GNU/Linux Libre: concerns with microcode being non-Free Software

The date for this was April 2nd. I checked twice to see if it was April 1st…

[…]Another significant change in this release is that it was pointed out that there were error messages in Linux suggesting users to update x86 CPU microcode. Since such microcode is non-Free Software, such messages don’t belong in GNU Linux-libre. We now have patterns to detect and clean up this sort of message. A number of them were introduced recently, relying on microcode changes to mitigate Spectre and Meltdown problems, but there might be others that go farther back. I haven’t yet made my mind on whether to go back, check and possibly respin such earlier releases.[…]

Finally, to celebrate Easter on this date, I couldn’t help mentioning in this release announcement the Easter Eggs I put in. Let me know if you enjoy the surprises.[…]

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=GNU-Linux-Libre-4.16-Released

http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/info-gnu/2018-04/msg00002.html

FSF increases focus on firmware

The Free Software Foundation has updated their list of Campaigns, which includes mention of reversing firmware, and a blob-free version of Coreboot:

[…]
Reverse engineering projects.
We haven’t analyzed these in detail yet, but more broadly free drivers and free firmware (the goals of nearly all of the listed projects) have all four of our characteristics. Reverse engineering is one way to obtain free drivers and firmware, but the ideal is for manufacturers to publish full specifications and ship free drivers and free firmware, and this is what users should demand. We may want to reframe this page around free drivers, firmware, and hardware designs, noting priority reverse engineering tasks, but also encouraging users to make requests to vendors. The page also lists Replicant, a free version of Android. Phone operating systems were one of the most popular suggestions and merit their own entry (see potential additions below).

[…]
Coreboot.
A free BIOS has at least the universal and frontier characteristics. Several people suggested adding “and Libreboot,” the project to ship a version of Coreboot with no blobs, pushing further in the frontier direction. We intend to take this suggestion. We are also discussing whether to move this listing to the reframed page about free drivers, firmware, and hardware designs mentioned above.
[…]
Free software drivers for network routers.
The text of this listing concerns mesh networking, which may be too narrow to satisfy our criteria. In general free drivers for network routers probably meet the universal and frontier criteria, but it may make sense to fold this listing into a listing/page concerning free drivers and firmware for a large category of hardware (see reverse engineering above).
[…]

https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority-projects/changelog
https://media.libreplanet.org/u/libreplanet/m/the-state-of-free-revising-the-high-priority-projects-list/
https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/a-preliminary-analysis-of-high-priority-projects-feedback

 

Libreboot and GNU: update

A few months ago a GNU/Libreboot issue occurred, and I just got around to blogging about it the other day. Well, a few days, later, there is an update from FSF. Also see comment from a reader of previous post, for good background.

Libreboot and the GNU project

Libreboot and the GNU project

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=GNU-Libreboot-RMS

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13329287

Bypassing ALSR on GLibC (at build time)

Rich Felker notes that Glibc — the GNU C standard library implementation — usage and how it impacts ASLR security:

[PATCH] Add Prefer_MAP_32BIT_EXEC for Silvermont
https://sourceware.org/ml/libc-alpha/2015-12/msg00221.html