Open Sourcing our Firmware

We don’t currently have the ability to provide schematics to individual consumers, but we are working on ways to better support community software development.

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It’s somewhere between. It’s basically that we have vetted that the Framework Laptop should work correctly for Ubuntu 21.10, Fedora 35, Manjaro 21.2.1, and now also Linux Mint 20.3 Cinnamon Edge (apart from any caveats called out in the guides) when the guide is followed. At the same time, we don’t yet have the depth of expertise in Linux in our support organization that the Community here has. Because of that, more custom setups, deviations from the guide (like using a different WM), or using other distros is something we would still point people to the Community for.

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@nrp Sources to the FrameworkGuide should be great to open, if its on git. Might be easier for community to contribute to add more information, specially for notepoints and fixes which are usually not covered by distro docs because it follows for specific hardware. Or can we have a separate wiki instance running, for software debugging and installation steps?

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for those following along, this is @DHowett’s updated patch series which appears to have been approved: LKML: Tzung-Bi Shih: Re: [PATCH v2 0/2] platform/chrome: add support for the Framework Laptop

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Given that it was approved, any ideas on how long would it take to reach us, the end users?

@Korvin

I’d guess March might be the soonest possible release of 5.18

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It’s great !
I was curious that if you going to provide software support for Linux like System 76 with there DKMS and Drivers on GitHub.

I bought a framework laptop yesterday because of this.
Keep going! Open source the bios (Coreboot?), work on firmware upgrades from Linux!

My XPS 13 was a big disappointment because of the broken + unstable TB 3 implementation under Linux. Really hopeful the Framework is outta this world.

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Ive had 4 framework laptops (one for each of my family members) in my basket for ages… the only thing holding me back is not being able to flash coreboot (so that intel management engine (IME) can be disabled with me_cleaner). Obviously it would be even better if framework distributed their laptops with coreboot & a disabled Intel ME but if framework would at least disable boot guard and unlock the CPU I could have a crack at it myself.

The release of EC code is actually enough to convince me that it’s coming and I should just go ahead and order at least one, but assuming that Framework does eventually get this done, will it apply retroactively to the current models for those willing to DIY? Or will it require a hardware change (and hence buying a new mainboard?)

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It would require a whole new motherboard from my understanding. I know Purism is able to ship a mostly neutered and disabled ME because they leave certain fuses unfused but if the manufacturer of Framework’s board trips the fuses then they can’t be unfused. The only problem with that theory is that Purism uses 10th gen parts and not 11th or 12th gen so perhaps the design changed.

very excited for coreboot ! will keep watching this issue !

understand that frame.work have a lot of work ahead but im hopefull they recognise the value . the type of people who want a diy upgradible laptop are likely to be the type of people who want a free bios !

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As mentioned here, there’s a theoretical path to enabling Coreboot on existing hardware, using a similar model to how we enabled UEFI Secure Boot on Linux systems. While I think it’s possible to build everything in an appropriate way, it’s not yet guaranteed to be possible.

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I just put some articles about this topic.

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Has anyone tried using the TGL package from edk2-platforms?
edk2-platforms/Platform/Intel/TigerlakeOpenBoardPkg · GitHub

This does only apply to vPro CPUs, doesn’t it? The ones without vPro do not come with ME, right?

Every modern Intel CPU comes with ME. Period. Only older platforms lack Intel ME.

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On the processor, yes, still come with ME.

On the system, up to the manufacturer to provide something like this:

https://www.dell.com/community/Latitude/What-is-quot-ME-Lockout-MOD-quot/td-p/7699939

For example, you can see it here:

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@Second_Coming It can be disabled by flipping the HAP bit but not removed from what I understand. Good to know that other more mainstream manufacturers are offering that option, I wasn’t aware of that. I knew of a few niche manufacturers offering that but Dell is new to me.

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It’s mostly around using devices in government contracts and defense contracts. But now, you know, as a consumer, you can have that option to disable Intel ME.

Related:

…and with or without news like this, Lenovo could be ruled out. So that leaves Dell and HP really for most of the North America.

@Second_Coming I see no hard reason ruling out said chinese companies in this news. It seems like “we found nothing but it is from china so it is dangerous”, very common US hate to china.

It is unfortunate as Huawei has been making the best to-bussiness x86 ultrabooks as of 2022. And I think people in North America should worry more about the three-letter agencies rather than China trying to spy on them?

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