[coreboot] Official builds for EoL Chromebooks

[Emilian Bold]

Sad to hear Coreboot cannot provide this info. Is there some downstream
project I don't know about that could provide this?

Maybe Google will take pity on the poor Chromebooks and provide some kind
of firmware update themselves after the EoL.


--emi

On Thu, Oct 13, 2016 at 10:35 PM, Matt DeVillier <matt.devillier at gmail.com>
wrote:

> but then you get into the situation where coreboot (org) is providing
> hashes for binary firmware it didn't build / isn't providing / can't easily
> validate.  And pulling that from a live system like is done with board
> status isn't easily done, for multiple reasons.  That's one of the reasons
> for the "rom-o-matic" GSoC project (where users would provide the blobs,
> and a firmware image would be build in real-time using a known good commit
> hash, config, etc), but I'm not sure the status on that
>
> Funny you mention the C710, as I'll be releasing updated firmware for it,
> both UEFI and Legacy versions, supporting both SB/IVB variants, in the next
> few days.  You will be able to reproduce it yourself using my posted
> sources, build scripts, and the blobs extracted from my firmware.
>
> On Thu, Oct 13, 2016 at 2:22 PM, Emilian Bold <emilian.bold at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Just listing SHA hashes of the recommended ROMs for a given Chromebook
>> would be an improvement.
>>
>> The hash is sufficient to verify a build / download. But it has to come
>> from Coreboot.
>>
>> Actually, this would be a nice project for someone from Google.
>>
>> I can only volunteer testing a build on my Acer C710 (which is probably
>> the only Chromebook with upgradeable RAM and disk).
>>
>>
>>
>> --emi
>>
>> On Thu, Oct 13, 2016 at 6:49 PM, Matt DeVillier <matt.devillier at gmail.com
>> > wrote:
>>
>>> well, in order for that to happen, someone would have to take ownership
>>> of that - are you volunteering?  =)
>>>
>>> There's also the issue of blobs that can't be redistributed, which is
>>> AIUI one of the reasons why coreboot doesn't offer compiled firmware.
>>> Additionally, some models (ie, Chomeboxes) require persistence of parts of
>>> the stock firmware in order to maintain their unique ethernet MAC address,
>>> so having users simply download and manually flash a compiled firmware
>>> manually is highly suboptimal.  This is why I implemented the flashing
>>> script (well that, and to provide some basic sanity checks that users
>>> weren't flashing the wrong firmware, had write-protect disabled, etc)
>>>
>>> On Thu, Oct 13, 2016 at 10:14 AM, Emilian Bold <emilian.bold at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I think EoL Chromebooks are a good opportunity for Coreboot to present
>>>> itself to end users.
>>>>
>>>> Right now Chromebooks use Coreboot but nobody knows that.
>>>>
>>>> But once a Chromebook reaches EoL people will either throw it away or
>>>> use it with the insecure and outdated browser version they have until it
>>>> breaks.
>>>>
>>>> People would appreciate that it's possible to keep the device and use a
>>>> modern Linux with up-to-date browser by only installing a dedicated
>>>> Coreboot ROM.
>>>>
>>>> A per-device wiki page would be great! Something to show how to install
>>>> it, etc.
>>>>
>>>> A ROM sha-256 (and a link) is also essential to know what to grab (or
>>>> if your build was good).
>>>>
>>>> I'm actually the one that started the reproducible builds thread last
>>>> time precisely because I could not get the same ROM image as the ones
>>>> posted online and I was wondering what I did wrong and if I would brick my
>>>> laptop or not.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --emi
>>>>
>>>> On Thu, Oct 13, 2016 at 5:53 PM, Matt DeVillier <
>>>> matt.devillier at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Emi,
>>>>>
>>>>> I think this is what you're looking for: https://www.coreboot.org/
>>>>> Supported_Motherboards
>>>>> It contains the commit hash, build config, and a few other logs for
>>>>> each device/commit.  It is user submitted though, since there doesn't exist
>>>>> a test setup for every supported device.
>>>>>
>>>>> Right now, I'm the main builder/distributor of upstream coreboot
>>>>> firmware for ChromeOS devices; I support all Haswell, Broadwell, and some
>>>>> Baytrail devices, the former with both UEFI and Legacy Boot variants. When
>>>>> time permits, I'll expand that to cover the rest of the Baytrail devices,
>>>>> then move on to adding support for Skylake.  No plans for Braswell support
>>>>> unless I acquire a device on which to test.
>>>>>
>>>>> John Lewis has some upstream firmware for the older
>>>>> SandyBridge/IvyBridge models, but his Haswell firmware is build from
>>>>> Google's tree/branches not upstream.  He also has no plans for any future
>>>>> upstream firmware.
>>>>>
>>>>> cheers,
>>>>> Matt
>>>>>
>>>>> On Thu, Oct 13, 2016 at 6:49 AM, Emilian Bold <emilian.bold at gmail.com>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Hello,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Now that Coreboot has reproducible builds, could you provide a list
>>>>>> of build hashes for Chromebooks that are or will soon reach End of Life?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I see on https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/6220366?hl=en that
>>>>>> 2 Chromebooks will reach End of Life in 2016 and 3 more in 2017 then 7 in
>>>>>> 2018. I assume the number will increase each year.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I know that Coreboot does not distribute builds, but the little
>>>>>> Custom roms section on https://www.coreboot.org/users.html seems
>>>>>> insufficient.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> It's easy making a build, you just need to have the certainty you did
>>>>>> it well. Or that the one you are downloading is correct.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Posting an official SHA-256 hash for a ROM would solve this.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> --emi
>>>>>>
>>>>>> --
>>>>>> coreboot mailing list: coreboot at coreboot.org
>>>>>> https://www.coreboot.org/mailman/listinfo/coreboot
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>
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