LibrePlanet: Conference/2013/Program/Coreboot Install Party

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What is it about?

There will be a coreboot Install party at LibrePlanet 2013, Coreboot is a free software BIOS replacement.

Why is it important?

  • BIOSes are usually non-free(there are very few exceptions).
  • BIOS are still running after the operating system is booted, learn about System_Management_Mode
  • Nowadays a lot of BIOSes contains rootkits(also known as anti-theft features) like Computrace

Reservation (for people wanting coreboot to be installed on their computer)

Since we replace the BIOS, we need to be prepaired to recover if something goes wrong...In order to be well prepaired we need to know how many people will want coreboot, and on which computers.

There is a partial list of supported computers here The full list can be obtained by looking at the source code.

Insert your name and computer(s) below

  • Example-person: X60

Organization (for people installing coreboot on the users computers)

People involved in the installation

  • Denis 'GNUtoo' Carikli
    • Coreboot contributor(he did the port on the Asus M4A785T-M mainboard).
  • Ward Vandewege
    • CTO of the Free Software Foundation
    • Did some coreboot work in the past and handled coreboot computers(desktops,servers) at the FSF

Flashing

X60/T60

  • The flashing procedure is here and must be followed carefully by people who understand it. else the laptop will have to be disassembled and reflashed with the recovery method.
  • Since there is only two people installing coreboot for now, A special image that contains everything on an USB key will have to be prepared to make the installation faster.

Other computers(Desktops for instance)

Recovery(if something goes wrong)

X60/T60

The recovery method requires:

  • to disassemble the laptop
    • Require screwdrivers(which ones? refer to the manual linked on the coreboot page)
  • another computer with flashrom
  • a programmer (Denis has some and will bring his openmoko debug board)
  • a pomona clip(Denis has one and will bring it)
  • some way to connect the pomona clip to the programmer(problematic, Denis has a fragile connection in form of IDE cable connector)

Desktops

Recovering from a bad flash on a desktop is usually much more easier than on a laptop but it depends on the mainboard.

Flash chips

We will support the following flash chips technologies. Protocol:

  • SPI(Denis has the hardware to recover from it)

Format:

  • DIP8(Denis has the hardware to recover from it)
  • SOO8/SOIC-8(Denis has the hardware to recover from it)

See Here for more details on what it means.

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