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Good luck replacing the first-stage bootloader with something non-proprietary. And then there’s TPM, Intel ME and who knows what else that runs black-box code w
by eurasiantiger 4y ago
Good luck replacing the first-stage bootloader with something non-proprietary. And then there’s TPM, Intel ME and who knows what else that runs black-box code with potential remote access.
- mlyle 4y ago> Good luck replacing the first-stage bootloader with something non-proprietary. I mean, that's been hard for decades. It's mostly about the complexity of initializing the massive amounts of hardware. You can certainly install Libreboot on many machines, but it's a relatively small hardware compatibility list-- thanks to the terrific amount of variation between computers out there. Or there's a few manufacturers that will sell you a machine with CoreBoot onboard.
- treffer 4y agoWell, I thought so. But then I looked at the 11th gen that I have. The BIOS is signed by a key, and the hash of the key is fused into the HW. Anything 11th gen or newer locks libreboot or coreboot out. Search for FPF OTP FUSE. It is an interesting topic. I want to drop intel ASAP due to this.
- mlyle 4y ago> Anything 11th gen or newer locks libreboot or coreboot out. Not all OEMs are doing this. (And some are even shipping 11th generation with coreboot). But you're right in that it's making things worse.
- treffer 4y agoWell, intel ships a tool that tells the OEM that this is a misconfiguration from a secure boot configuration POV. Linux fwupdmgr can be used to verify the secure boot status and you will fail HS2 if this is not fused. Also.... would be happy to know who doesn't fuse it on newer machines. And even coreboot does not mean you can flash your own. You can have a lockdown where you can only load the OEMs coreboot.
- atemerev 4y agoSure, but that doesn’t disallow you to run a Python IDE and learn how to code and earn some money.
- eurasiantiger 4y agoThat’s like saying glyphosate and glyphosate resistant crops don’t prevent farming. Technically true, but the crops are now non-vegan (all glyphosate formulations contain animal tallow), have less key amino acids (glyphosate inhibits metabolic pathways preventing them from forming), and are intellectual property of a megacorporation which has altered the genome of the plants to make them infertile, essentially forcing farmers to buy new plants for each growing season instead of using the seed from the previous season.
- atemerev 4y agoWell, green revolution have saved billions of lives literally. The food might be a little shittier than before, but it is cheap and scaled well (also, the patents have long since expired).
- Gordonjcp 4y agoAre they vegan if you use animal-derived manure on them? Because if they're not, I've got some pretty bad news for the people who eat organic vegan food...
- eurasiantiger 4y agoCertainly. But they sure as hell aren’t vegan after the crop is sprayed with animal fat.
- jvanderbot 4y agoWe started talking about customizing software for your needs, and jumped directly to replacing the first stage bootloader.
- eurasiantiger 4y agoWell, if you’re going to be customizing software, do you want there to be a layer of software you cannot know about or touch?
- jvanderbot 4y agoYeah. I want to work on top of stable APIs that abstract everything not relevant to my problem. Sure, sometimes the problems are low level, but usually I don't need to touch any of that.