[coreboot] Lenovo G505S and Coreboot LTS Candidates list

[Vladimir]

If I am not mistaken, your country is Romania... Unfortunately - if I
didn't skip something - it looks like Romania went out of A10 stock just a
couple of weeks ago! However, I found many offers from Hungary, which is
very close! Some offers are listed on "price list"-type websites (e.g.
http://www.arukereso.hu/CategorySearch.php?st=g505s+a10 ) while others are
not listed anywhere (e.g.
http://www.notebookspecialista.hu/lenovo_ideapad_g505s_59_422983_notebook-11928.html
)
Nice thing is that these offers usually have A10 + R5 230M, slightly faster
dual graphics. But the majority of G505S models selling in Europe have Win8
pre-installed, so I'm afraid it would be hard to avoid paying extra for
this bloatware, in your case :P

As for other European countries, it is difficult for me to look through the
entire EU because there are many countries with many languages. I only know
English as foreign language, and thats why the majority of foreign offers
I'm able to find, are in UK/US...

On 6 April 2015 at 23:12, Emilian Bold <emilian.bold at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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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