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System76 Will Ship Linux Laptops With Coreboot-Based Open-Source Firmware

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Re: System76 Will Ship Linux Laptops With Coreboot-Based Open-Source Firmware

#41

Post by sh-run »

rsync wrote: post #16

I would love to buy an open, linux-based laptop to replace my aging 11" MBA but these are huge laptops - the smallest has a 14" screen. Should I be looking at the Pinebook 11" ?

I own a pinebook. It's a fun little machine, but if you need anything other than light web browsing (without javascript) and basic text editing it's insufficient. It's also based on an Allwinner SoC that only has ok Linux support: https://linux-sunxi.org/Main_Page.

Also, the keyboard is cramped and has an odd layout.

Re: System76 Will Ship Linux Laptops With Coreboot-Based Open-Source Firmware

#42

Post by eikenberry »

jdright wrote: post #36
jackpot51 wrote: post #3

I am Jeremy Soller, Principal Engineer at System76. Let me know if you have any questions. The source for this can be found here: https://github.com/system76/firmware-open There are instructions there for building and testing the firmware in QEMU, you do not need to have our hardware to try it out.

Why no AMD CPUs? I just don't buy anything Intel and I'm for some time looking at System76, but each time I go build a setup I remember why I gave up the last time around. Also, with the price difference between the two it would be a more interesting hardware using this difference to acquire more RAM.

Maybe because they don't have mobile versions of their new Zen 2 based chips yet. I'm planning on nursing my current laptop until those are out and make it into laptops. But I figure that is at least a year out as they haven't even announce any mobile Zen 2 chips yet.

Re: System76 Will Ship Linux Laptops With Coreboot-Based Open-Source Firmware

#43

Post by yellowapple »

jdright wrote: post #36
jackpot51 wrote: post #3

I am Jeremy Soller, Principal Engineer at System76. Let me know if you have any questions. The source for this can be found here: https://github.com/system76/firmware-open There are instructions there for building and testing the firmware in QEMU, you do not need to have our hardware to try it out.

Why no AMD CPUs? I just don't buy anything Intel and I'm for some time looking at System76, but each time I go build a setup I remember why I gave up the last time around. Also, with the price difference between the two it would be a more interesting hardware using this difference to acquire more RAM.

Relatedly: why no AMD GPUs? AMD's much more cooperative with Linux than Nvidia is or probably ever will be at this rate, and performance is great even with the FOSS drivers (as I've observed on both my Dell Precision 7510 and the Threadripper + Radeon rig I built about a year ago).

Like, it's kinda maddening that "the" household name in Linux laptops (if there is such a thing) has zero laptops with an AMD GPU as an option.

Re: System76 Will Ship Linux Laptops With Coreboot-Based Open-Source Firmware

#44

Post by Porthos9K »

dublinben wrote: post #7
Porthos9K wrote: post #2

Sweet. I hope they're working on POWER9 and RISC-V offerings, too. The x86/amd64 monoculture needs to go.

It's not a laptop, but the Talos II workstation runs on POWER9 and has open firmware. https://www.raptorcs.com/TALOSII/

Thanks. I'm aware of Raptor CS. I was hoping System76 might offer some competition.

Re: System76 Will Ship Linux Laptops With Coreboot-Based Open-Source Firmware

#46

Post by kcolford »

jackpot51 wrote: post #3

I am Jeremy Soller, Principal Engineer at System76. Let me know if you have any questions. The source for this can be found here: https://github.com/system76/firmware-open There are instructions there for building and testing the firmware in QEMU, you do not need to have our hardware to try it out.

Will it be possible to install this open firmware on existing Galago/Darter laptops bought before this came out?

Re: System76 Will Ship Linux Laptops With Coreboot-Based Open-Source Firmware

#47

Post by lovehashbrowns »

jackpot51 wrote: post #3

I am Jeremy Soller, Principal Engineer at System76. Let me know if you have any questions. The source for this can be found here: https://github.com/system76/firmware-open There are instructions there for building and testing the firmware in QEMU, you do not need to have our hardware to try it out.

System76 has been so great for the Linux laptop community, thank you for your work on that! I got the Galago Pro this past holiday and it has been so perfect for me. :) I hope you guys continue to offer such a great range in hardware configurations. That's what convinced me to go for one of your laptops over the Razer/Dell products since their RAM limit was 16GB when I was shopping around.

Re: System76 Will Ship Linux Laptops With Coreboot-Based Open-Source Firmware

#48

Post by yellowapple »

awinter-py wrote: post #11

BYO software is my #3 consumer electronics question (after form factor & 'does it work at all') and drivers are an important frontier of this. SO TIRED of downloading blobs to have wifi on linux. AFAIK there isn't even a usb wifi dongle that has an open source wifi driver, much less a commercial wifi chipset. even companies that are in theory dedicated to quality are teetering on the edge of using software to enable…

Atheros chipsets tend to not require any non-free code (be it on the driver or firmware side), including their USB wifi dongles. I've had mediocre (at best) experiences with them, however, what with frequent stability and signal strength issues on what I'm pretty sure to be the hardware side (though I've found this is true of pretty much every wifi chipset out there, so I guess it's okay relatively-speaking).

Re: System76 Will Ship Linux Laptops With Coreboot-Based Open-Source Firmware

#49

Post by isantop »

kjeetgill wrote: post #38
jdright wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why no AMD CPUs? I just don't buy anything Intel and I'm for some time looking at System76, but each time I go build a setup I remember why I gave up the last time around. Also, with the price difference between the two it would be a more interesting hardware using this difference to acquire more RAM.

I suspect it's because AMD's resurgence is so recent and these things need long lead times for procurement, development, and validation. I'm less familiar with laptops: Do Intel and AMD CPUs even share a common socket?

AMD and Intel do not share a socket.

Re: System76 Will Ship Linux Laptops With Coreboot-Based Open-Source Firmware

#50

Post by Enginerrrd »

snagglegaggle wrote: post #37
jackpot51 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's like saying you can't call Linux open source because it bundles closed firmware for WiFi, for example... The ME could certainly still be active, that is true, but with modern x86 platforms attempting to disable the ME or PSP using the documented method is the best that can be done. A very large amount of the work the firmware does is done by open source code in either Coreboot, EDK2, or the System76 firmware a…

With nonCPU blobs there is (usually) a memory boundary. Would the bus between the devices be exploitable? Perhaps, but at least it could be hardened, which is not the case with the ME controller. How much the ME controller actually participates in the boot process is irrelevant as long as its position within it can completely and undetectably compromise the entire system. You should look at the libreboot project and…

This might be a stupid question, but would adoption of RISC V help fix this issue?
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