[coreboot] Minifree Libreboot D16 server/workstation launched

[Timothy Pearson]

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On 01/08/2017 09:27 AM, Taiidan at gmx.com wrote:
> On 01/08/2017 08:12 AM, Paul Kocialkowski wrote:
> 
>> Le samedi 07 janvier 2017 à 22:14 -0500, Taiidan at gmx.com a écrit :
>>> Ah thanks for the info, I had thought all IBM POWER8 systems had open
>>> firmware :(
>>> So to confirm, the more reasonably priced S812LC for 4.8K doesn't have
>>> it? What a shame.
>> The S812LC (codename Habanero) has OpenPOWER support but doesn't have
>> OpenBMC
>> support yet, so you can boot the CPU(s) with free software but the BMC
>> can only
>> use the non-free system it has preinstalled sofar.
>>
>> It's not impossible that Habanero support gets added to OpenBMC in the
>> future,
>> but it's hard to say when and if it's going to happen.
>>
>> Cheers,
> I see.
> I had assumed the difference between both was simply corporate style
> marketing or a different CPU/ram and that IBM had simply opened its own
> firmware rather than making new firmware (why not....weird)

IBM licensed its original BMC firmware from a third party and was unable
to release it as a result.  IBM concurrently brought up a libre BMC
firmware, but this libre firmware is still not functional when combined
with the libre system firmware on any other machine than Palmetto.  We
have been working off and on to restore functionality, and have put in a
sizeable amount of effort on the S822LC BMC to the point where you can
use a libre BMC firmware with the proprietary IBM firmware or vice
versa, but not both together; fixing this is a medium-low priority task
here but we have not had a chance to work on it for the past several months.

> Is it possible to use it without the BMC by installing a graphics card
> or using a serial port? Can it initialize graphics attached to a VM or
> bare metal?

No!  The BMC is critical to system initialization on OpenPOWER systems;
there is no way whatsoever to bypass it, and it sits at a sufficiently
high privilege level to make use with the proprietary firmware just
about as insecure as using a stock UEFI network-enabled firmware on x86.

> Paul, how do you feel about IBM's customer service? for that much money
> they had better deliver a native english speaking staff who knows what
> they're doing.

We've primarily had contact with the design teams, so I cannot directly
comment on this.  I will say that IBM takes issues with the systems
quite seriously at least on the business side of things.

- -- 
Timothy Pearson
Raptor Engineering
+1 (415) 727-8645 (direct line)
+1 (512) 690-0200 (switchboard)
https://www.raptorengineering.com
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