, to random
@libreleah@mas.to avatar

i made a libreboot meme on irc today

@riku liked it

libreleah, to random
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Extremely fun fact:

LUKS2 decrypt now works in Libreboot, with these patches:

https://browse.libreboot.org/lbmk.git/commit/?id=2c0c521e2f15776fd604f8da3bc924dec95e1fd1

https://browse.libreboot.org/lbmk.git/commit/?id=fd6025321c4ae35e69a75b45d21bfbfb4eb2b3a0

https://browse.libreboot.org/lbmk.git/commit/?id=438bf2c9b113eab11439c9c65449e269e5b4b095

GRUB already had LUKS2, but did not support argon2i/id, the most common key derivation on LUKSv2 setups. It still only supported PBKDF2 so you had to do: LUKSv2 with PBKDF2, or use LUKSv1.

These patches imports the PHC argon2i/id implementation, into GRUB:

https://github.com/P-H-C/phc-winner-argon2

Booting encrypted /boot/ in Libreboot GRUB is again possible!

libreleah, to random
@libreleah@mas.to avatar

The Libreboot build system audit continues!

( patch not merged; it's still WIP, but here's the current work-in-progress: https://av.vimuser.org/0001-WIP-consolidate-u-boot-seabios-coreboot-build-script.patch.txt )

SeaBIOS, U-Boot and coreboot, though they may be very different codebases, all use the exact same steps for compiling; they all use Kconfig architecture and you feed it a defconfig file before running "make".

This could be used to compile Linux.

I'm simplifying the Libreboot build system, so that it can be further and more easily audited for bugs.

libreleah, to random
@libreleah@mas.to avatar

One of my aunts is visiting and she's what you would call the "cool aunt".

I was telling her about Libreboot and she instinctively understood it, what it's about, things about it from the past year or so, how it started, the ideology behind it and that of the wider free software movement.

She is now a free software supporter.

She said learning about it is like waking up from the matrix, comparing Libreboot to neo's little red pill. (which means she also likes The Matrix)

Coolest aunt ever.

libreleah, to random
@libreleah@mas.to avatar

Random fun fact: Chile was building an analog of our modern internet way back in the 1970s. A massive, national communications network for business and government to coordinate efficiently. The engineer (Stafford Beer) who designed it was from Surrey, in the UK, and worked for the Allende goverment that was building this system.

After the 1973 coup, General Pinochet had the system destroyed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Cybersyn

Had it caught on, we might have had global internet in our homes in the 1970s.

libreleah,
@libreleah@mas.to avatar

@mxk Still, it was decades ahead of its time.

libreleah,
@libreleah@mas.to avatar

@mxk The difference was the speed at which it was being built - but yes, arpanet and later what we called the internet was (is) technically superior, due to being decentralised and more scalable.

libreleah, to random
@libreleah@mas.to avatar

I did a quad-core mod and 16MB SPI flash upgrade on a W500, for old time's sake. Pics show the mods (CPU pins not shown, I forgot to snap a pic).

I sell laptops with Libreboot pre-installed and an installation service, on https://minifree.org/ - I run the Libreboot project. It replaces proprietary BIOS/UEFI firmware. I install Linux/BSD of your choice.

I'm very happy today; a customer asked me to install FreeBSD. The general rule is: asking me for BSD makes me very happy. Especially OpenBSD.

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libreleah,
@libreleah@mas.to avatar

@faizalr quad-core is possible on t400, t500 and w500 with a mod. i can do them.

the default lenovo bios is incompatible with this mod; you must set the machine to use only 1 core

however, coreboot (and libreboot) support quad-core CPUs fully, on these machines. i install libreboot.

libreleah, to random
@libreleah@mas.to avatar

I added a Libreboot installation guide for HP EliteBook 2170p: https://libreboot.org/docs/hardware/hp2170p.html

Other guides coming soon, for other machines that I recently added (HP EliteBook 8470p, Dell Precision T1650).

libreleah,
@libreleah@mas.to avatar

@samueljohnson well, the same ram would work with or without libreboot. in general, those compatibility lists pertaining to vendor/model (e.g. "Lenovo ThinkPad X200") would work when that machine has libreboot

(you said crucial, so i assume the context is ram. maybe an ssd?)

coreboot is generally complete, on all of the boards that libreboot supports, so pretty much any peripheral you throw at it should work.

libreleah, to random
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libreleah,
@libreleah@mas.to avatar

@RL_Dane

libreleah,
@libreleah@mas.to avatar

@RL_Dane There's also Chimera Linux, which is even more unique. They ship the FreeBSD userland, which they've ported to run under Linux and musl libc. They also ported the posix sh implementation from FreeBSD.

https://chimera-linux.org/

They use the apk package manager from Alpine, which they drew great inspiration from. Similar infrastructure and build system.

https://github.com/orgs/chimera-linux/repositories

It's pure greatness.

libreleah, to random
@libreleah@mas.to avatar

I'm currently on a spree, adding new mainboards to Libreboot. Here's a WIP patch, adding Dell Precision T1650 support: https://browse.libreboot.org/lbmk.git/commit/?h=hp2170p_wip&id=c58d4a01aeb05bec676135daf27d125acf31df43

and HP ProBook 6360b: https://browse.libreboot.org/lbmk.git/commit/?h=hp2170p_wip&id=7badbf224b4ac80f73bb64a39aef518d790848c4

I'm testing the ones above today; I'm also adding Dell OptiPlex 9010 today and will test it another day (same vendor/platform as T1650)

The ones above are untested. Then there's HP EliteBook Folio 9480m (doesn't boot yet, but I think I know why): https://browse.libreboot.org/lbmk.git/commit/?h=hp2170p_wip&id=25477d9ed44cea19bca8a875a7e334e8d4fa01b3

Massive leaps forward for Libreboot.

libreleah, to random
@libreleah@mas.to avatar

Random fun fact: I sometimes get asked what email provider I recommend. Sometimes they even give me a list of so-called "private" mail hosts that someone on IRC/forum linked.

I am going to recommend the best email hosting provider that ever existed:

You. Run your own mail server. Make sure to account for PTR records, DKIM, SPF etc, and use something like https://www.mail-tester.com/ or similar to check that your mail is configured well.

postfix/opensmtpd is your friend.

Should I write a tutorial?

libreleah, to random
@libreleah@mas.to avatar

I did this special W541 (ThinkPad) for a customer. Libreboot 20230625 installed with Debian 12 (Gnome, running Wayland). You have to de-solder the flash IC and flash it in a socket, when first installing Libreboot on this model. Then solder the chip back.

This one has an IPS monitor, 3K resolution (2880x1620), 32GB RAM and two SSDs in RAID1 (mdraid driver in Linux). 4K video downscaled to 3K, or actual 3K video, 60fps, ran smooth in wayland.

I sell Libreboot machines on https://minifree.org/

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libreleah, to random
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I have good news: Libreboot just got a big update. Not yet a new release, but Libreboot's build system now uses the latest coreboot revision on most boards; GRUB and SeaBIOS payloads have also been updated to newer revisions.

It is announced here:
https://libreboot.org/news/update202308.html

I would ask all those interested to provide testing, based on this. Information is given, on the announcement.

There will be two more Libreboot releases, this year - possibly three. I'm starting a massive push, as of today.

libreleah, to random
@libreleah@mas.to avatar

Bram Moolenaar, creator of the Vim text editor, died this week, on 3 August 2023.

https://groups.google.com/g/vim_announce/c/tWahca9zkt4

RIP Bram Moolenaar. You were a genius; Vim will always be the best text editor ever.

libreleah, to random
@libreleah@mas.to avatar

Have you ever wanted to follow Libreboot flashing instructions written in Chinese?

Well, now you can!

https://libreboot.org/docs/install/spi.zh-cn.html

Thanks go to PeakSol @peaksol for the translation, and William Goodspeed @goodspeed for proof reading, in this pull request that was merged:

https://codeberg.org/libreboot/lbwww/pulls/78

PeakSol, William, I'm very grateful to you both. Thank you!

libreleah, to random
@libreleah@mas.to avatar

Here is a video that you should watch, before considering whether or not to purchase an electric car:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q2IW7UEclI

Everyone goes on about pollution from cars, and they think electric vehicles are a miracle.

Water and crops become acidic, wherever cobalt is mined; it's really bad, and so I think we should try to reduce our reliance on batteries (while still investing in things like solar, wind or nuclear power).

I won't buy a car. I proudly ride my bicycle and use public transport.

libreleah, to random
@libreleah@mas.to avatar

Random fun fact: moss (that green stuff you see growing on things outside) has photovoltaic properties. It can be used to actually generate electricity.

Here's a nice article about that:

https://iaac.net/project/moss-voltaics/

Literal green technology.

libreleah, to random
@libreleah@mas.to avatar

Fun fact: something actually decent happened in the USA today.

https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/michigan-bans-use-conversion-therapy-lgbtq-youth-rcna96521

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