Firmware and BIOS – Purism https://puri.sm/ High-quality computers that protect your freedom and privacy Wed, 01 Oct 2025 18:29:47 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.28 https://puri.sm/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/cropped-purism-logo-rectangle-1-32x32.png Firmware and BIOS – Purism https://puri.sm/ 32 32 PureBoot Not Vulnerable to UEFI Exploits (Again) https://puri.sm/posts/pureboot-not-vulnerable-to-uefi-exploits-again/ Mon, 11 Dec 2023 16:16:48 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=80949 LogoFAIL: Subverting UEFI Secure Boot The Binarly Research Team recently presented LogoFAIL, a new exploit defeating UEFI Secure Boot. In short, an attacker with access to the hard disk of a UEFI system could gain firmware-level control over the computer, even on a device using UEFI Secure Boot.  LogoFAIL appears to affect most UEFI implementations. […]

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]]> Intel AX200 Wi-Fi/Bluetooth Shipping for New Orders https://puri.sm/posts/intel-ax200-wi-fi-bluetooth-shipping-for-new-orders/ Tue, 14 Nov 2023 13:00:41 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=80700 New orders of Librem 14 and Librem Mini v2 are now shipping with Intel AX200 Wi-Fi and Bluetooth cards, replacing the Qualcomm Atheros AR9xxx series. Like the Librem 11‘s integrated AX201, the device firmware is provided by the PureBoot Firmware Blob Jail. We made this decision with care and to promote customer control over their […]

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]]> Librem 11 Memory Adventures https://puri.sm/posts/librem-11-memory-adventures/ Wed, 27 Sep 2023 13:04:42 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=80511 A Recent Memory When I started porting coreboot to the Librem 11, one of the first few tasks was to get memory working. Like the Librem 5, the Librem 11 has soldered memory (“memory down”).  This has implications on the firmware.  Socketed memory carries a small SPD EEPROM with information about the memory module.  Memory […]

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]]> PureBoot Framebuffer Boot Support https://puri.sm/posts/pureboot-framebuffer-boot-support/ Wed, 05 Jul 2023 13:00:46 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=79869 The latest release of PureBoot, Release 27, now boots memtest86+, Debian netinst, and other OSes that rely on framebuffer output! We worked with the Heads team to implement this change upstream, and it is now in our latest release. Update your firmware with our update instructions! If you’ve ever tried to boot from PureBoot, and […]

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]]> Protect Infrastructure with Librem L1UM v2 (Press Release) https://puri.sm/posts/protect-infrastructure-with-librem-l1um-v2-press-release/ Thu, 27 Apr 2023 18:58:34 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=79187 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE- Purism has added a new model to the Librem L1UM product line with new hardware designed to protect infrastructure, including critical infrastructure. There are numerous threats posed by nation-state hackers, criminal organizations, and bad actors who are constantly exploiting vulnerabilities within networks that operate critical infrastructure posing numerous security, privacy, and safety […]

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]]> New Automatic Power-On firmware for Librem Mini https://puri.sm/posts/new-automatic-power-on-firmware-for-librem-mini/ Wed, 29 Mar 2023 15:27:43 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=77648 Our latest coreboot/SeaBIOS and PureBoot releases bring new firmware configurations for the Librem Mini v1 and v2!  Many users use the Librem Mini as a headless server and have asked for firmware that would boot up automatically when powered, like an appliance. Once enabled, the setting persists as long as the RTC battery is plugged […]

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]]> Meet my Friend, Jack https://puri.sm/posts/meet-my-friend-jack/ Mon, 27 Mar 2023 15:45:30 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=77479 It’s only been a few weeks since we last talked about Librem-EC, but here we are again!  This time instead of power management, we’re looking at the headset jack, which had two longstanding issues.  Although headphones worked, the jack detect did not, so you had to select the output manually.  Microphone input has never worked. […]

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]]> Update on Librem-EC 1.12 https://puri.sm/posts/update-on-librem-ec-1-12/ Thu, 23 Feb 2023 21:00:09 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=77240 Librem-EC 1.12 for the Librem 14 has been released with a fix to the PL4 power limit to address sudden shutoffs that still remained in the 1.11 release.  Once again, the issue was in a subtle corner case, which we were able to identify with help from testers.  Update to 1.12 with our update instructions, […]

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]]> How to Hardware Flash your Librem 14 Boot Firmware https://puri.sm/posts/how-to-hardware-flash-your-librem-14-boot-firmware/ Fri, 09 Dec 2022 17:49:32 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=76631 PureBoot is Purism’s solution for high security boot firmware that gives you complete control. While we design PureBoot’s defaults to meet most people’s needs, you can also create your own version with custom features, pre-approved USB keys, and all with little risk to your Librem 14 laptop. Of course, you can always flash your custom […]

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]]> Librem-EC 1.11 https://puri.sm/posts/librem-ec-1-11/ Wed, 09 Nov 2022 18:35:09 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=76155 Librem-EC 1.11 for the Librem 14 laptop includes several improvements targeting device stability and reliability.  As with our previous posts on the EC, it has been quite an adventure investigating corner cases!  Update to this release with our update instructions, and as always the source code is available. Battery Power Limits Despite several EC releases addressing […]

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]]> Introducing PureBoot Restricted Boot https://puri.sm/posts/introducing-pureboot-restricted-boot/ Thu, 03 Nov 2022 22:54:10 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=76293 We have been busy on the PureBoot front! Recently we announced “PureBoot Basic Mode” which is a low-security option for PureBoot that disables tamper detection, but leaves you with the robust PureBoot recovery console for debugging boot issues. To balance our last “low security” feature, our most recent PureBoot release, version 23, offers a new […]

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]]> Introducing PureBoot Basic https://puri.sm/posts/introducing-pureboot-basic-2/ Tue, 27 Sep 2022 19:57:40 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=76010 PureBoot is our high-security, tamper-detecting boot firmware. With the release of version 22 we have added a new feature called “PureBoot Basic” that lets you optionally disable the tamper detection, leaving you with a clean, simple, and still powerful boot firmware with more recovery options than a traditional coreboot BIOS and GRUB. Normally when you boot Pureboot, the Librem Key […]

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]]> How We Fixed Reboot Loops on the Librem Mini https://puri.sm/posts/how-we-fixed-reboot-loops-on-the-librem-mini/ Thu, 22 Sep 2022 14:11:37 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=75968 Firmware debugging is uniquely challenging, because most conventional software debugging tools aren’t available.  With coreboot’s specialized tooling, support from the amazing community, and a little bit of creativity, we fixed a regression in coreboot 4.17 that caused reboot loops on the Librem Mini. When coreboot makes a new release, I rebase our Librem-specific patches onto […]

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]]> Introducing PureBoot Basic https://puri.sm/posts/introducing-pureboot-basic/ Thu, 01 Sep 2022 18:02:12 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=75803 PureBoot is our high-security, tamper-detecting boot firmware that we offer as an alternative to our default coreboot firmware on hardware like our Librem 14 and Librem Mini. The combination of PureBoot, our anti-interdiction services, and the option of Qubes as the pre-installed OS makes hardware like the Librem 14 among the most secure computers you […]

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]]> Privacy in Depth https://puri.sm/posts/privacy-in-depth/ Thu, 14 Jul 2022 15:52:51 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=75493 In the security world there is a concept called “Defense in Depth” that refers to setting up layers of defense so that if an attacker bypasses one layer there are other layers they must contend with. In physical security this might take the form of a lock on the outside door of an office building, […]

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]]> Unleashing the Librem 14 https://puri.sm/posts/unleashing-the-librem-14/ Wed, 06 Jul 2022 17:46:52 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=75383 With the Librem 14 laptop we went a couple of new ways all at once. First of all this is the most custom laptop design we have done so far. It embodies everything we wanted to have – at the time of writing the specification. But not only that, with the Librem 14 we also […]

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]]> PureBoot’s Powerful Recovery Console https://puri.sm/posts/pureboots-powerful-recovery-console/ Thu, 09 Jun 2022 18:39:05 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=75219 Normally when we talk about our high-security boot firmware PureBoot, it’s in the context of the advanced tamper detection it adds to a system. For instance, recently we added the ability to detect tampering even in the root file system. While that’s a critical benefit PureBoot provides over our default coreboot firmware, it also provides […]

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]]> Special Offer on PureBoot Bundle with Anti-Interdiction https://puri.sm/posts/special-offer-on-librem14-aibundle/ Tue, 01 Mar 2022 20:24:33 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=74253   Freedom is essential to security. Purism’s commitment to security and user freedom means we can deliver products and services Big Tech players can’t. We also think security should be convenient and hardware and software should be secure by default. Our approach results in a completely unique combination of security solutions. Security must be anchored in […]

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]]> Shields Up: Flexible Security for Changing Threats https://puri.sm/posts/shields-up-flexible-security-for-changing-threats/ Mon, 28 Feb 2022 22:35:29 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=74187 People often ask me for security advice, but before I can offer any recommendations usually I need to ask people specific questions about themselves to understand the threats they face. That’s because the security measures you take depend on your threats, and because everyone faces different threats, there are few one-size-fits all recommendations. When I […]

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]]> The Beat of a Different DRM https://puri.sm/posts/the-beat-of-a-different-drm/ Sat, 15 Jan 2022 02:40:10 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=73683 Canon made big news this past week when it started telling customers how to defeat the Digital Rights Management (DRM) in its toner cartridges because of supply chain issues with the chips they normally use to enforce it. That Canon explained how to bypass the DRM when it suited them, and that it didn’t negatively […]

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]]> New PureBoot Feature: Scanning Root for Tampering https://puri.sm/posts/new-pureboot-feature-scanning-root-for-tampering/ Thu, 14 Oct 2021 15:53:17 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=73014 With the latest PureBoot R19 pre-release we have added a number of new changes including improved GUI workflows and new security features and published a ROM image so the wider community can test it before it turns into the next stable release. To test it, existing PureBoot users can download the R19-pre1 .rom file that […]

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]]> Wrangling the EC: Adventures in Power Sequencing https://puri.sm/posts/wrangling-the-ec-adventures-in-power-sequencing/ Fri, 28 May 2021 20:55:10 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=71989 As we outlined in a previous post, the Librem 14 is the first Purism laptop to ship with our new, free software Librem-EC firmware for the laptop’s embedded controller (EC). This was a big undertaking, and as with any effort of this magnitude, issues arise in corner cases that often don’t show themselves during developmental […]

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]]> Librem 14: Adding Librem EC, Freed Embedded Controller Firmware https://puri.sm/posts/librem-14-adding-librem-ec-freed-embedded-controller-firmware/ Mon, 22 Feb 2021 12:35:16 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=71068 Starting with the Librem 14 laptop we are including fully liberated Embedded Controller (EC) firmware with all the source code available. This is something we set as a goal a long time ago, and now we are finally here. Let’s first start by explaining what the EC is and does. A PC these days is […]

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]]> Reflashing the Librem 5 https://puri.sm/posts/reflashing-the-librem-5/ Sat, 23 Jan 2021 00:22:46 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=70961 Reflashing the Librem 5 is the best way to remove your personal data and put the phone back into factory defaults.

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]]> Librem 14 Status Update: Shipping Starts in December https://puri.sm/posts/librem-14-status-update-shipping-starts-in-december/ Mon, 09 Nov 2020 08:00:15 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=69848 Librem 14 will begin shipping in December with all backorders shipped in January and reaching shipping parity in February.

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]]> GPS Tuning the Librem 5 Hardware https://puri.sm/posts/gps-tuning-the-librem-5-hardware/ Tue, 15 Sep 2020 08:25:54 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=69294 Phone Hardware debugging in a duopoly Society is getting pretty used to the idea that the data and applications on phones are completely controlled by large corporations. Purism is working hard to change that with the Librem 5. Because of the market capitalization and duopoly control of the phone OS vendors, the hardware tool vendors […]

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]]> Why the GRUB2 Secure Boot Flaw Doesn’t Affect Purism Computers https://puri.sm/posts/why-the-grub2-secure-boot-flaw-doesnt-affect-purism-computers/ Thu, 30 Jul 2020 18:03:11 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=68918 Whenever a new security issue gets announced one of the first questions we all ask ourselves is: am I vulnerable? We have started to get questions from our customers after the announcement of a series of major security bugs in GRUB2 so I felt that it was appropriate to write up a quick post to […]

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]]> Librem 14 Features BIOS and EC Write Protection https://puri.sm/posts/librem-14-features-bios-and-ec-write-protection/ Fri, 24 Jul 2020 18:32:27 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=68823 As we have said a few times already, we set out to build our dream laptop with the Librem 14. We approached our flagship Librem 13 laptop with a wishlist of features to fit into the reimagined Librem 14. As we have been able to confirm certain features with a strong degree of confidence (like […]

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]]> Librem Mini is Shipping https://puri.sm/posts/librem-mini-is-shipping/ Tue, 23 Jun 2020 16:25:14 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=68500 The Librem Mini is Shipping! We were excited to see so much interest from the community in our Librem Mini pre-order campaign and we hit our initial goals within only three weeks. Since then we’ve been testing hardware and porting coreboot over and now we are ready to start shipping Librem Mini pre-orders to customers. […]

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]]> PureBoot Bundle https://puri.sm/posts/pureboot-bundle/ Thu, 18 Jun 2020 17:06:19 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=68487 Secure boot was one answer to preventing and detecting tampering on your computer. This specification has plagued Linux users for years and is only now supported in some distros of GNU/Linux. At Purism, we took a different approach while still securing the boot process. PureBoot is the result of building on top of free software […]

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