awokd@danwin1210.me has posted comments on this change. ( https://review.coreboot.org/c/coreboot/+/31225 )
Change subject: src/mainboard/lenovo/g505s/Kconfig: disable DRIVERS_INTEL_WIFI by default ......................................................................
Patch Set 2:
Patch Set 2:
(1 comment)
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It doesn't matter how small the chance is. It can hurt if the option is set to `n` falsely. But can't if set to `y`.
It consumes some kilobytes at CBFS and adds extra complexity, so from my point of view it would be better if this doesn't stay as default 'y'. Of course if I will see at least one owner of coreboot'ed G505S with Intel WiFi, this will be a good reason to consider abandoning/reverting this change. However I haven't seen anyone who could suffer from this default 'n'.
I suppose this depends on which "hurts" more, which can be subjective... FWIW, I'm not aware of any G505s's shipped with an Intel wifi adapter either, but I can't really prove a negative.
and those who upgraded to coreboot are security conscious enough to choose ath9k over intel.
You are confusing software freedom with security.
To me they go hand in hand because the proprietary closed source firmware could contain the evil backdoors, while if the sources are open there is significantly less chance of it. By the way, a lot of G505S people are using security-inclined Qubes OS as their primary distro, and they went through the trouble of finding/refurbishing this laptop because they see that more software freedom at their computer's firmware automatically means much better security.
I think Nico's point here is that software freedom =/= automatic security. You can have 100% open software with 0% security, as well as 0% open with 100% security. That said, I'm going to trust coreboot with as few blobs as possible over a random manufacturer's implementation every time.
. Anybody is already free to disable it if they don't need it.
The point of my recent commits is to minimize the amount of local configurations the people need to do at their freshly cloned coreboot. If no-one is using G505S with Intel WiFi, there are no reasons for it to stay as default 'y', but I could change my point of view if I would see at least one person with such a system configuration.
Looking through random mainboards in menuconfig, this Intel PCI-e wifi adapter appears enabled on every one. https://review.coreboot.org/c/coreboot/+/15931 seems to be the introduction. To play devil's advocate, if "most x86 platforms could have" any of the other listed generic drivers, should they be enabled globally too so people can disable them?