The BIOS flash on the Librem 13 is an 8 MiB chip in a SOP-8 package. The EC firmware is located on a separate 64 KiB chip. This link can be used to locate the chips on your mainboard: the BIOS flash is halfway down, near the CPU heatpipe. The EC flash is at the bottom just below the DDR3L module.

Even without any patches specifically for the Librem 13, flashrom can flawlessly read its BIOS flash because it supports the PCH. Unless you write outside the BIOS region, you will not encounter any problems using flashrom to update your BIOS.

Please don’t update the Intel Firmware Descriptor or ME region just yet–all the IFD bits are marked read/write and flashrom is happy to execute a write to that region. The issue arises because the ME writes asynchronously to the ME region. A collision of flashrom and ME writes will corrupt the ME region and may brick the laptop. Purism intends to provide an unlocked ME that respects your freedom, so look for an update on the Purism blog.

In-System Programming The BIOS Flash

The BIOS can be written and verified using a SOP-8 clip after closing the two sides of jumper J1 to assert the PCH RSMRST# pin. Warning: reflashing the BIOS risks bricking the laptop until in-system programming and/or soldering a new BIOS chip restores the BIOS to a good state.

EC Flash

The KB3930 datasheet, section 3.1 “Hardware Trap,” gives the method for programming the EC flash:

1. Disconnect the battery and the A/C power so that the EC is fully powered down.
2. Pull GPIO23/TP_ISP (pin 42) to GND. Note the internal 40K-ohm pull-up resistor.
3. Connect the A/C power supply to the board. The EC is now powered up.
4. TP_ISP sets CS#, SPI_CLK, MISO, and MOSI lines “High-Z”.
5. Connect a SOP-8 clip and flash programmer and flash the EC firmware.

It should be noted fine-pitch soldering is required to connect to pin 42 on the EC. The KB3930 also supports firmware updates via software. We will be developing a clean room Free Software EC firmware that has all the same functionality as the existing EC firmware.

Conclusions

This post covers the steps for coreboot development and recovery. Fortunately, the EC firmware is not shared with the BIOS or ME blob, which makes flashrom’s job easier.

BIOS development is hard. One of the major challenges facing BIOS developers is a lack of accurate, comprehensive documentation for all the hardware coreboot interacts with. The “elephant in the room,” for an Intel-based laptop, is the Management Engine.

[Ed. Note: this was reposted from blogs.coreboot.org with permission.]

The post 2015-08-21 Librem 13: Weekly BIOS Progress Update appeared first on Purism.

For my first coreboot post I’d like to show some of the steps required to port coreboot to the Librem 13. In particular, this post is a good example of some of the challenges involved in such a port.

This post is also the first weekly progress update for the Librem 13.

[Ed. Note: this is reposted from blogs.coreboot.org with permission.]

LPC Bus

The Librem 13 has convenient test points for the LPC bus. This allows a bed-of-nails test setup to quickly diagnose problems during manufacturing. But it has the added bonus of facilitating coreboot development.

The earliest coreboot stages are the most important to get right. Debugging using port 0x80 writes on the Librem 13 is possible because port 0x80 writes are configured as LPC writes, which can be traced by connecting to the LPC pins.

And…It’s Gone

BIOS development is hard. I applied a little too much force on the SPI flash chip and tore the solder pads off the board.

I attached the LPC connection to a test setup and didn’t check using a multimeter before applying power. LAD2 was shorted to LAD3. This immediately bricked the laptop without even releasing any smoke. Remembering to double check for shorts is a tedious but important lesson.

The LPC bus wires go under the board. Don’t Cross The Streams!

Why It Matters

Imagine a laptop where the LPC bus is only available by soldering directly to the pins of the EC. Yes, they exist! That level of fine soldering is a significant barrier for future coreboot hackers. (The Librem 13’s external USB ports are all USB 3, which makes an EHCI debug port harder, but the LPC bus is a good substitute.)

Porting coreboot to a new laptop takes a lot of time and work. Even a good laptop design like the Librem 13 where the LPC pads are available still has a non-trivial level of engineering work to get to a Free Software BIOS.

Next week, I’ll document the engineering considerations around writing to the SPI flash chip, and how that affects coreboot development.

The post 2015-08-14: Librem 13: Weekly BIOS Progress Update appeared first on Purism.

On our status page, Road to FSF Endorsement… And Beyond, we are currently developing the coreboot BIOS for the Librem 13.

The Intel FSP Blob

Intel publishes a Firmware Support Package (FSP) so that silicon initialization (like memory init) can be integrated into any bootloader. The FSP is a binary blob provided by Intel.

Using the Free Software in coreboot but an FSP blob does not meet the FSF RYF endorsement requirements. Purism’s goal is to publish a Free Software implementation of the pieces handled by the FSP as soon as an implementation is available.

Because Purism ships Librem CPUs fused to allow unsigned software, we have set our sights on publishing a Free Software implementation of the Management Engine firmware. No other company currently offers CPUs with this configuration, though it is our hope that our success will prompt more and more companies to fuse their CPUs for freedom.

If you would like to help create a Free ME Firmware notwithstanding my cheesy ME-DRM logo, please contact us.

The Librem 13 uses an ene KB3930QF-A1 with an external SPI 64KB firmware. Purism is grateful for the KB3930 datasheet that was made available as part of the One Laptop Per Child project. Good documentation is a critical step toward achieving a fully Free Software laptop.

The EC:

• Powers the laptop on and off. The KB3930 is what recognizes the user pressed the power button and sends the “power on” signal to the laptop.
• Talks SMBus to the battery.
• Keeps the date & time while off.
• Controls the fan speed.
• Reports the keyboard and trackpad to the CPU (via the normal PS/2 interface, routed over the LPC bus).
• Directly drives the power, sleep, and wifi LEDs.

SSD Firmware

Some really talented hackers at srlabs.de used a USB Flash Drive’s firmware to gain complete control over a Windows PC.

While Purism can offer best-in-class kernel security (the Linux kernel) and Free Software (PureOS), our goal is to free the firmware in the SSD as well. Purism wants to shine a light on all the dark corners of a high-end laptop.

Why free the functionality of such a small part of a laptop? Because it represents a not-insignificant level of user freedom. When the user can run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the firmware on their SSD, it has the ability to produce as impressive results as what the srlabs.de team did.

Without that freedom, we are all poorer.

The post Roadmap To A Completely Free BIOS appeared first on Purism.

Philosophy

Alex Gagniuc, a Google employee at the time, posted the following on coreboot.org’s blog: “The truth about Purism: Why Librem is not the same as libre.” (according to his LinkedIn profile he worked at Google from Feb 2015 to July 2015.)

The Purism Philosophy is at the heart of this discussion, and it says:

Purism follows a strict belief in users’ rights to privacy, security, and freedom. We developed Purism so that users can have access to the highest quality computers without compromising these beliefs. The founder of Purism developed the Philosophical Contract, that we all abide by, which was adopted from the Free Software Foundation, and expanded to include hardware manufacturing as it relates to software.
Philosophical Contract
1. Purism will only use free/libre and open source software in the kernel, OS, and all software. Free/Libre and Open Source Software is software that respects your freedom. Nonfree, or proprietary, software and installable firmware will be strictly prohibited within Purism. We promise that a Purism system and all its components will be free according to the strictest of guidelines set forth by the Free Software Foundation’s Free Software Definition.
2. Purism will design and manufacture hardware that respects users’ rights to privacy, security, and freedom.We promise that Purism systems will use hardware and software that respects users’ rights. Nonfree, or proprietary, chipsets that require installable firmware binaries into the kernel will be strictly prohibited within Purism.
…

Take a break to analyze this part: “We promise that a Purism system and all its components will be free according to the strictest of guidelines set forth by the Free Software Foundation’s Free Software Definition.”

The big question Alex appears to be asking is: Just exactly when will Purism achieve the FSF’s Free Software Defintion for the BIOS? (Shameless plug: Do you want to help out with our BIOS hacking?)

That’s a good question.

Maybe a Misunderstanding?

Right from the start, Purism has reached out to coreboot. On August 27, 2014, Todd Weaver wrote:

I am tasked with making sure it is possible (a), a rough idea of how long (b), and if we can hire somebody to develop it (c).

I appreciate any replies to any parts of the above, and I am hopeful somebody would be able to have the time needed to get paid to get coreboot onto this board.

Alex may have misunderstood the email. Alex’s blog post said (emphasis added):

“The first red flag was that we, the coreboot hackers, were never contacted by Purism about what it would take to get such a design up and running on the firmware side. We could have immediately told them that there are major pieces of the initialization path for their CPU which were missing source. That is, they were only available as blobs.”

And:

“The possibility of reverse engineering those blobs existed at the time. Although that takes a lot of effort, we’ve done it numerous times before. But they never asked.”

Yet, as you can see, when Todd initially emailed the coreboot list nearly a year earlier, useful information had immediately begun flowing. The ME blob was mentioned within 24 hours. AMD vs Intel were compared. And reverse engineering was very much a part of the discussion (for interoperability of course!)

Free Your CPU’s Fuses

We are glad to be able to explain our philosophy, since it means so much to us. We understand the immense challenge it will be to achieve software freedom, and we’ve already made the innovative step of freeing the CPU from almost all signature checking. Hopefully more Free Software-respecting hardware manufacturers will follow suit.

Commenting on this boon to user freedom, Dr. Richard M. Stallman, president of the Free Software Foundation (FSF), states:

Getting rid of the signature checking is an important step. While it doesn’t give us free code for the firmware, it means that users will really have control of the firmware once we get free code for it.

Our philosophy compels us to work toward software freedom and user’s rights. The coreboot project also contributes to software freedom and user’s rights, and we salute them for it!

There is much more to do than just achieve the FSF’s Free Software Definition, but it is our first and primary goal. The FSF’s pioneering efforts to preserve software freedom are very much at the heart of Purism’s philosophy. Please do consider donating to the FSF.

But please go ahead and imagine a device with no binary blobs or closed-source components. We do.

Philosophy Again

Resuming the rest of our philosophy:

…
3. Purism will prioritize privacy, security, and freedom for our users: We will place respecting users’ rights to privacy, security, and freedom above all else.
4. Purism will not discriminate against persons nor groups nor fields of endeavor: We will allow for any person or any group of persons or any field of endeavor to use Purism systems for whatever purpose.
5. Purism will source, and manufacture the highest quality hardware: We will make every effort to source the best component parts that operate using free/libre and open source software, we will also make every effort to manufacture the best computers that every user can be proud of. We follow this negotiating and sourcing priority whenever possible: freedom respecting; ethical working conditions; ecological impact; quality; price; availability; mean-time-between-failure; warranty; quantity breaks.
Purism will donate a portion of proceeds to free software projects quarterly, according to Purism own Free Software for Freedom Margin Share Program.

Our philosophy says it best. We want freedom everywhere. We prioritize those things that will help the largest number of people we can. We will most likely find ways to improve our philosophy, but it’s a good start!

We will get to the FSF’s Free Software Definition. The plan was here back in November:

1. Fuse CPU to allow unsigned BIOS binaries [DONE!]
2. Free the FSP/ME
3. Release a coreboot/libreboot for the Librem 15

We hope that the FSF will grant the hardware exemption for the CPU microcode, a non-free binary blob that is cryptographically signed and locked down. The Librem 13 requires CPU microcode loaded by coreboot during startup.

Cake

Alex’s blog (emphasis added):

Librem is bringing nothing new to the market. Laptops with libre operating systems have existed for decades. The only real innovators in this area have been Google and GluGlug. Google ships partially free firmware, although insufficiently libre to be able to provide the “respect your privacy” guarantee. GluGlug can make this claim, and it ships laptops with fully libre firmware.

GluGlug laptops are great! We would like to extend an open invitation to the GluGlug developers to work with us in freeing the remaining blobs. We’ll bake you a delicious cake if you that’s your thing! (Thanks to Mozilla for the idea. No, not that cake.)

Our philosophy wouldn’t be the same if we excluded anyone.

Questions? Comments? Send them to feedback(at)wp.puri.sm

The post About Purism, Librems, and Cake appeared first on Purism.