Introducing the Librem 11

[FranklyFlawless]

@Privacy2

If you read the article you linked, the “neutralization of the IME” was attributed to the me_cleaner project and that it was disabled via the HAP bit (which is not a big deal and, these days, is the least you can do).

Yes, although I argue it is still a big deal considering the lack of other modern examples outside of Purism; I do agree it is the least Purism can do.

@Privacy2

I hope you’re aware that, despite early announcements, Purism was actually not able to neutralize the IME in the Librem 14 (it’s only disabled via that HAP bit).

I was aware when I purchased mine a few years ago: my justification then was that it uses a relatively modern CPU; better quality control of the hinges (compared to reviews of the Librem 13v4/15v4); revised hardware kill switches design; and liberated EC firmware (as you mentioned) in spite of some regression with the boot firmware status.

@Privacy2

You should also be aware that ever since Matt DeVillier quit, Purism does not have a firmware expert.

That depends on your definition of a firmware expert: I am grateful for @jonathon.hall continuing work on Coreboot, PureBoot, and the EC firmware.

@Privacy2

Also, in regard to coreboot on the Jasper Lake chipset (in the Librem 11), you should thank Intel as the primary contributor not anyone from Purism AFAIK.

Do you have a citation for that? I would love to read about what Intel has done for Coreboot on Jasper Lake.

@Privacy2

To be clear, almost all employees who work for Purism don’t work at Purism. They are almost all employed as independent contractors (Form 990) who work remotely.

I will reflect that change into my dialogue next time - thank you for pointing it out.

@Privacy2

I also want to note that a lot of the issues with the Librem 14 have been due to the fact that EC firmware is tricky. Should they be applauded for developing their own EC firmware (from a base begun by System76)? Maybe. But one could argue that they are using customers as beta testers ([librem 14] how to update EC firmware to ec-2021-06-04_ef9fd3c - #3 by NineX )… and now that Matt is gone they are struggling to support that choice. Update on Librem-EC 1.12 – Purism .

@NineX chose to attempt to flash the EC firmware on their own when there was no official procedure set; Purism did not ask them to become a beta tester.

That being said, I have no issues with those outside of Purism who have interest in contributing to test out firmware, such as the recent PureBoot “Restricted Boot” hotfix.

Restricted Boot...bypassed

About a year ago, Kyle Rankin wrote an article about PureBoot’s recovery console. This was a very interesting article which started me exploring the payload’s runtime environment, filesystem and tools. It really is much fun: you can see all sort of interesting things like scripts, coreboot stages logs and TPM measurements, config files, and much more. I can’t exactly remember where (could be reading some osresearch documentation) I got the notion that I could invoke the console by holding the …

@Privacy2

P.S. Did anyone else note that Purism has deprecated their “Core Team” page??? The Core Team – Purism

Yes, I made a very recent post about it, among other deprecated pages.

Purism — Sitemap

The Core Team page is now deprecated.