Libreboot

Libreboot on an x60, Part II: the Installation

Kyle Rankin — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 19:29:27 +0000

In my last article, I introduced the Libreboot project: a free software distribution of coreboot, which is itself an open-source BIOS replacement. I also talked about some of the reasons you may want to run a free software BIOS and discussed some of the associated risks. If you made it through all of that and are ready to flash your BIOS, this article will walk you through the process.

Get Libreboot

Libreboot is available via binary distributions that make it easy to install (which is what I cover below) as well as source code distributions at http://libreboot.org/#releases. To get the latest binary release, go to http://libreboot.org/docs/release.html, and be sure to download both the .xz as well as the corresponding .xv.sig file, such as:

http://libreboot.org/release/20150208/libreboot_bin.tar.xz
http://libreboot.org/release/20150208/libreboot_bin.tar.xz.sig

Once you download the files, use gpg --verify to validate that the signature matches:


$ gpg --verify libreboot_bin.tar.xz.sig libreboot_bin.tar.xz
gpg: Signature made Tue 14 Oct 2014 09:07:32 PM PDT using 
 ↪RSA key ID 656F212E
gpg: Good signature from "Libreboot Releases (signing key)
 ↪"
gpg: WARNING: This key is not certified with a trusted signature!
gpg:          There is no indication that the signature belongs 
 ↪to the owner.
Primary key fingerprint: C923 4BA3 200C F688 9CC0  764D 
 ↪6E97 D575 656F 212E

Note that since I haven't added the Libreboot GPG key to my keyring and trusted it, all it can do here is validate that the signature matches whatever key generated the .sig, not that it's the official Libreboot key. To do that, I would have to go to more effort to download and validate the Libreboot GPG key.

Now that it has been validated, I can use tar to extract it and cd to the libreboot_bin directory:


$ tar xvf libreboot_bin.tar.xz
$ cd libreboot_bin

Pull Down Software Dependencies

There are a number of different libraries and software that this binary release needs on your system to work. Inside the libreboot_bin directory, you will see a deps-trisquel and deps-parabola script to be run as root. If you use a Debian-based distribution, run deps-trisquel, and if you use an Arch Linux-based distribution, run deps-parabola. For other distributions, unfortunately, you will need to use those scripts as a guide for what sorts of libraries and packages you will need to download. In my case, I was running from a Debian-based distribution (inside Tails in fact), so I ran:

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Libreboot on an X60, Part I: the Setup

Kyle Rankin — Mon, 28 Sep 2015 18:01:27 +0000

by Kyle Rankin

Recently I wrote a review for the Linux Journal Web site on the Purism Librem 15 laptop. The goal of this laptop is to provide a piece of modern hardware that can run 100% free software not just for the OS, but also all device drivers and firmware up to and including the BIOS. At the time I'm writing this, the last major sticking point along those lines for the project is the Intel Management Engine: a proprietary piece of firmware that is required to boot up modern systems. In that review, I wrote the following:

It turns out it's rather difficult to have a fully free software laptop. Even if you can pick hardware that can use free software drivers, there's still that pesky BIOS. While coreboot and libreboot are great free software BIOS implementations, to get it on many laptops requires hardware BIOS chip flashing with pomona clips—the kind of thing I wasn't ready to brick a laptop to try. Like other privacy advocates, I turned to the old ThinkPad X60 laptop series. While it's old, underpowered and has a low-res screen by today's standards, the keyboard is great and more important, you could flash its BIOS with coreboot or libreboot from within Linux itself—no hardware hacking required. So that's what I did.

Although the Purism 15 laptop seems to be a viable choice for those who want a free software laptop, at the time of this writing, the crowdfunding campaign is still in process, and even after it completes, it will take some time until they ship. Plus, a new laptop like that doesn't come cheap, and many people who may want a laptop that runs 100% free software may not have $1,600+ to spend on it. I've been able to find used ThinkPad X60 laptops on auction sites as cheap as $30, so if you are willing to live with some of the limitations of hardware that old, it is an inexpensive route to a decent machine that runs only free software.

The first time I attempted to flash an X60 with coreboot, it was one of the more difficult things I'd done with Linux to the point that I wasn't ever planning on writing it up in Linux Journal. More recently, I tried again, only this time with Libreboot—a coreboot BIOS distribution that has all of the proprietary software removed. The process was greatly simplified and automated to the point where I feel relatively comfortable recommending others try it (with a few caveats I'll explain later).

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Libreboot on an X60, Part III: Modify the Boot Menu

Kyle Rankin — Fri, 01 May 2015 05:00:00 +0000

by Kyle Rankin

In the first article of this series, I explained the fundamentals behind the Libreboot free software BIOS project and why you might want to replace your BIOS with it. I followed up by describing how to install Libreboot on a ThinkPad X60. In this final article of the series, I explain how to perform one major task that so far I've left unexplained: how to modify the default GRUB boot menu.

A traditional BIOS provides users with a configuration menu where they can change boot orders and enable and disable devices. Typically there is an assigned key on the keyboard (Esc, F11 and F12 are common), so that you can select your boot device instead of going with the default order. With Libreboot, all of the device settings are set inside the ROM itself, and you use a GRUB menu to select a boot device.

The existing GRUB menu provides a number of common boot options that hopefully should work on your system. The default menu item attempts to boot off the first partition, and after that, there are options to boot removable devices and finally an option to search for and load any local GRUB configuration that might be on a hard drive. Ideally this default menu would be sufficient, but there are some cases (such as booting the Tails USB disk) that might require some tweaks.

On the one hand, if you are familiar with GRUB commands, you can boot more less any device you want on the fly with the right incantation. On the other hand, it can be a pain to type in GRUB commands every time you want to boot something, so if you find yourself tweaking the default menu items to boot a special device, you probably will want to modify the GRUB menu more permanently.

What I suggest is that you experiment with sample GRUB configuration changes directly from the GRUB boot menu, because it allows you to edit the configuration of any menu item directly. This way, you quickly can test any sample changes without having to go through the full process of writing to and flashing a new ROM. Once you know what changes you'd like to make, you are ready to move on to make them permanent.

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