ME Status Check: Coreboot CBEM

Firmware Coreboot
1

I just received a Librem 15 that shipped out a couple of weeks ago. I just did a check to verify the Coreboot Status and Me Neutralization. Not what the documentation on this page says it should be.

It says the output should be much different that what is showing.

Did something change with the process used and the expected output for verification or is something off with this machine? I’m needless to say a bit concerned at this point.

ME: FW Partition Table : BAD
ME: Bringup Loader Failure : YES
ME: Firmware Init Complete : YES
ME: Manufacturing Mode : YES
ME: Boot Options Present : YES
ME: Update In Progress : YES
ME: D3 Support : YES
ME: D0i3 Support : YES
ME: Low Power State Enabled : YES
ME: Power Gated : YES
ME: CPU Replaced : YES
ME: CPU Replacement Valid : YES
ME: Current Working State : Unknown (15)
ME: Current Operation State : M0 without UMA but with error
ME: Current Operation Mode : M0 without UMA
ME: Error Code : Preboot
ME: Progress Phase :
ME: Power Management Event : CM0PG->CM0
ME: Progress Phase State : Unknown phase: 0x0f state: 0xff
ME: Power Down Mitigation : YES
ME: PD Mitigation State : Issue Detected but not Recovered
ME: Encryption Key Override : Workaround Applied
ME: Encryption Key Check : FAIL
ME: PCH Configuration Info : Changed
ME: Firmware SKU : Unknown (0x7)
ME: FPF status : fused
ME: FW Partition Table : BAD
ME: Bringup Loader Failure : YES
ME: Firmware Init Complete : YES
ME: Manufacturing Mode : YES
ME: Boot Options Present : YES
ME: Update In Progress : YES
ME: D3 Support : YES
ME: D0i3 Support : YES
ME: Low Power State Enabled : YES
ME: Power Gated : YES
ME: CPU Replaced : YES
ME: CPU Replacement Valid : YES
ME: Current Working State : Unknown (15)
ME: Current Operation State : M0 without UMA but with error
ME: Current Operation Mode : M0 without UMA
ME: Error Code : Preboot
ME: Progress Phase :
ME: Power Management Event : CM0PG->CM0
ME: Progress Phase State : Unknown phase: 0x0f state: 0xff
ME: Power Down Mitigation : YES
ME: PD Mitigation State : Issue Detected but not Recovered
ME: Encryption Key Override : Workaround Applied
ME: Encryption Key Check : FAIL
ME: PCH Configuration Info : Changed
ME: Firmware SKU : Unknown (0x7)
ME: FPF status : fused
ME: FW Partition Table : BAD
ME: Bringup Loader Failure : YES
ME: Firmware Init Complete : YES
ME: Manufacturing Mode : YES
ME: Boot Options Present : YES
ME: Update In Progress : YES
ME: D3 Support : YES
ME: D0i3 Support : YES
ME: Low Power State Enabled : YES
ME: Power Gated : YES
ME: CPU Replaced : YES
ME: CPU Replacement Valid : YES
ME: Current Working State : Unknown (15)
ME: Current Operation State : M0 without UMA but with error
ME: Current Operation Mode : M0 without UMA
ME: Error Code : Preboot
ME: Progress Phase :
ME: Power Management Event : CM0PG->CM0
ME: Progress Phase State : Unknown phase: 0x0f state: 0xff
ME: Power Down Mitigation : YES
ME: PD Mitigation State : Issue Detected but not Recovered
ME: Encryption Key Override : Workaround Applied
ME: Encryption Key Check : FAIL
ME: PCH Configuration Info : Changed
ME: Firmware SKU : Unknown (0x7)
ME: FPF status : fused
ME: FW Partition Table : BAD
ME: Bringup Loader Failure : YES
ME: Firmware Init Complete : YES
ME: Manufacturing Mode : YES
ME: Boot Options Present : YES
ME: Update In Progress : YES
ME: D3 Support : YES
ME: D0i3 Support : YES
ME: Low Power State Enabled : YES
ME: Power Gated : YES
ME: CPU Replaced : YES
ME: CPU Replacement Valid : YES
ME: Current Working State : Unknown (15)
ME: Current Operation State : M0 without UMA but with error
ME: Current Operation Mode : M0 without UMA
ME: Error Code : Preboot
ME: Progress Phase :
ME: Power Management Event : CM0PG->CM0
ME: Progress Phase State : Unknown phase: 0x0f state: 0xff
ME: Power Down Mitigation : YES
ME: PD Mitigation State : Issue Detected but not Recovered
ME: Encryption Key Override : Workaround Applied
ME: Encryption Key Check : FAIL
ME: PCH Configuration Info : Changed
ME: Firmware SKU : Unknown (0x7)
ME: FPF status : fused

2

For anyone else who may be wondering, I was checking another page related to BIOS, and for new shipments we expect to see different output with Me disabled.

“The Librem 13 and Librem 15 products can be purchased today and will arrive with the Management Engine disabled by default, and it can be verified to be disabled with the source code released to confirm the disablement is accurate. Showing “ME: FW Partition Table : BAD; ME: Bringup Loader Failure : YES””

https://puri.sm/posts/category/firmware/

3

Yes, exactly.

The coreboot page needs an update, as it only talks about the Librem 13 v1. That text to check if the ME is neutralized only applies to the v1. For the v2, it’s something else: exactly what you see. Actually, what you see is because the ME is disabled, not just neutralized. As explained here: https://puri.sm/posts/deep-dive-into-intel-me-disablement/ :
"So the big, visible difference for us, between a neutralized and a disabled ME, is that the neutralized ME might appear “normal” when coreboot accesses its status, or it might show that it has terminated due to an error, while a disabled ME simply doesn’t give us a status at all—so coreboot will even think that the ME partition is corrupted.