Weekly Update on Librem Production 2015-10-23

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Todd Weaver

Founder and CEO
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Some Librem 13 units are already in the hands of users. Another batch of shipments will be sent next week, backers will get notified via email from Crowd Supply when those orders have shipped.

We will be showing some Librem 13 units (both with US and UK keyboard layouts) at OSCON in Amsterdam at the “Hardware Showcase” in the sponsors pavilion on Monday, October 26th and Tuesday, October 27th. If you’re planning on attending OSCON, please come by and say “hi!”

To reiterate on coreboot and the Intel FSP/ME, our work on Coreboot and testing the CPU fuses for a potential future with a freed ME are continuing, but neither will be finished prior to shipment, therefore we will be offering the option of receiving a non-free AMI BIOS with your hardware now, that can add coreboot later (through a software update, flashrom), or to wait until we have coreboot added by default. We will be providing hardware to a few more key coreboot developers, whom we’ve met with, so hopefully will be able to pin down a solid release date for Coreboot on Librem hardware.

PureOS 2.0 is getting back on track. We posted to Debian Jobs, and got an overwhelming list of qualified candidates. We have brought on two immediately with a few others we are qualifying to build this team out a little more. Our plan, since moving away from Ubuntu’s oem-config, to Debian (which does not have a good OEM install process), is to load a preseeded ISO on the drives, and let GRUB boot, and allow the user to enter the initial user and password, along with timezone and other configuration. This will be superior to the existing temp user approach we have now.

We have confirmation on individual parts pricing for the Power Supply, as well as a replacement battery. Crowd Supply will be adding those parts for sale soon. The Power Supply and replacement battery both will list for $40.00. The battery is easily replaceable by removing the back cover, removing the battery screws, and unhooking the single connection to the motherboard.

We are still waiting on the printing of our logo on the keycap for the super key, so will be shipping units with a blank super key until we get our logo on them. This is a lower priority for us right now.

This also relates to all the foreign key caps, those will be shipping later, so if you have a non-US or non-UK layout, your order is in the back of the queue right now.

The Librem 15 rev2 first 10 units motherboard shipment was confirmed shipment on Friday October 16th, 2015. We are expecting this to arrive early next week.

Dates:
Librem 13
September 25th – Librem 13 motherboard shipment
October 6th – Librem 13 assembly
October 12th – Ship Librem 13 (first orders) (October 15th actual)
October 12th through October 30th – First batch of 100 units shipped
October 30th through November 20th – Second batch of 100 units shipped
November 23rd – Any sales will be shipping from stocked units

Librem 15 rev2
October 19th – First 10 Librem 15 rev2 (light gray) motherboard shipment
October 22nd – First 10 Librem 15 rev2 (light gray) assembly
October 22nd – Next 40 Librem 15 rev2 (light gray) motherboard shipment
October 26nd – Next 40 Librem 15 rev2 (light gray) assembly
October 28th – First 10 Librem 15 rev2 (light gray) shipment
November 3rd – Next 40 Librem 15 rev2 (light gray) shipment
All product from here on out will be dark gray
November 24th – Librem 15 rev2 motherboard shipment
November 27th – Librem 15 rev2 assembly
November 30th through December 4th – Batch of 100 units shipped
December 4th through December 11th – Next Batch of 100 unit shipped
December 14th – Any sales will be shipping from stocked units

Known Issues:

1. Trackpad Driver
• Current: ps/2 mouse capabilities
• Future: gesture
• ETA: ~October (initial gestures supported)
• Where: Kernel Level Driver
• Source for Updates: Blog, Git (soon)
• 2 devs
2. Unlocking the ME (verifying we CAN or CANNOT)
• Current: ~90%
• Future: 100%
• ETA: ~November
• Where: BIOS
• Source for Updates: Blog, Coreboot Blog
• 2 devs
3. Coreboot BIOS
• Current: ~30%
• Future: 100%
• ETA: ~December (waiting on good estimate)
• Where: BIOS
• Source for Updates: Blog, Coreboot Blog, Git (soon)
• 3 devs (growing to more coreboot devs)
4. Hardware Kill Switches
• Current: Webcam/Mic & NGFF (Wireless)
• Future: DONE
• ETA: September 11
• Where: Hardware
• Source for Updates: Blog
• 3 devs
5. Bluetooth (via daughter card)
• Current: ~5%
• Future: 100%
• ETA: ~February 2016
• Where: Kernel Level Driver
• Source for Updates: Blog
• Note: This is for a free software kernel driver, not the binary blob
• .5 devs

Thank you!

Todd Weaver & Purism Team
todd@puri.sm