[coreboot] Lenovo G505S and Coreboot LTS Candidates list

[Emilian Bold]

Well, the G505S with A10-5750M is explicitly listed as no longer being
sold. So it's the A8 or nothing.

Could you provide links within the EU with (online) shops still selling the
A10 variant and having some actual stock?

--emi

On Mon, Apr 6, 2015 at 6:45 PM, Vladimir <quickcracktime at gmail.com> wrote:

> Yes, in addition to A10-5750M based G505S there are also A8 and A6 ones.
> But there are some possible problems regarding them:
> 1) their price is just slightly lower than with A10 - as result,
> price/performance ratio seems to be worse for these models
> 2) I'm not sure if it is possible could upgrade their APU from A6/A8 to
> A10-5750M after purchase
> 3) most importantly: some parameters inside a coreboot source code for
> G505S could be A10-specific ;
> I am not sure if a current "A10-inclined build" would run on A8/A6 out of
> the box, without additional tweaking
>
> A question from my last letter - about compatibility of G505S coreboot
> build with various graphics solutions found in different modifications, is
> not addressed yet... to remind, there are three groups of modifications:
> *) only 8650G (no dual graphics)
> *) 8650G + AMD HD 8570M (dual graphics)
> *) 8650G + AMD R5 M230 (dual graphics, slightly faster)
>
> P.S. Below is an =incomplete= list of SKUs for A10 G505S models that I was
> able to find. If there is a shortage in your country, maybe this list could
> assist you in search (those mods with windows 8 are about $50 more
> expensive and support evil M$, please dont get them ;-) )
>
> 1) only 8650G (no dual graphics) + 4GB + FreeDOS = 59-410323
> 2) only 8650G (no dual graphics) + 8GB + FreeDOS = 59-405169
> 3) only 8650G (no dual graphics) + 4GB + Windows 8 = 59-380131
> 4) only 8650G (no dual graphics) + 6GB + Windows 8 = 59-373010 / 59-406417
> 5) only 8650G (no dual graphics) + 8GB + Windows 8 = 59-403088
> 6) 8650G + AMD HD 8570M (dual graphics) + 4GB + FreeDOS = 59-405168
> 7) 8650G + AMD HD 8570M (dual graphics) + 6GB + FreeDOS = 59-409773
> 8) 8650G + AMD HD 8570M (dual graphics) + 8GB + FreeDOS = 59-380146 /
> 59-387536
> 9) 8650G + AMD HD 8570M (dual graphics) + 4GB + Windows 8 = 59-407135 /
> 59410966
> 10) 8650G + AMD HD 8570M (dual graphics) + 6GB + Windows 8 = 59-382102
> 11) 8650G + AMD HD 8570M (dual graphics) + 8GB + Windows 8 = 59-401209
> 12) 8650G + AMD R5 M230 (dual graphics, slightly faster) + 4GB + FreeDOS =
> 59-410881
> 13) 8650G + AMD R5 M230 (dual graphics, slightly faster) + 8GB + FreeDOS =
> 59-410885
> 14) 8650G + AMD R5 M230 (dual graphics, slightly faster)  + 4GB + Windows
> 8 = 59-408604
> 15) 8650G + AMD R5 M230 (dual graphics, slightly faster)  + 8GB + Windows
> 8 = 59-410883
>
> On 6 April 2015 at 14:20, Emilian Bold <emilian.bold at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I can confirm I'm still able to buy a G505S in my country but it seems to
>> have the quad core A8-4500M (not the A10) with a dedicated Radeon HD 8570M.
>>
>> It's a decent machine and it would be great to have it on the official
>> LTS list.
>>
>> Speaking of the list, I cannot find any store selling the Toshiba
>> Satellite C50D-A mentioned in the wiki.
>>
>> --emi
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Apr 6, 2015 at 1:45 PM, Vladimir <quickcracktime at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Dear coreboot developers,
>>>
>>> Francis Rowe (main Libreboot developer) has hinted an idea about adding
>>> Lenovo G505S to Coreboot LTS Candidates list of laptops, which is hosted at
>>> MrNuke's User talk coreboot wiki page. I believe it is an excellent idea,
>>> because:
>>>
>>> *1)* Lenovo G505S contains AMD APU, so there is no need to deal with
>>> Intel ME/AMT so-called "features"
>>> *2)* this APU has Richland architecture: as result (unlike the more
>>> recent AMD offerings) it doesn't have "AMD Secure" feature -- based on ARM
>>> Trustzone technology which already has some exploits against it; there are
>>> security concerns about ARM Trustzone that are similar to concerns about
>>> Intel vPro "feature" (remote management etc.)
>>> *3)* this APU is A10-5750M, the most powerful mobile APU among Richland
>>> designs - as result, this laptop is still very competitive regarding its
>>> performance, and also price/performance
>>> *4)* Unlike the older HP M6-1035DX amd laptop, Lenovo G505S seems to be
>>> a very popular model: even now, more than 1.5 years after its'
>>> introduction, there are >200 Internet shops in my large city still selling
>>> it new in box - not used/refurbished
>>> *5)* Lenovo G505s works without microcode updates, and already has a
>>> working Coreboot build (although Video BIOS and SMU firmware have blobs
>>> that are still not reverse-engineered; and some minor issues - e.g. ACPI
>>> not perfect yet )
>>>
>>> These great points are making me wonder, why this interesting laptop
>>> still haven't been added to that LTS Candidates list? Does it fail to meet
>>> some requirement for LTS candidates in a not-obvious way
>>> (RYF-certifiable,Sturdy,Long shelf-life,Cool factor) or there is some
>>> not-listed AMD laptop that could be a better candidate?
>>>
>>> By the way, I have discovered that there are many modifications of
>>> Lenovo G505S, which could be divided into three primary groups by their
>>> major difference - GPU *(minor differences, such as different size of
>>> RAM or hard drive, are not interesting)*
>>> GPU modification groups:
>>> *1)* only 8650G, which is built-in into APU (no dual graphics)
>>> *2)* 8650G + AMD HD 8570M (dual graphics)
>>> *3)* 8650G + AMD R5 M230 ( dual graphics, slightly more powerful than
>>> "2)" )
>>> Are these modifications all supported by Coreboot? And would be there
>>> any additional difficulties regarding modifications with dual graphics?
>>>
>>> Your answers and opinions will be very welcome
>>> Best regards,
>>> Vladimir Shipovalov
>>>
>>> --
>>> coreboot mailing list: coreboot at coreboot.org
>>> http://www.coreboot.org/mailman/listinfo/coreboot
>>>
>>
>>
>
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