Coreboot 4.12-based Firmware Released For All Librems

Version 4.12-Purism-2 coreboot firmware released for all Librem devices:

  • Rebased on coreboot 4.12 release tag
  • Added support for Librem Mini
  • Adjusted boot display resolution on laptops from 480p to 720p
    • Addresses full-screen boot display issue on Librem 15v4
  • Replaced boot logo image with higher quality version
  • Fixed IOMMU-related issues resulting from change to libgfxinit display init
  • Fixed issue with internal display failing to init on some devices
  • Fixed missing ME status print in cbmem log
  • Updated Intel microcode to latest releases, which address crosstalk-related vulnerabilities:
    • SKL: D4 ā†’ DC
    • KBL: C6 ā†’ D6
  • Fixed bug preventing use of 6Gbps SATA port speed
    • applies to all Librem 13v2/3/4, 15v3/4 (Skylake/Kabylake platform)
      a small number of drives may still have issues running at 6Gbps,
      in which case it is recommended to add ā€˜libata.force=3.0ā€™ to the
      kernel boot parameters to force 3Gbps operation.

Info on updating: Coreboot Firmware on Purism Librem Devices ā€“ Purism

full change log:

coreboot source:

update utility:

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for those of us that use PureBoot, will this be getting an update soon? latest from checking updater reads pureboot beta 11.

Iā€™m working on it and hope to have it released next week. Besides bringing in quite a few improvements and fixes, I need to get the Mini and the laptops on the same page (B12 is the Mini release version, B13 will merge it into the main codebase), which is tricky since they currently require different versions of coreboot.

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great news! Iā€™ll be sure to keep checking for updates and thank you.

Thanks!

FYI Iā€™ve just updated my Librem15v4 from 4.11-Purism-1 to to 4.12-Purism-2 using the upgrade utility. Everything went well. The only difference Iā€™ve noticed up to now is that the boot logo is full screen again.

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Attempted the update, and got a kernel panic on reboot. Librem 15.3

Canā€™t get beyond the blue screen. Says;

Error: failure reading sector 0x4a2b00 from ā€˜hd0ā€™

blue screen? Grub menu?

Running PureOS?

boot drive SATA or NVMe?

Grub menu. Not sure what the other questions are. I have a 500tb hd. Samsung SSD-850

if you press ESC on the boot splash, does the SSD show as ā€˜AHCIā€™ or ā€˜NVMeā€™ ?

Ahci is what it says

Downloaded and ran PureOS from a thumb drive. It says my hd is there, but not mounted. Not trying to mount, as it has the usual encryption password at bootup

Poking around the only things I can see, e.g. coreinfo it says FW partition table is BADā€¦ but I donā€™t know what Iā€™m looking at/for anywayā€¦

ok, do this:

boot normally.
On blue grub screen, press ā€˜eā€™ to edit the boot params.
scrolll down the line that starts with ā€˜linuxā€™ and contains ā€˜quiet splashā€™
insert ā€˜libata.force=3.0ā€™ (without the quotes) after ā€˜splashā€™ and before whatever follows that.
press ā€˜CTRL+xā€™ to boot with the modified command params

let me know if that helps. I donā€™t need anything from a live USB or coreinfo.

Not sure what happened, but when I reflashed, it asked if I wanted to reboot. I did so. It appeared to hang. Turned it off, rebooted, errors as above. Booted from USB. Reflashed. Update ok, but would not shut down/reboot. Boot from USB. Mount encrypted drive. Shut down. Hang. Reboot from HD, enter password, all normal.

Now rebooting to test permanenceā€¦

ok, please understand that when trying to troubleshoot an issue, if youā€™re going off and doing things that havenā€™t specifically been asked of you (like reflashing the firmware), it makes it very hard to identify the root cause and determine the proper resolution.

Understood. Appears to be no permanent fix. Rebooted, hit e, made changesā€¦ waiting on blue grub screen

not sure what you mean by this.

Hit ctrl x, i see the blue grub screen with the debian swirl in the corner. Nothing. Comes back, says it canā€™t read something, and that I have to boot the kernel first. Then back to the grub edit screen.

ā€¦quiet splash libata.force=3.0 $vt_handoffā€¦

Canā€™t you post pictures of what is happening? Iā€™m not an expert on this but Iā€™m confused with what your are saying here, I donā€™t know why you are seying Debian logo in grub if you are using PureOS.

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I found that the system would sometimes boot correctly, but usually it did not. When I booted from a USB and manually added the encrypted hard drive, it usually worked on the reboot AFTER, but most often it would not boot or provide the password prompt for the hard drive. Sometimes it would say ā€œbooting from hard driveā€ and hang.

I reverted to version 4.11 and it seems to work more reliably. I am relatively inexperienced with Linux, doing most of my changes based on internet solutions found here and elsewhere. Perhaps I made an incorrect series of steps.