You can run a free OS pretty effortless, but when wanting 100% free software, you have to dig deeper and replace the proprietary BIOS firmware.
What laptop is that? That dock looks so cool…
That’s a x200 lenovo thinkpad.
ThinkPads have some sort of an open source replacement I think…
Besides the already mentioned Star Labs and System76, there’s also Insurgo, Nitropad and NovaCustom.
As for an exhaustive list on the matter, unfortunately, I don’t think something like that is out there. Though both Canoeboot (formerly known as Libreboot) and Dasharo do have their own respective lists.
Canoeboot is more of a sister to libreboot than a replacement
Thanks for the correction!
The starlabs one is actually pretty interesting. Too bad the keyboard is not included in the price and costs extra.
The disks still have proprietary firmware, as do several other components though.
I bet that wireless mouse probably has some code in it.
If you’re using an active thunderbolt cable, you wire has proprietary code in it.
But it’s a closed device with the firmware not being for user to replace.
While BIOS can be updated without opening the computer. Or many WiFi cards require you to load a firmware on them upon boot.
So firmware in the disk is more of a right-to-repair problem rather than free/nonfree software
Lenovo G505S 16gb RAM - no (the A10-5750M processor has neither Intel ME nor AMD PSP), software probes - too, if instead of the closed UEFI from the manufacturer you install the open source BIOS coreboot+SeaBIOS: it will contain only a few small closed binaries , they were all dismantled and no backdoors were found. Someone made a script in which by rolling back 1% of the last commits (made after deleting the G505S) you can return AMD boards to coreboot - https://review.coreboot.org/c/coreboot/+/76832. You can install the AR9462 module, whose ath9k family WiFi is 100% open source.
nice i’ll have to try this out, what hardware did you use to flash it?
Try to build Coreboot on Lenovo G505S using the restore_agesa.sh script in conjunction with the csb_patcher script, which applies a group of unofficial patches for AMD platforms
Just get a 20 or 30 series Thinkpad that has no nvidia GPU, and flash coreboot on it.
No, you cannot get 100% free firmware these days, but you can get something close this way.
I mean… Depends what you mean by 100% free firmware… If you mean only the boot firmware, that’s the case for PCs like the ThinkPads T400, T500, R500, W500, X200, as well as the Dell Latitude E6400. Note Libreboot even recommends the latter for new full libre buys, as it can be software-flashed without disassembly.
But if you mean 100% free including EC firmware, wireless firmware, and disk firmware, then this will probably never happen, or at least not until a very very long time.
What I’m trying to say is that it’s an uphill battle, arguably pointless too.
Before going with the current 30 series, I was using X200 and X60. They’re both good machines, don’t get me wrong. However, their age shows when trying to do modern tasks, even something as simple as web browsing.
The X60 doesn’t even have the hardware acceleration capability for my usual KDE setup. By the way, you’d be stuck with DDR2.
The X200 is much more capable than X60, but try to browse most modern sites and you’ll feel the machine getting hot. You could turn off javascript, but then you’ll be missing quite a bit of functionalities. I definitely wouldn’t run VSCodium on it for work. I’m currently using this one as a testbed for distrohopping.
To me, the 30 series is a sweet spot. The Ivy bridge is not too old for demanding computations of modern days. If you opt for the highest tier i7, you could beat a lot of the average ones from the following generations. If you don’t get the processor you want, you can always replace it since it’s socketed, at least for my W530, which should apply for T430 &T530 (not X230).
You might want to ask yourself: what are you trying to achieve, and more importantly, how can you measure what you’ve actually achieved? No, blindly following online articles is not a good measurement.
I found out later on that I had no way of actually verifying anything with libreboot. The build system is a pain in the neck to follow thru. I then tried doing it with coreboot upstream, and my experience building with it was much better. Even with it, I wouldn’t have the chance to look thru every line of code, I still need to just “trust” somebody.
You can definitely play around, but if that’s all you do, you’d be asking yourself why you did all that when you get bored.
https://libreboot.org/docs/hardware/
also iirc starbook/system76 also does coreboot support
Is the deer the Libreboot logo? Mine has a rabbit (Coreboot). I flashed Coreboot on my old Chromebook a couple of years ago and it’s been running different flavours of linux since without any fuss.
Yes the deer is the Libreboot logo
deleted by creator
What’s MOBO?
X200 Libre ftw
If you want a for-real free device your bes bet is a RISC-V Single Board Computer. RISC-V is open architecture meaning no hardware level spyware built Into Intel’s chips.
Chris over at explaining computers managed to get kdenlive to render a video with one and some other cool stuff, you should check it out
yeah, no you have a misconception of what risc-v is.
Risc-v is an isa not a chip. the isa is open, available to anyone.
Implementations of risc-v (actual working designs) are usually not open. They are just guaranteed to be able to execute risc-v instructions.
So risc-v is neither more nor less vulnerable to hardware backdoors than any other architecture
Thanks for the clarification!
