Librem coreboot Utility Script: usage, discussion, and help

Firmware Coreboot
101

@MrChromebox I just got my new Librem 14. The first thing I wanted to do was to update coreboot. I used the script without any problems but after that I got coreboot version 4.16-8-gf88975265a (04/25/2022) - so I started the script again and got the message ** Update Available: 4.16-Purism-1 **.

I rerun the script with the same result a few times. My question is: Am I doing something wrong or is this expected behavior?

102

Coreboot 4.17 is not available yet on Purism repos build release, when 4.17 is available it need download the Script again to update coreboot to 4.17 so that is why the old script is showing the old coreboot 4.16.

103

My posting is not about coreboot 4.17. I use the script to update coreboot to the current version (whatever that is). When I start it it says Update Available: 4.16-Purism-1 - so OK, I want to use it to update coreboot to version 4.16-Purism-1.

But it fails to install 4.16-Purism-1, instead it installs 4.16-8-gf88975265a. So when I start the script again, it tells me Update Available: 4.16-Purism-1 again. I can rerun the script several times - afterwards it will always tell me that an update is available.

1 Like
104

Where do you see this version? in coreinfo?
Try download the script again, because the script work offline version checker.

It normal behaviour of the script, but confusing. It same happen with me here too.

105

I can see it when I start the script, thereā€™s the line
Version: 4.16-8-gf88975265a (04/25/2022)

I can also see it when I use
dmidecode -s bios-version

Try download the script again, because the script work offline version checker.

I already did that. I happens with the current script version.

106

Yeah i think it is bug, because on 4.15 it showed the right version but on 4.16 the thing was different, it happened to me too so i hope that @MrChromebox fix this on coreboot 4.17.

107

did you update via the precompiled image, or building from source? Sounds like the latter and the 4.16-Purism-1 tag didnā€™t get pulled correctly, so it used the next available one (4.16).

no, itā€™s not

108

No, I updated via the precompiled image (several times with the same result).

109

looking at the precompiled image, not sure why the tag is missing. But looking at https://source.puri.sm/firmware/coreboot/-/tags you can see that 4.16-Purism-1 and the commit with hash f8897526 are the same, so you are indeed running the correct/latest version

1 Like
110

OK, thanks!

111

found the issue, there was a variable name change in the build script for the 4.16 release, and it was missed in one spot, leading to the version string being set as empty.

4 Likes
112

Nice. Give me v4.17 corrected. :slight_smile:

113

you can build it yourself from our repo if you wish (using the librem_4.17 branch), but thereā€™s no 4.17-based release yet

1 Like
114

Thanks but i like the release build. I want and waiting for coreboot v4.17 + Librem EC v1.8 + Librem Control on my L14.

115

A post was split to a new topic: Librem Control app discussion

118

I have a librem13v2. Iā€™m using arch linux with sway as my main system, and a live usb of the latest stable debian to run the coreboot update.
I hadnā€™t updated coreboot in a while.

I tried creating an account on source.puri.sm to open an issue, but

Your account is pending approval from your GitLab administrator and hence blocked. Please contact your GitLab administrator if you think this is an error.

I have noticed some new bugs since I updated (I used the precompiled option) :

  • When I push fn+:sound: and fn+:loud_sound:, I need to push the :sound: and :loud_sound: twice instead of once (arch and debian).
  • fn+F9 changed from XF86HomePage to XF86WWW (not a bug per say), but now when I push ctrl+fn+XF86WWW or maj+fn+XF86WWW or ctrl+maj+fn+XF86WWW, it is all recognized as fn+XF86WWW instead.
  • The grub menu doesnā€™t take all the screen anymore. It maybe halved in size.
  • I noticed the laptop being warm, which doesnā€™t usually happen.

I then tried the locale compilation option and it failed, but then I saw https://source.puri.sm/firmware/utility/-/issues/9, ran

sudo apt install python-is-python3

and after that it worked.

(time to reboot :smile:)

3 Likes
119

You should email support@puri.sm to get your account approved.

1 Like
120

Is this script run in dom0 or any VM will do ?
I downloaded the script, ran it in a qube VM on debian 11 and fedora 34, and it did nothing.
It turned out the dmidecode package was missing.
Since this is the boot soffware being updated, Iā€™d like to do this the secure way.

Thanks
Uzma

1 Like
121

Unless your VMs have full access to the BIOS, you have to run it in dom0. Or you can boot into LiveUSB version of PureOS and do it from there.

1 Like
123

The first link of the first post says

Project ā€˜coreboot/utilityā€™ was moved to ā€˜firmware/utilityā€™. Please update any links and bookmarks that may still have the old path.

4 Likes