Over the past week or so, I've been working to get Libreboot running on the latest ARM Chromebook: the C201, manufactured by Asus (codename veyron_speedy). The laptop is running with a RK3288 SoC and ships with Google's version of Coreboot preinstalled. It should require no proprietary code nor any proprietary firmware load or microcode update to boot, thus it would be a good fit for Libreboot, as a fully free distribution of Coreboot.
In addition to that, the device's embedded controller (that handles aspects of power management as well as the keyboard and a few other things) is a microcontroller that is also running free software: the free embedded controller firmware from Google.
Aside from that, it has a soldered Wi-Fi/bluetooth BCM4354 chip (cannot be removed) that has a free driver but requires to load a proprietary firmware on the chip. However, it is easy to work around that issue and not use that chip at all, e.g. using an ath9k_htc dongle on one of the two USB ports.
The GPU is a Mali T764, on which Luc has been doing some early work to have free software support for it. It is uncertain[0] how long it will take to have an usable free replacement for it, but now that there is that hardware available, free graphics for Mali T GPUs would mean having a recent laptop running fully free software, down to the firmware level, without losing any major hardware feature, something that has hardly ever been achieved yet. Thus, I believe it is of the utmost importance to back Luc up on this, even if big players like ARM are trying hard to make Lima not happen and to make it difficult for Luc to keep going.
Another aspect that I still have to look at in-depth is the ability to use hardware video encoding/decoding. The RK3288 has an auxiliary processor for that task, but it is unclear whether it can be used with free software or not, though the first indications that I've gathered are positive.
At this point, I've been able to boot up Debian on the device, and the xfce4 interface is quite usable. It even runs big programs like Iceweasel/Firefox and LibreOffice without inconveniences.
However, it cannot run desktop environments that depend on GL acceleration, such as gnome-shell, which is a shame since those would be a good fit for it. The CPU is simply too slow for offering a decent experience with software rendering (llvmpipe).
Overall, I truly hope this device creates an incentive to free the last remaining parts that can only work with proprietary software to this day. Its potential would be huge, especially since it's a good fit for travellers. With the security model inherited from Chromium OS, this would be one of the safest laptops to be used by journalists or activists. If Tails was to be ported to it, it would become easy to have a secure and anonymous setup.
I have successfully fixed and compiled Coreboot and all the necessary bits and pieces for the C201, so I'll be spending the next few days sending patches, discussing how to integrate it to Libreboot and getting the actual work done.
I also plan on documenting all my findings (especially things like how to access UART, how to remove the SPI flash's write protect, how to reflash it externally, etc) on my coding blog, for now.
Cheers!
References: [0]: http://libv.livejournal.com/27461.html
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The GPU is a Mali T764, on which Luc has been doing some early work to have free software support for it. It is uncertain[0] how long it will take to have an usable free replacement for it, but now that there is that hardware available, free graphics for Mali T GPUs would mean having a recent laptop running fully free software, down to the firmware level, without losing any major hardware feature, something that has hardly ever been achieved yet. Thus, I believe it is of the utmost importance to back Luc up on this,
What support does he need?
even if big players like ARM are trying hard to make Lima not happen and to make it difficult for Luc to keep going.
What is ARM doing to Lima?
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Paul Kocialkowski -
Richard Stallman