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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

#91

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.

Do you plan on offering laptops that are 16:9 or 3:2, rather than the 1080p? That's probably the last thing keeping me on a Mac, the panel ratio.

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

#92
post #91

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.

Do you plan on offering laptops that are 16:9 or 3:2, rather than the 1080p? That's probably the last thing keeping me on a Mac, the panel ratio.

1080p is 16:9. I presume you meant 16:10 (which is also my preference)

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

#93
post #66

Recently there was a discussion about Huawei MateBook X Pro, which also seems to be a great Linux notebook: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21170765 In that discussion, several other good Linux notebooks were also discussed, including System 76. But it was reported there that the quality is quite bad: > but the quality is reportedly bad (flaky hardware, too-fast power drain, reflash bios to toggle discrete graph…

They don't make the hardware, all their laptops are rebadges of Clevo/Sager https://www.sagernotebook.com/Notebook-NP8454.html

I bought a Clevo rebadge called a Metabox here in Australia and have all kinds of problems with it. Keys that stick down, headphone jack busted, one of the USB not working, a few other things. I never sent it back on warranty because I would have to buy a new machine to work on while it was away anyhow. I'll just put up with the problems until the next upgrade cycle.

It sits on my desk now with an external keyboard, external USB hub, and external DAC for the headphones to work.

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

#94
post #82

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.

How durable are those laptops when compared to other brands? Do you engineer those laptop a little like ibm did for thinkpads (if I remember, some of them had military rating for dust, temperature etc)? How repairable are they? How difficult was it for those companies to provide components that were OSS friendly? What is the main hurdle? Does it increase costs? Did you experience fightback from providers to make this…

They're certainly no less durable than most consumer laptops. Our hinges in particular have a reputation for being nice and tight for a long period of time. They aren't ruggedized or anything (like a toughbook), but they'll last a good long while if you aren't super rough with your electronics. Mine gets tossed in a bag at the end of the day and toted around on my back via motorcycle, and I've never felt nervous about that at all.

They're also really repairable; there are no proprietary/uncommon screw heads and no glue holding parts down. All of the major electronic components which can be socketed are, CPUs on mobile when soldered a few years ago unfortunately, and you can't really get them socketed anymore). Memory, Wireless, Storage, Battery, etc. are all user-replaceable, and generally repairs don't require bringing the laptop into a service center for repairs.

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

#95
post #72
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can't really call it open firmware I can implement IEEE1275-1994 as fully closed sourced code and call it open firmware. > if there's still a lot of closed firmware in it. Downthread you mention "With nonCPU blobs there is (usually) a memory boundary", which I'll take as the boundary you made for yourself in these matters. With this boundary, the amount of "closed" firmware doesn't matter. The right 8 bytes at…

> I can implement IEEE1275-1994 as fully closed sourced code and call it open firmware. Hardly. You can call it Open Firmware(TM), not open firmware.

> You can call it Open Firmware(TM), not open firmware.

let's shorten the other thread, since you just reiterate the same claim all the time without backing it up: I reject your prescriptivism just like I reject snagglegaggle's.

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

#96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

> would adoption of RISC V help fix this issue?

If you're in the market for some slow CPU, maybe. For high performance stuff the creator will likely have to license some function blocks that come with strings attached.

I'd love to see a fully open RISC-V core with a DDR4 interface (and USB2/3 for all kinds of interfaces), but somehow I just don't see that happening before DDR4 is all but obsolete: those interfaces aren't trivial to build (so that they work with all kinds of stuff) and few folks have the equipment to test their Verilog (or whatever) that would implement these high speed controllers against real devices.

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

#97

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.

Glad to hear of this change.

However, on a semi-related note, will the issue where a firmware update on dual-boot system (popOS and Windows) consistently breaks systemd-boot, forcing a start into Windows, be addressed in the foreseeable future?

I've recently updated the documentation [1], as this issue plagued me multiple times.

[1] https://github.com/system76/docs/pull/205

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

#98

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.

What about oreboot, the Rust version of coreboot? I know you have a history with writing Rust code, so are you looking at oreboot as an alternative to coreboot for these purposes, as well?

oreboot does not support x86 at this time, and does not plan to.

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

#99

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.

Glad to hear of this change. However, on a semi-related note, will the issue where a firmware update on dual-boot system (popOS and Windows) consistently breaks systemd-boot, forcing a start into Windows, be addressed in the foreseeable future? I've recently updated the documentation [1], as this issue plagued me multiple times. [1] https://github.com/system76/docs/pull/205

The NVRAM is preserved on firmware updates with this new firmware, so that could fix this issue but I have not encountered it before. Usually it is recommended to install Windows first, and then install Pop!_OS - so that the Windows bootloader has not taken over the default location. Is that how you installed?

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

#100
post #94
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How durable are those laptops when compared to other brands? Do you engineer those laptop a little like ibm did for thinkpads (if I remember, some of them had military rating for dust, temperature etc)? How repairable are they? How difficult was it for those companies to provide components that were OSS friendly? What is the main hurdle? Does it increase costs? Did you experience fightback from providers to make this…

They're certainly no less durable than most consumer laptops. Our hinges in particular have a reputation for being nice and tight for a long period of time. They aren't ruggedized or anything (like a toughbook), but they'll last a good long while if you aren't super rough with your electronics. Mine gets tossed in a bag at the end of the day and toted around on my back via motorcycle, and I've never felt nervous abou…

> Mine gets tossed in a bag at the end of the day and toted around on my back via motorcycle, and I've never felt nervous about that at all.

Glad to hear that you are using your devices outside of a clean room. Whenever I throw my work-issued Macbook in my bag and ride home, it's got dirt in the keys by the time I get home. I was the first in the office to need a keyboard replacement...

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