Coreboot 4.15 Released With New System76 Laptops, More ASUS Motherboards

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Coreboot 4.15 Released With New System76 Laptops, More ASUS Motherboards

Coreboot 4.15 was tagged today as the latest advertised version of this open-source firmware implementation for systems. With this new version are 21 additional laptops and motherboards supported...

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Coreboot-4.15

[vw_fan17]

I actually have a P8Z77-V board! Now, what can one do with this?

[Developer12]

I saw on the list that a new Lenovo workstation-class thinkpad had been added. I'm a little disappointed that it's Haswell generation (no native blob-free ram init) but I'd be very interested to know if it supports ECC.

On the subject of Haswell ram init though, It seem like there was a past attempt at it [1]. One would think that with the arguments on the Coreboot mailing list over blobs the last couple of day, they might afford a modicum of focus to finishing that support if they can.

[1] https://code.georgi.software/coreboo...b9c431615e2039

[pWe00Iri3e7Z9lHOX2Qx]

I saw on the list that a new Lenovo workstation-class thinkpad had been added. I'm a little disappointed that it's Haswell generation (no native blob-free ram init) but I'd be very interested to know if it supports ECC.

On the subject of Haswell ram init though, It seem like there was a past attempt at it [1]. One would think that with the arguments on the Coreboot mailing list over blobs the last couple of day, they might afford a modicum of focus to finishing that support if they can.

[1] https://code.georgi.software/coreboo...b9c431615e2039

I don't think any of the available processors for that model support ECC.

Intel Core i7-4710MQ Processor Intel Core i7-4810MQ Processor
Intel Core i7-4910MQ Processor
Intel Core i7-4940MX Processor Extreme Edition

[Developer12]

I don't think any of the available processors for that model support ECC.

Intel Core i7-4710MQ Processor Intel Core i7-4810MQ Processor
Intel Core i7-4910MQ Processor
Intel Core i7-4940MX Processor Extreme Edition

Is it socketed? Rarely if ever will an intel consumer CPU support ECC, but it's probably possible to drop in a xeon from the same generation.

Of course, it's still a question of whether the eight (or so) little wires for ECC are hooked up between the CPU socket and the ram DIMMs (you'd have to track down the motherboard schematic from china and check). I also don't know if the MRC.bin used by coreboot on Haswell can support ECC.

[pgeorgi]

they might afford a modicum of focus to finishing that support if they can.

Patches welcome.

[Developer12]

Patches welcome.

Incidentally, I sent an email yesterday asking what happened to some of the previous work I dug up. I don't have much hope of being able to undertake it (I know jack squat about DDR4 PHYs, even after my time verifying them) but the first step is to know what you're working with.

[lacek]

I actually have a P8Z77-V board! Now, what can one do with this?

You can flash it with coreboot and continue to use if. I suppose in certain situations you won't have to wear the aluminium foil hat, which is awesome. That aluminium was really uncomfortable while sleeping.

[vw_fan17]

You can flash it with coreboot and continue to use if. I suppose in certain situations you won't have to wear the aluminium foil hat, which is awesome. That aluminium was really uncomfortable while sleeping.

That's kind of what I figured.. I don't use it much now, it's a "play around" machine. Would it have better overclocking stability? Could never get the board to overclock my 3570k reliably..

[lacek]

That's kind of what I figured.. I don't use it much now, it's a "play around" machine. Would it have better overclocking stability? Could never get the board to overclock my 3570k reliably..

This is of course possible in general, but it is not the focus of the coreboot community. Better power management, faster boot, "lightweightness", fixing bios bugs (which there are plenty), and disabling IME and AMD's equivalent are the thing coreboot people emphasize.
Sometimes bios at certain version drops support for some hardware - this can be in principle remedied, better support for virtualization (like IOMMUs) etc.