

Announcing coreboot 4.1 - conductor
http://www.coreboot.org/pipermail/coreboot/2015-July/080120.html

======
motiejus
Coreboot has great documentation and community. I once "corebooted" my X60s
with a picture of my family and contact details in case the laptop is lost.
The laptop was never lost, but my wife loved the picture of the _very_ early
boot stage.

It's a great project from user's perspective: healthy community, very
interesting, quick-reward project to play with.

If you have a spare compatible thinkpad, I highly encourage you to try it out.
:-) IIRC, there is a patch from me in coreboot -- it was so easy to prepare
and submit one.

~~~
keithpeter
I'm posting this from an X60 that runs gNewSense. I removed the wifi card to
reduce the heat on the palm rest and to increase the friction to spending time
on the Web instead of writing. I use a netgear USB wifi adaptor for when I
want to use a connection.

I'm reading the page at

[http://www.coreboot.org/Board:lenovo/x60/Installation](http://www.coreboot.org/Board:lenovo/x60/Installation)

and wondering how hard it would be to put coreboot on this. I'm also wondering
about suspend, the BIOS settings (ability to switch a core off and change
power profiles &c). It would also be really cool to have a QR code display
when the laptop boots.

Have you done a write-up anywhere?

~~~
pgeorgi
There's
[http://libreboot.org/docs/install/index.html#flashrom_lenovo...](http://libreboot.org/docs/install/index.html#flashrom_lenovobios)

Since you're using gNewSense, you may appreciate what libreboot is doing with
coreboot (libreboot:coreboot ~ kernel-libre:kernel)

------
sandGorgon
It's a shame that Coreboot is being actively killed by Intel and others.

For example the new Thinkpads (and other laptops/desktops) with the Broadwell
U/Y series have "Intel Boot Guard" which cryptographically prevents a
replacement BIOS from being flashed onto the hardware [1] I truly wonder what
is the long term strategic benefit from doing this ? Isnt the only way to
compete against Apple is to open up more ?

[1]
[http://www.coreboot.org/pipermail/coreboot/2015-February/079...](http://www.coreboot.org/pipermail/coreboot/2015-February/079208.html)

~~~
wmf
Number of bad guys who want to flash malware into your BIOS [1] >> number of
freedom fighters who want to flash Coreboot.

IMO the solution is economic. If a PC _vendor_ wanted to ship Coreboot I'm
sure they would find a way to do it. But people buying Windows PCs and
installing Linux are keeping the "native" Linux PC market unsustainably small.

[1] [http://blog.trendmicro.com/trendlabs-security-
intelligence/h...](http://blog.trendmicro.com/trendlabs-security-
intelligence/hacking-team-uses-uefi-bios-rootkit-to-keep-rcs-9-agent-in-
target-systems/)

~~~
hajile
What are the number of reasons not to add a physical switch so you can if you
want?

~~~
jsnell
It'd add to the design, QA and manufacturing costs while only increasing the
sales by a tiny amount. Given the miniscule margins of PC manufacturers, any
increase in the cost would be a hard sell. An increase in the manufacturing
cost of say $0.1 might seem totally insignificant when a laptop sells for
$500. But when the profit margin on the laptop is $10, that extra widget just
cut the profits down by 1%.

------
bcg1
I use Libreboot (de-blobbed coreboot) every day, and I love it. My thinkpad
x200 boots to graphical desktop login screen in seconds, and is super easy to
reconfigure via Kconfig

They even provide 'libpayload' for building your own boot payloads. Totally
awesome.

[http://www.coreboot.org/Libpayload](http://www.coreboot.org/Libpayload)

------
DiabloD3
This is absolutely great news.

Now only if I could get Supermicro servers with coreboot by default, or some
similar bare bones value brand...

~~~
lfam
Depending on your needs, the network appliance type servers made by ADI
Engineering for Netgate may be appropriate.

[http://store.netgate.com/ADI.aspx](http://store.netgate.com/ADI.aspx)
[https://github.com/ADIEngineering](https://github.com/ADIEngineering)

I have NO affiliation with these companies. I'm simply happy that they are
shipping Coreboot.

------
voltagex_
I really want to try out coreboot (and also BITS, but that's easier).

What's the cheapest non-QEMU way to play with coreboot?

~~~
sandGorgon
thinkpads. the X200/X300, T430/T530 series are all fairly modern and cheap
laptops that are supported on coreboot.

Also Gluglug, that builds 100% free (as in freedom) laptops -
[http://shop.gluglug.org.uk/](http://shop.gluglug.org.uk/)

~~~
mrbill
I can't seem to find easy directions for putting it on an X201; got any
suggestions?

~~~
sandGorgon
these are the only two I could find :

[https://github.com/bibanon/Coreboot-
ThinkPads/wiki/ThinkPad-...](https://github.com/bibanon/Coreboot-
ThinkPads/wiki/ThinkPad-X200)
[http://www.coreboot.org/Board:lenovo/x201](http://www.coreboot.org/Board:lenovo/x201)

alternatively, do post in /r/thinkpad

