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FYI <br /><br />Nicolas Maia<br />
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Enviado seguramente pelo Tutanota. Torne sua caixa de correio criptografada hoje mesmo!
<a href="https://tutanota.com" target="_blank">https://tutanota.com</a><br /><br />Data: 20. Abr 2016 10:34<br />De: <a href="mailto:contact@paulk.fr" target="_blank">contact@paulk.fr</a><br />Para: <a href="mailto:daniel.tarrero@bluebrain.es" target="_blank">daniel.tarrero@bluebrain.es</a>, <a href="mailto:libreboot@nongnu.org" target="_blank">libreboot@nongnu.org</a><br />Assunto: Re: [Libreboot] Operating System for Asus C201<br /><br /><blockquote class="tutanota_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid #93A3B8; padding-left: 10px; margin-left: 5px;">Hey there, I'll respond to the various concerns and questions raised in this<br />thread, in no particular order. First off, I'm glad to see such interest for the<br />C201 Libreboot port!<br /><br />At this point, there are no distributions following the GNU Free System<br />Distribution Guidelines (GNU FSDG) that support the C201 out of the box. The<br />first problem is that it's an ARM machine, and most GNU FSDG-compliant<br />distributions don't support ARM. Only Parabola has ARM support at this point.<br />Some work would be needed to write up instructions regarding how to install<br />Parabola on the C201. This is something I have been meaning to do, but couldn't<br />find the time to do it yet. However, writing instructions is not all that is<br />required. The device needs a kernel with specific drives for its hardware, that<br />are not integrated into Linus Torvald's version of Linux, the upstream Linux<br />kernel.<br /><br />Instead, CrOS systems use a downstream version of Linux, with changes for<br />hardware support. The source code for it is available as part of the ChromiumOS<br />project and it can be rebuilt from source. Until the upstream kernel is ready,<br />this downstream kernel is the best candidate to get a working free system on the<br />device.<br /><br />One might be concerned about what comes with it, since it is a modified version<br />of the upstream kernel. I am not aware of any addition that would conflict with<br />users' privacy and security, but I have not checked extensively. Note that the<br />firmwares for Wi-Fi are not part of the kernel, but are out of the tree, as far<br />as I recall. Thus, this kernel could be deblobbed and packaged in Parabola, to<br />make the installation easier.<br /><br />Note that the kernel must be wrapped in a particular image format for the<br />Depthcharge payload. This is to allow signature verification, a crucial security<br />feature. I do not intend to support anything else than Depthcharge in Libreboot<br />at this point. Actually, I think it is quite elegant and gets the job done<br />nicely.<br /><br />Regarding my own setup, I have been using the device with Fedora since Debian<br />doesn't ship with llvmpipe (required for decent CPU-based graphics<br />acceleration). Either way, once the kernel is ready, any GNU/Linux system that<br />has ARM support can be used on the device, with little adaptation needed in<br />userspace. I will write up instructions for these systems too, probably on my<br />personal blog.<br /><br />I am not using the internal Wi-Fi chip, that requires a proprietary firmware,<br />but use an ath9k_htc USB dongle instead. I enabled that module when building the<br />kernel and it works normally.<br /><br />Aside from documenting the installation of GNU FSDG-approved systems and others<br />and improving the state of the Libreboot port (especially regarding the support<br />of security features), I'd also like to contribute to C201 support to the<br />upstream Linux kernel. Alas, Libreboot is not the only project I'm contributing<br />to, far from it, and all of that takes time, especially when it all happens on<br />spare time.<br /><br />Cheers!<br />-- <br />Paul Kocialkowski, low-level free software developer on embedded devices<br /><br />Website: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.paulk.fr/">https://www.paulk.fr</a><br />Coding blog: <a target="_blank" href="https://code.paulk.fr/">https://code.paulk.fr</a><br />Git repositories: <a target="_blank" href="https://git.paulk.fr/">https://git.paulk.fr</a> <a target="_blank" href="https://git.code.paulk.fr/">https://git.code.paulk.fr</a></blockquote> </body>
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