A quick update about PureOS… from the design team this time! 😉
For the new version of PureOS (codenamed “Prometheus”), I am working with the developers to make a very smooth and pleasant user experience when installing and launching the system. We want to make sure that PureOS is not only secure, but also a beautiful and enjoyable experience, designed for everyone. No exceptions!
So, I am currently working hard on polishing the visuals. The video below shows an example of the animation that will now take place at boot time in PureOS.
Every new Librem ordered with PureOS pre-installed should ship with this beautiful PureOS update in the coming weeks (we’re working hard to make the PureOS release on time for factory installs!) If you already are using PureOS, a software update will also arrive soon for you.
If you like it so much that you can’t wait for it to be released with PureOS, or if you want to customize its look to make it yours, you can download the source files here.
Let’s recap recent progress with a summary of where we stand and where we’re going next on the “operations” front.
We have begun production of the two new revisions of Librem laptops. As we narrowed down on component choices and successfully raised additional funds, we have now made great steps towards our “zero outstanding orders” milestone and our goal of creating our first inventory to ship future orders from.
Last month, we ordered a batch of supplies to begin production of the new Librem 13 “v2” units. We have also tested and evaluated three prototype units, the latest of which we will use to extend our coreboot work.
Two weeks ago, we also ordered parts for the new Librem 15 “v3” units. So far we have evaluated one prototype unit for this new batch (which will also be used for our coreboot work), and will evaluate a second one soon.
We are currently working to leverage investment to make the Librem 11 batch order happen sooner and create an inventory directly; we will let you know of any progress on that front. In the meantime, we thank you for your patience. And please spread the word about the Librem 11 to those around you looking for a nice security-oriented and freedom-respecting convertible tablet with stylus support (especially interesting for visual artists who want to use the plethora of free creative tools such as MyPaint, Krita, Inkscape, GIMP, etc.)! The more people know about it, the sooner we should be able to put it into production.
Revised products specifications
For the upcoming Librem 13 v2 and the Librem 15 v3, we evaluated various prototypes, including different cases and keyboard models, alongside various possible CPU, GPU, RAM and storage combinations. With the newer motherboards, we aimed to keep the same flexibility in terms of storage: one M.2 slot and one standard SATA slot. As usual, the RAM and SSDs are all user-replaceable, not soldered.
The Librem 13 gets a whole slew of improvements for version 2:
A newer i5 processor, using the 14 nanometers lithography of the Skylake generation, bringing additional performance and power savings over previous generations
A backlit keyboard (the most often requested feature)
Newer Intel graphics as part of the Skylake chipset
DDR4 memory
One USB 3.0 “type C” connector
A much better trackpad (sourced from Elantech instead of BYD), which works better out of the box. It supports vertical and horizontal two-finger scrolling, allows changing workspaces with a simple four-finger swipe gesture, has smoother scrolling, and various multitouch gestures (dependent on applications support).
Those who have ordered the Librem 15 also get the free update to Skylake, newer graphics, DDR4, and improved trackpad. The Librem 15 already had a backlit keyboard and USB-C.
As you can see, when you pre-order a Purism device, you don’t need to worry about the specs becoming outdated by the time of production & delivery. For all our products, we strike a balance as per our manufacturing & sourcing approach, yet strive to stay close to the latest technology out there. We aim to please our supporters by bundling these updates at no additional cost whenever possible.
Upgrading from the Broadwell microarchitecture for this round, we chose to go with Skylake (rather than Kabylake) in order to service orders more quickly without bringing on delays in supplies or testing. To provide the best user experience, we prefer to test more thoroughly before moving on to a new chipset (for instance, we’ll be able to provide coreboot support more quickly with Skylake as part of our current roadmap). We expect to upgrade the chipsets/microachitecture again for the next production run (planned for the second half of 2017 once we complete this batch), which will involve a revised motherboard design, as we will also be adding new hardware features in prevision of full support for Heads.
The power of the Dark Side comes as a duo
We chose to keep the same overall chassis, although the location of Librem 15’s killswitches will be different this time (all on the hinge cover, like the Librem 13).
A notable aesthetic improvement for the Librem 15 v3 is that it will be anodized black just like the Librem 13. The temptation of the Dark Side was strong! Here you can see an anodized aluminium extrusion sample of the Librem 15 v3, next to an existing Librem 13 v1:
As we are beginning to have quite a bit of hardware revisions and models to keep track of, the laptops will now also feature some subtle branding underneath the backplate for model identification and to show the appropriate certification marks (we are FCC and CE certified). The publicly visible parts such as the screen bezel, palmrests, or the back of the screen lid, all remain unbranded.
Better power connectors
We are now sourcing power supplies with L-shaped coaxial connectors, so they keep a low profile when plugged into the side of your Librem:
This is particularly useful if you like to sit cross-legged with your laptop on a sofa, for example! (or for those who like to meditate with a computer on their lap)
Wrapping up
We are well on our way to provide a great new set of laptops this summer. We should be receiving the final components around the end of May, at which point we will do the final assembly and shipping throughout June. We will then be able to celebrate having cleared all the existing Librem 13 and 15 orders (including the recent big spike in orders). After that point, we will be able to ship within days and weeks (not months), which will be a huge relief for everybody looking to buy a Librem “in a pinch”. We hope you’re as excited as we are about that!
As always, thank you for your support, and feel free to contact us with your thoughts and encouragements, or to spread the good news around you!
Edit: post updated to reflect the processor models available as of June 2017. For the time being, the Librem 13 will still feature an i5 processor instead of the i7, albeit with the newer Skylake chipset.
This year, we’re attending and sponsoring LibrePlanet, which is being held this week-end in Boston. Todd and I arrived one day early, as we wanted to seize the opportunity to spend a full day coworking to align our plans (regarding communications, product design and supply chain management), confirm product specifications, and test some new prototypes we have on hand. Todd recently (yesterday!) received sample parts and prototype units from suppliers, so we spent some time checking the aesthetic and functional aspect of the next revision of the Librem 13 (v2) and Librem 15 (v3), including the chips, killswitches, and removable components.
I also brought with me some older units I had gathered from others, including the Librem 11 prototype (which we bricked during testing) and the previous revision of the Librem 15.
Oh, “But what is that mysterious black plate in the center of the table”, you ask? Well, that’s one of the sample parts our suppliers sent us: the upper aluminium plate of the upcoming Librem 15 v3, which will be anodized black like our lovely Librem 13.
Here you can see Todd’s Librem 13 on the left (which looks brand new even after 2 years of intensive use) and the Librem 15 v3’s anodized aluminium extrusion sample on the right (resting on top of the old Librem 15 production model for comparison).
We chose a matte finish to avoid fingerprints from showing up (disclaimer: if you’re worried about someone lifting your invisible fingerprints from your laptop, you probably want to type with gloves like this guy–except you’ll be way cooler, because you’ll be using a Librem instead of some old plastic junk 😉
We’re still finalizing details when it comes to the final specs, but from the looks of it, those with outstanding orders may benefit from a free upgrade to a newer generation of CPU and graphic chipsets, in addition to the black aluminium chassis.
Today we have placed a batch order through our supply chain for the Librem 15 v3, so we hope to provide you with an update on specifications and estimates soon. In the meantime, if any of you are attending LibrePlanet, we look forward to meeting you this week-end!
We’re starting to zero-in on the hardware specifications that will define our first Librem Phone model, and we’d like your help to evaluate a few of the outstanding questions that come down to personal preferences.
Therefore, we are making an advisory survey for you to participate in. In the process, we want to:
hear from you what hardware and specifications you’d like to see in a phone;
both educate and learn from users about hardware and software choices that align with our beliefs;
determine how much interest there is in us producing a Librem Phone
collaborate and join forces with developers who will have a positive impact on the future of computing.
We know your time is precious, so we’ve made sure that filling this survey will take you merely a minute or so. Thanks!
This is first in series of Purism developer’s blog post. It will be mostly about technical aspects of Purism work but also sometimes mixed with few other fields and information. The only promise is that it will be more – no promise how often, no hardcoded path of releases. In Debian mantra – it will be ready (and published) once it is ready.
We are happy to announce release of PureOS 2.1. Besides fixing bugs (such as overwriting the entire disk during install!) it will boast few new apps (and few removed) on this new ISO image:
Kodi
VLC
Blender
Audacity
Darktable
MyPaint
Ardour
MPV
Removed apps:
Debian bug tracking system (PureOS will have its own, more in next devlog releases)
Brasero
As you can see we wanted to bring some creativity with preinstalled applications (athough all applications are easy installable or removed through software center/app store (famously called now Software in GNOME thus PureOS)) and Kodi to just show that Free software is cool and great! In art terms we also integrated new Plymouth theme which we believe you will like (soon we will bring up community wiki so people can share their ideas and write tutorials, documentations about PureOS but again, more info about it in some of the next releases).
Besides that we are again trying to improve driver for touchpads (yes, we agree with you and your pain, but we are in the same awkward pain – we use those devices, we work with our manufacturers but they simply don’t give us any documentation – something we are trying to improve all the time but there is so much time and space for such small team to tackle so many tasks of which some aren’t even in description of our work. Thank you for your support and patience and we are really trying to pull out max of what we get). That said, our involvement with manufactures gives us opportunity to drive how new products will be developed which is something very important for us and our (and your) future. Back to technical parts, ew integrated driver should now have:
Tap to click
Double tap
Two finger scroll (up & down)
Three finger swipe
Edge scrolling
We hope we improved some of the previous part of driver and also enabled some new things (note this is entirely new driver so bare with us while you test it and report bugs).
PureOS 2.1 now also comes with GNOME as default because it is aligned with goal to have one default environment for all our devices (we are now in process to produce tablets). With future plan to develop to phones that could be switched to KDE’s Plasma but future is exciting and unpredictable.
This release also has sum so people can check against ISO build and new installations instructions that should be much more user friendly – check more at download page.
Also, this release should be the last one built with old (almost non existent) infrastructure. New one will be more professional, more open and feel more native for Free software development. We will write more in next release of devlog.
Keep calm and develop Free software (and hardware!),
Here is the HARD truth about Hardware Kill switches on Librem laptops.
The Librem laptops are secure machines that respect and protect your privacy and freedom. To this end, we at Purism are intensely suspicious of several items on a standard laptop that could be used, either maliciously or accidentally, to violate your privacy and security. Specifically, these items are:
The laptop’s built in Webcam and Microphone.
The laptop’s WiFi and Bluetooth radios.
Almost all laptops on the market today have a way to turn off a laptop’s WiFi and Bluetooth radios. However, most do it via software on the computer (example: a special program in the operating system) or a soft switch in the computer’s embedded controller within the bios (example: using the keyboard combination of pressing at the same time the Function Key plus the F2 key). Due to the threats that still remain possible for malicious software to turn on these peripherals, we opt to solve this with hardware.
There is NO other laptop on the market today that has a physical means to turn off a machine’s built in Webcam and Microphone.
Thus, to protect you from the risks of these devices, the Librem laptops come with the ability to physically disable or turn off the Webcam, Microphone, WiFi radio, and Bluetooth radio via a Hardware Kill Switch (HKS).
The HKS is a real physical switch that either:
Cuts the signal or power line to the device, as in the case of the Webcam and Microphone HKS, or,
Disable the chip running them, as is the case of the WiFi and Bluetooth radios HKS.
To give you an idea how this is done, let’s look at the HKSes on a Librem 13.
The HKS themselves
The HKSes are located in the hinge cover of a Librem 13. The HKS themselves are Double Pole, Double Throw (DPDT) switches with a switch function of ON-ON and have six leads on them.
Librem 13 HKSes in the Hinge Cover
Different Devices, Different Challenges
For starters, it helps to look at the motherboard on a Librem 13 and see where the various devices connect to it.
Librem 13 Motherboard Layout
To physically shut off each of the questionable devices with a physical switch we broke the problem down into three parts:
Kill the Webcam
Kill the Microphone, and,
Kill the WiFi and Bluetooth radios
The reason for this is because each of the above devices has a different interface and thus requires a different solution to ensure it is really OFF.
Kill the Webcam
Wire on connector EDPCON1 sent to the HKS for the Webcam
The webcam on a Librem 13 is located above the laptop’s screen and connects to the motherboard via connector EDPCON1, a x30 pin connector that also contains all the wiring for the laptop’s display. The webcam itself uses a USB 2.0 interface, meaning there are four wires on EDPCON1 that are just for the camera. Two of the four wires are for data, one is for a +3.3 volt DC signal to power the camera, and the last wire it the ground.
To kill the Webcam with a HKS, we insert a HKS and circuit during assembly, wiring the +3.3 volt DC power wire for the USB connection directly into the HKS.
With the HKS in the OFF position, no power gets to the Webcam, and thus making it impossible for the webcam to be used (in fact it is not detected by the kernel nor operating system when off).
Kill the Microphone
Wire on connector MIC_COM1 wired to the HKS for the Microphone
The microphone on a Librem 13 is located right next to the Webcam above the laptop’s screen and connects to the laptop’s motherboard via connector MIC_COM1. But unlike the Webcam, the microphone has only two leads: One for the microphone’s signal and the other for the microphone’s ground.
To kill the microphone with a HKS, we wire the microphone’s signal wire directly to the HKS.
With the HKS in the OFF position, no signal from the microphone gets to the motherboard, thus making it impossible for the microphone to send any signals to the laptop.
One Switch for Two
Both the Webcam and the Microphone are wired to the same HKS, so both devices are OFF at the same time.
HKS for the Webcam and the Microphone. Wire on top are to the Webcam. Wires on the bottom are to the Microphone.
The WiFi and Bluetooth radios are wired to a second HKS.
Kill the WiFi and Bluetooth Radios
Layout of the solder points for the WiFi/Bluetooth, NGFF M.2 pins 54 and 56.
To fully understand how to disable the WiFi and Bluetooth radios, it is necessary to gain some insight into the PCISIG M.2 NGFF standard and how it is used to turn OFF the devices. The PCISIG M.2 NGFF connector has 75 positions with up to 67 pins, each with a specific function. Some are used for data, some are used for power and ground, and still others are used for control signals. But for the HKSes, the two PCISIG M.2 NGFF pins of interest are pins 56 and 54, which control PCISIG M.2 NGFF functions called W_DISABLE#1 and W_DISABLE#2 (respectfully).
The WiFi/Bluetooth Hardware Kill Switch works by applying to pins 56 and 54 an input of one of two DC signals:
To turn the radios ON: Apply a Ground (GND) or +0 V signal.
To turn the radios OFF: Apply a +3.3 V signal.
Note that this standard is a bit counter intuitive with Voltage high (+3.3 Volt) = OFF and Voltage low (0 Volts or GND) = ON.
In a Librem 13, the M.2 NGFF connector pins 54 and 56 cannot be accessed directly on the NGFF connector, for it is much too small for any solder connections. Instead the pins are accessed via two 0402 Surface Mount Device (SMD) pads on the motherboard itself (pads R609 and R629).
So for the WiFi/Bluetooth HKS, wires are soldered from the SMD pads to the HKS. Then one side of the HKS is wired to a +3.3 volt signal with the other side wired to ground. The end result looks like this:
Wiring Diagram for WiFi/Bluetooth HKS.
With the HKS in the +3.3 Volt position, pins 54 and 56 in the M.2 NGFF connector will receive a HIGH voltage, and the radios on the WiFi card will be turned OFF. With the HKS in the Ground (GND) position, pins 54 and 56 will receive a LOW voltage, and the radios will be turned ON.
Our Hard Work to Protect Your Privacy
As you can see, it is not a trivial matter to manufacture these HKSes. A lot of research and hard work went into the effort.
Purism believes in your rights to privacy, security, and freedom, and will continue to work hard for users’ rights.
Arguably one of the most requested items from the backers of the Librem 15 rev2 was for a backlit keyboard. We are proud to announce that keyboard design request did in fact make it into the Librem 15 rev2. You can see from the photo below, on the brightest setting, illuminating around and through the keys.
Function + F10 toggles between the three modes, off, brighter, and brightest levels.
Note: the Librem 13 does not have the backlit keyboard, the next revision (within two years time) is planned to.
During our Librem 15 campaign, we asked backers what they would prefer:
A keystroke combination that kills the camera and microphone and a second keystroke combination to kill wireless and BlueTooth in software.
A function key that kills the camera and microphone and a second function key to kill wireless and BlueTooth in the BIOS.
A physical kill switch that kills the camera and microphone and a second physical kill switch to kill wireless and BlueTooth in hardware, severing the circuit entirely.
In what was a near unanimous vote from a very vocal audience, are proud to be adding option #3 physical kill switches, which are single pole double throw toggle slider switches to both the Librem 15 rev2 and the Librem 13.
A brief video showing the Purism Kill Switch for Microphone and Camera in action. As you can see from the terminal output, the circuit is severed, removing the USB device from the kernel, and adding it back in again. Simultaneously, you can also visually see the video displaying a ‘device not found’ message when the Purism Kill Switch is toggled off.
We at Purism are doing what users want, respecting rights to freedom and privacy. The Purism Kill Switches are just one of the many ways we are challenging the status quo, improving the way we interact with our digital world.
Purism now supports the new USB 3.1 Type-C connector! The Librem 15 Rev2, shipping this June/July, will include it. USB 3.1 introduces several significant benefits.
It’s smaller – about a third the size of older USB 3.0 A- and 3.1 B-Type USB ports.
It’s backwards-compatible with earlier versions of USB.
It’s reversible. No more fumbling around to flip it into the “right” side; from now on, every side is the right side.
It boasts a much faster data transfer mode than earlier specifications – ten times faster, with transfer speeds as high as 7.2 Gbit/s. That’s fast!
It supports video output on par with the first-gen Thunderbolt channel.
After our last update regarding Intel’s physical 16GB memory maximum for 5th Generation CPUs, we heard from a backer that Intelligent Memory can run 32GB even though the specification states 16GB! This was corroborated by both PCWorld and our direct contact at Intelligent Memory this morning. We are back to offering 32GB, and will not change the existing orders down to 16GB.
We are going to receive a handful of sticks of memory to test that these statements are true ourselves.
This and all feedback, support, and help from all our backers is extremely appreciated!
(Note: We will be increasing the price of 32GB of RAM for all future orders because Intelligent Memory’s DDR3 RAM sticks are very expensive! If you already had 32GB of RAM specified, you will not be charged for the increase in cost).
A quick update about PureOS… from the design team this time! 😉
