Librem freedom roadmap : Pureboot vs Coreboot

Firmware Coreboot
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Hello everyone,

As I’m the happy owner of 2 librem 13 (v3 and v4) I regularly monitor any progresses made regarding the remaining bits that need to be freed up (see The Purism Freedom Roadmap – Purism).

There was apparently some initentions to get to a point where coreboot could be replaced by libreboot. Therefore freeing up remaining blobs shipped with coreboot itself.

With the recent release of PureBoot, I was wondering if it helped (beside all the gains on the security aspect) on the progress of the freedom roadmap ?
In short: is PureBoot any freeer that Coreboot on librem laptops?

I understand that company’s focus is toward librem 5 nowadays, I’m just seeking some clarifications :slight_smile:

Cheers everyone,

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No. In my understanding, PureBoot is just the marketing term for all parts that go into it (TPM, Librem Key,…)
You gotta have a name for it :grin:

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Actually since Pureboot uses also Heads, the video initialization blob (VBIOS) is not used.

So that’s less one blob.

https://puri.sm/faq/what-is-the-difference-between-libreboot-and-my-librems-coreboot-firmware/

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Then if VBIOS is gone, ME is disabled/neutralized, remains the CPU microcode and FSP.
For the FSP, did I get it right that it has been open sourced by Intel ?
Cf : https://puri.sm/posts/intel-fsp-reverse-engineering-finding-the-real-entry-point/ and https://github.com/IntelFsp/FSP/tree/d88078a708e768c7b6ee5cbc996299d303c3c702

That would leave only the CPU microcode one (considring the bios components only, not talking about ssd firmware nor bluetooth chip).

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but our our goal is to ship devices with blob-free coreboot.

might want to keep only one “our” there.

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  • video initialization blob (VBIOS) — we’ve already made some progress on this front, and our next coreboot version might be shipped without it.

this was posted April 23, 2019 so the coast is clear i think. might want to update your faq there.

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for Librem laptop firmware purposes,
coreboot = coreboot with SeaBIOS payload, VBIOS display init
PureBoot = coreboot with Heads payload, linux i915 display init (no blob)

outside of the typo, nothing has changed there

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not yet, and not necessarily for existing platforms

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