Libreboot Now Supports The Chromebook C201

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Libreboot Now Supports The Chromebook C201

There hasn't been much modern hardware supported by Libreboot, the downstream of Coreboot that eliminates all binary blobs to be fully free software, but now the ASUS Chromebook C201 is supported by Libreboot...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Libreboot-Chromebook-C201

[My8th]

Every bit of progress is good progress. Modern hardware doesn't stay modern forever it'll be supported too soon enough.

[Adarion]

Show text messages of a POST process instead of useless bitmaps. That alone is worth it.

[rrohbeck]

This is promising. If somebody built a full-blown laptop based on this HW and we had DRM/KMS/Mesa support this would be the ideal machine for me.

[stiiixy]

When it comes to the Mali chip, that laptop has a pretty high end one seemingly (Mali T764). Is there a full open source driver for it? I couldn't find any and the lima driver is for older hardware. This is an interesting device if it supports libreboot and an open display driver. And possibly upgrading the 'SSD' if it's not soldered to the board.

[chithanh]

For the graphics there is only open source modesetting support, everything else is closed. (And none of it concerns libreboot)

[coder111]

Hmm, for one, I hate laptops with 1024x768 resolutions. Comeon, it's 2015, we should be running 1920x1080 at least! Or 1600x1200 or 1920x1200 would be preferable but I've lost hope of getting anything that isn't 16:9 aspect ratio...

Currently the only Chromebook I know of that has a nicer screen is Toshiba one.

Regarding open-source Mali GPU drivers- there is http://limadriver.org/, but latest news are from 2013. It doesn't look good...

[andrei_me]

When it comes to the Mali chip, that laptop has a pretty high end one seemingly (Mali T764). Is there a full open source driver for it? I couldn't find any and the lima driver is for older hardware.

For Mali T, the driver is named Tamil, it was being developed by Luc Verhaegen, but the code wasn't in a state where he felt confortable to open source it.
You can read his blog here: http://libv.livejournal.com/

[stiiixy]

For Mali T, the driver is named Tamil, it was being developed by Luc Verhaegen, but the code wasn't in a state where he felt confortable to open source it.
You can read his blog here: http://libv.livejournal.com/

Wow, poor bastard. I remember wishing that project well towards success when it was proposed. I know EXACTLY how he feels.

And my personal misgiving's about Red Hat are being more solidified the more I read about people's experiences.