System76 Will Begin Disabling Intel ME In Their Linux Laptops

[phoronix]

Phoronix: System76 Will Begin Disabling Intel ME In Their Linux Laptops

Following the recent Intel Management Engine (ME) vulnerabilities combined with some engineering work the past few months on their end, System76 will begin disabling ME on their laptops...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=System76-Disable-ME-Laptop

[mmstick]

I wish they'd release laptops with AMD hardware inside. I'll never purchase a System76 laptop for as long as they continue to be Intel-exclusive.

[Brophen]

I wish they'd release laptops with AMD hardware inside. I'll never purchase a System76 laptop for as long as they continue to be Intel-exclusive.

Doesn't AMD have something like Intel ME? Maybe System76 can start making their own ARM chips (or better yet Risc-V)

[Almindor]

I wish they'd release laptops with AMD hardware inside. I'll never purchase a System76 laptop for as long as they continue to be Intel-exclusive.

AMD is worse with a full ARM mobile-style chip inside. They both have to fulfil the same requirements set by the NSA.

[torsionbar28]

AMD is worse with a full ARM mobile-style chip inside. They both have to fulfil the same requirements set by the NSA.

Both implementations are an NSA back door, but intel's is the one with the critical vulnerability making it a backdoor for literally anyone. Calling AMD's "worse" is silly in this context.

[Almindor]

Both implementations are an NSA back door, but intel's is the one with the critical vulnerability making it a backdoor for literally anyone. Calling AMD's "worse" is silly in this context.

It's "worse" in that it allows more freedom. AFAICS Intel's ME is more limited in what it can do and access than AMD's PSP but I might be wrong. Either way the situation is "we're fucked"

[Guest]

Doesn't AMD have something like Intel ME?

If I understand right, AMD's PSP thing is only in the relatively newer chips (Ryzen? maybe also in a newer revision of Bulldozer). So I guess as long as the systems aren't using the newest-of-the-new processors/chipsets from AMD currently, PSP can be avoided. I can't speak for anyone else, but I'd have no problem going back to the FX-8350 I had if I built a desktop again, and iirc, Piledriver doesn't have PSP.

Intel on the other hand, you'd have to go back pretty far to avoid it (Pentium 4?), and obviously this wouldn't be ideal. Being able to (unofficially) disable it is nice, but I wouldn't be surprised to see that bit gone or changed in future ME firmware updates, and wouldn't be too surprised if Intel tried pulling an NVIDIA (PhysX reverse gravity) and causing a bit of "unintentional issues" with that bit set.

Edit: If what I'm reading is right, it seems like Jaguar and Zen platforms have PSP, but all of Bulldozer (including Piledriver) is free of it.

[torsionbar28]

It's "worse" in that it allows more freedom.

Is this fact? Or speculation? What does the AMD implementation do that the intel implementation does not?

AFAICS Intel's ME is more limited in what it can do and access than AMD's PSP but I might be wrong. Either way the situation is "we're fucked"

Not really. The me_cleaner tool works very well. Also with AMD, you have the advantage of being able to use relatively recent hardware (2012) that has no PSP whatsoever. The Opteron 4300 and 6300 (and equivalent FX series consumer chips) are not cutting edge by today's standards but are perfectly capable machines still. I have an eight-core 3.1 Ghz Opteron 4386 with 32 GB of Reg ECC DDR3 and an Rx 480 card running on my desk right now, I sure won't be getting rid of it any time soon.

The same cannot be said for the newest non-PSP hardware from intel, which is circa 2007, ancient junk at this point.

[horizonbrave]

I wish they'd release laptops with AMD hardware inside. I'll never purchase a System76 laptop for as long as they continue to be Intel-exclusive.

what's your problem?? they also provide fully linux-friendly Nvidia hardware.. you must be joking not to like them!

[horizonbrave]

Edit: If what I'm reading is right, it seems like Jaguar and Zen platforms have PSP, but all of Bulldozer (including Piledriver) is free of it.

Yes it would be nice to know