<feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom'>
<title>lbmk.git/config/coreboot/w541_12mb, branch quackboot</title>
<subtitle>libreboot build system (LibreBoot MaKe)
</subtitle>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://browse.libreboot.org/lbmk.git/'/>
<entry>
<title>coreboot: set build_depend on target.cfg files</title>
<updated>2024-07-06T10:34:27+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Leah Rowe</name>
<email>leah@libreboot.org</email>
</author>
<published>2024-07-06T05:34:24+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://browse.libreboot.org/lbmk.git/commit/?id=c241a3ef485fcfde06f60abaf7e16bc5c549e53b'/>
<id>c241a3ef485fcfde06f60abaf7e16bc5c549e53b</id>
<content type='text'>
set a default one in mkhelper.cfg

Signed-off-by: Leah Rowe &lt;leah@libreboot.org&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
set a default one in mkhelper.cfg

Signed-off-by: Leah Rowe &lt;leah@libreboot.org&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>roms: only support SeaBIOS/SeaGRUB on x86</title>
<updated>2024-06-22T21:57:39+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Leah Rowe</name>
<email>leah@libreboot.org</email>
</author>
<published>2024-06-22T21:57:39+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://browse.libreboot.org/lbmk.git/commit/?id=e67cd17164fd1934cd908b1f281867fac1cd73ae'/>
<id>e67cd17164fd1934cd908b1f281867fac1cd73ae</id>
<content type='text'>
Never, ever build images where GRUB is the primary payload.

These options have been removed from target.cfg handling:

* seabios_withgrub
* grub_withseabios

The "payload_grub" variable now does the same thing as
the old "seabios_withgrub" variable, if set.

The "grubonly" configuration is retained, and enabled by
default when SeaGRUB is enabled (non-grubonly also available).

Due to lbmk issue #216, it is no longer Libreboot policy to
make GRUB the primary payload on any board. GRUB's sheer size
and complexity, plus the large number of memory corruption issues
similar to it that *have* been fixed over the years, tells me
that GRUB is a liability when it is the primary payload.

SeaBIOS is a much safer payload to run as primary, on x86, due
to its smaller size and much more conservative development; it
is simply far less likely to break.

If GRUB breaks in the future, the user's machine is not
bricked. This is because SeaBIOS is the default payload.

Since I no longer wish to ever provide GRUB as a primary
payload, supporting it in lbmk adds needless bloat that
will later probably break anyway due to lack of testing,
so let's just assume SeaGRUB in all cases where the user
wants to use a GRUB payload.

You can mitigate potential security issues with SeaBIOS
by disabling option ROM execution, which can be done at
runtime by inserting integers into CBFS. The SeaBIOS
documentation says how to do this.

Libreboot's GRUB hardening guide still says how to add
a bootorder file in CBFS, making SeaBIOS only load GRUB
from CBFS, and nothing else. This, combined with the
disablement of option ROM execution (if using Intel
graphics), pretty much provides the same security benefits
as GRUB-as-primary, for example when setting a GRUB password
and GPG checks, with encrypted /boot as in the hardening guide.

Signed-off-by: Leah Rowe &lt;leah@libreboot.org&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
Never, ever build images where GRUB is the primary payload.

These options have been removed from target.cfg handling:

* seabios_withgrub
* grub_withseabios

The "payload_grub" variable now does the same thing as
the old "seabios_withgrub" variable, if set.

The "grubonly" configuration is retained, and enabled by
default when SeaGRUB is enabled (non-grubonly also available).

Due to lbmk issue #216, it is no longer Libreboot policy to
make GRUB the primary payload on any board. GRUB's sheer size
and complexity, plus the large number of memory corruption issues
similar to it that *have* been fixed over the years, tells me
that GRUB is a liability when it is the primary payload.

SeaBIOS is a much safer payload to run as primary, on x86, due
to its smaller size and much more conservative development; it
is simply far less likely to break.

If GRUB breaks in the future, the user's machine is not
bricked. This is because SeaBIOS is the default payload.

Since I no longer wish to ever provide GRUB as a primary
payload, supporting it in lbmk adds needless bloat that
will later probably break anyway due to lack of testing,
so let's just assume SeaGRUB in all cases where the user
wants to use a GRUB payload.

You can mitigate potential security issues with SeaBIOS
by disabling option ROM execution, which can be done at
runtime by inserting integers into CBFS. The SeaBIOS
documentation says how to do this.

Libreboot's GRUB hardening guide still says how to add
a bootorder file in CBFS, making SeaBIOS only load GRUB
from CBFS, and nothing else. This, combined with the
disablement of option ROM execution (if using Intel
graphics), pretty much provides the same security benefits
as GRUB-as-primary, for example when setting a GRUB password
and GPG checks, with encrypted /boot as in the hardening guide.

Signed-off-by: Leah Rowe &lt;leah@libreboot.org&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>lib.sh: more unified config handling</title>
<updated>2024-06-22T12:44:27+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Leah Rowe</name>
<email>leah@libreboot.org</email>
</author>
<published>2024-06-22T01:35:25+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://browse.libreboot.org/lbmk.git/commit/?id=fc7ae3e5903c176584cfefd6d3cf4c1549c4eaaa'/>
<id>fc7ae3e5903c176584cfefd6d3cf4c1549c4eaaa</id>
<content type='text'>
replace it with logic that simply uses "." to load
files directly. for this, "vcfg" is added as a variable
in coreboot target.cfg files, referring to a directory
in config/vendor/ containing a file named pkg.cfg, and
this file then contains the same variables as the
erstwhile config/vendor/sources

config/git files are now directories, also containing
pkg.cfg files each with the same variables as before,
such as repository link and commit hash

this change results in a noticeable reduction in code
complexity within the build system.

unified reading of config files: new function setcfg()
added to lib.sh

setcfg checks if a config exists. if a 2nd argument is
passed, it is used as a return value for eval, otherwise
a string calling err is passed. setcfg output is passed
through eval, to set strings based on config; eval must
be used, so that the variables are set within the same
scope, otherwise they'd be set within setcfg which could
lead to some whacky results.

there's still a bit more more to do, but this single change
results in a substantial reduction in code complexity.

Signed-off-by: Leah Rowe &lt;leah@libreboot.org&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
replace it with logic that simply uses "." to load
files directly. for this, "vcfg" is added as a variable
in coreboot target.cfg files, referring to a directory
in config/vendor/ containing a file named pkg.cfg, and
this file then contains the same variables as the
erstwhile config/vendor/sources

config/git files are now directories, also containing
pkg.cfg files each with the same variables as before,
such as repository link and commit hash

this change results in a noticeable reduction in code
complexity within the build system.

unified reading of config files: new function setcfg()
added to lib.sh

setcfg checks if a config exists. if a 2nd argument is
passed, it is used as a return value for eval, otherwise
a string calling err is passed. setcfg output is passed
through eval, to set strings based on config; eval must
be used, so that the variables are set within the same
scope, otherwise they'd be set within setcfg which could
lead to some whacky results.

there's still a bit more more to do, but this single change
results in a substantial reduction in code complexity.

Signed-off-by: Leah Rowe &lt;leah@libreboot.org&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>make GRUB multi-tree and re-add xhci patches</title>
<updated>2024-06-02T18:58:50+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Leah Rowe</name>
<email>leah@libreboot.org</email>
</author>
<published>2024-06-01T22:01:30+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://browse.libreboot.org/lbmk.git/commit/?id=429e91f90894d30bc2c6e165d6f2a743c61b76f3'/>
<id>429e91f90894d30bc2c6e165d6f2a743c61b76f3</id>
<content type='text'>
Re-add xHCI only on haswell and broadwell machines, where
they are needed. Otherwise, keep the same GRUB code.

The xHCI patches were removed because they caused issues
on Sandybridge-based Dell Latitude laptops. See:
https://codeberg.org/libreboot/lbmk/issues/216

The issue was not reported elsewhere, including on the
Haswell/Broadwell hardware where they are needed, but the
build system could only build one version of GRUB.

The older machines do not need xHCI patches, because they
either do not have xHCI patches, or work (in GRUB) because
they're in EHCI mode when running the payload.

So, the problem is that we need the xHCI patches for GRUB
on Haswell/Broadwell hardware, but the patches break
Sandybridge hardware, and we only had the one build of GRUB.
To mitigate this problem, the build system now supports
building multiple revisions of GRUB, with different patches,
and each given coreboot target can say which GRUB tree to use
by setting this in target.cfg:

grubtree="xhci"

In the above example, the "xhci" tree would be used. Some
generic GRUB config has been moved to config/data/grub/
and config/grub/ now looks like config/coreboot/ - also,
the grub.cfg file (named "payload" in each tree) is copied
to the GRUB source tree as ".config", then added to GRUB's
memdisk in the same way, as grub.cfg.

Several other design changes had to be made because of this:

* grub.cfg in memdisk no longer automatically jumps to one
  in CBFS, but now shows a menuentry for it if available

* Certain commands in script/trees are disabled for GRUB,
  such as *config make commands.

* gnulib is now defined in config/submodule/grub/, instead
  of config/git/grub - and this mitigates an existing bug
  where downloading gnulib first would make grub no longer
  possible to download in lbmk.

The coreboot option CONFIG_FINALIZE_USB_ROUTE_XHCI has been
re-enabled on: Dell OptiPlex 9020 MT, Dell OptiPlex 9020 SFF,
Lenovo ThinkPad T440p and Lenovo ThinkPad W541 - now USB should
work again in GRUB.

The GRUB payload has been re-enabled on HP EliteBook 820 G2.

This change will enable per-board GRUB optimisation in the
future. For example, we hardcode what partitions and LVMs
GRUB scans because * is slow on ICH7-based machines, due
to GRUB's design. On other machines, * is reasonably fast,
for automatically enumerating the list of devices for boot.

Use of * (and other wildcards) could enable our GRUB payload
to automatically boot more distros, with minimal fuss. This
can be done at a later date, in subsequent revisions.

Signed-off-by: Leah Rowe &lt;leah@libreboot.org&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
Re-add xHCI only on haswell and broadwell machines, where
they are needed. Otherwise, keep the same GRUB code.

The xHCI patches were removed because they caused issues
on Sandybridge-based Dell Latitude laptops. See:
https://codeberg.org/libreboot/lbmk/issues/216

The issue was not reported elsewhere, including on the
Haswell/Broadwell hardware where they are needed, but the
build system could only build one version of GRUB.

The older machines do not need xHCI patches, because they
either do not have xHCI patches, or work (in GRUB) because
they're in EHCI mode when running the payload.

So, the problem is that we need the xHCI patches for GRUB
on Haswell/Broadwell hardware, but the patches break
Sandybridge hardware, and we only had the one build of GRUB.
To mitigate this problem, the build system now supports
building multiple revisions of GRUB, with different patches,
and each given coreboot target can say which GRUB tree to use
by setting this in target.cfg:

grubtree="xhci"

In the above example, the "xhci" tree would be used. Some
generic GRUB config has been moved to config/data/grub/
and config/grub/ now looks like config/coreboot/ - also,
the grub.cfg file (named "payload" in each tree) is copied
to the GRUB source tree as ".config", then added to GRUB's
memdisk in the same way, as grub.cfg.

Several other design changes had to be made because of this:

* grub.cfg in memdisk no longer automatically jumps to one
  in CBFS, but now shows a menuentry for it if available

* Certain commands in script/trees are disabled for GRUB,
  such as *config make commands.

* gnulib is now defined in config/submodule/grub/, instead
  of config/git/grub - and this mitigates an existing bug
  where downloading gnulib first would make grub no longer
  possible to download in lbmk.

The coreboot option CONFIG_FINALIZE_USB_ROUTE_XHCI has been
re-enabled on: Dell OptiPlex 9020 MT, Dell OptiPlex 9020 SFF,
Lenovo ThinkPad T440p and Lenovo ThinkPad W541 - now USB should
work again in GRUB.

The GRUB payload has been re-enabled on HP EliteBook 820 G2.

This change will enable per-board GRUB optimisation in the
future. For example, we hardcode what partitions and LVMs
GRUB scans because * is slow on ICH7-based machines, due
to GRUB's design. On other machines, * is reasonably fast,
for automatically enumerating the list of devices for boot.

Use of * (and other wildcards) could enable our GRUB payload
to automatically boot more distros, with minimal fuss. This
can be done at a later date, in subsequent revisions.

Signed-off-by: Leah Rowe &lt;leah@libreboot.org&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>coreboot t440p/w541: enable nvme in grub_scan_disk</title>
<updated>2024-05-29T22:42:48+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Leah Rowe</name>
<email>leah@libreboot.org</email>
</author>
<published>2024-05-29T22:42:48+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://browse.libreboot.org/lbmk.git/commit/?id=7fbcb7be95eb5bed42f0656015228352aa0882af'/>
<id>7fbcb7be95eb5bed42f0656015228352aa0882af</id>
<content type='text'>
these laptops do not officially have nvme slots on them,
but there is an ngff wifi slot which is PCI-E x1, and you
can use a special adapter on it to run nvme ssds.

total throughput is retarded by the x1 PCI-E configuration,
but it's still faster than a sata ssd (nvmes are x4 PCI-E).

support it in grub_scan_disk on the off chance that some
users may make use of this. it should work just fine.

Signed-off-by: Leah Rowe &lt;leah@libreboot.org&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
these laptops do not officially have nvme slots on them,
but there is an ngff wifi slot which is PCI-E x1, and you
can use a special adapter on it to run nvme ssds.

total throughput is retarded by the x1 PCI-E configuration,
but it's still faster than a sata ssd (nvmes are x4 PCI-E).

support it in grub_scan_disk on the off chance that some
users may make use of this. it should work just fine.

Signed-off-by: Leah Rowe &lt;leah@libreboot.org&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>re-configure grub_scan_disk on various targets</title>
<updated>2024-05-27T20:33:53+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Leah Rowe</name>
<email>leah@libreboot.org</email>
</author>
<published>2024-05-27T20:33:53+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://browse.libreboot.org/lbmk.git/commit/?id=3998a3ba4857c92cc44782cab39a59da1eb59374'/>
<id>3998a3ba4857c92cc44782cab39a59da1eb59374</id>
<content type='text'>
Signed-off-by: Leah Rowe &lt;leah@libreboot.org&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
Signed-off-by: Leah Rowe &lt;leah@libreboot.org&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>remove grub_scan_disk in all target.cfg files</title>
<updated>2024-05-27T19:41:11+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Leah Rowe</name>
<email>leah@libreboot.org</email>
</author>
<published>2024-05-27T19:41:11+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://browse.libreboot.org/lbmk.git/commit/?id=1c4d649848db6d015298e383c50293fca3fd3840'/>
<id>1c4d649848db6d015298e383c50293fca3fd3840</id>
<content type='text'>
A subsequest revision will set them again as needed,
per coreboot target.

Signed-off-by: Leah Rowe &lt;leah@libreboot.org&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
A subsequest revision will set them again as needed,
per coreboot target.

Signed-off-by: Leah Rowe &lt;leah@libreboot.org&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>GRUB: remove XHCI patches for now (will re-add)</title>
<updated>2024-05-27T16:11:33+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Leah Rowe</name>
<email>leah@libreboot.org</email>
</author>
<published>2024-05-27T14:36:27+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://browse.libreboot.org/lbmk.git/commit/?id=c94cecd83751d2df26314a90852f7df306256fb0'/>
<id>c94cecd83751d2df26314a90852f7df306256fb0</id>
<content type='text'>
Fixes this bug:
https://codeberg.org/libreboot/lbmk/issues/216

Well, fix is the wrong word. We want xHCI ideally.

Mate is working on it as I write this. I've also:

* Disabled CONFIG_FINALIZE_USB_ROUTE_XHCI on Haswell
  boards (coreboot)
* Disabled the GRUB payload on HP 820 G2 for now

We will need to re-add the xHCI patches once fixed.
If Mate/we can't fix it, I'll contact Patrick
Rudolph who originally wrote the xHCI patches.

Signed-off-by: Leah Rowe &lt;leah@libreboot.org&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
Fixes this bug:
https://codeberg.org/libreboot/lbmk/issues/216

Well, fix is the wrong word. We want xHCI ideally.

Mate is working on it as I write this. I've also:

* Disabled CONFIG_FINALIZE_USB_ROUTE_XHCI on Haswell
  boards (coreboot)
* Disabled the GRUB payload on HP 820 G2 for now

We will need to re-add the xHCI patches once fixed.
If Mate/we can't fix it, I'll contact Patrick
Rudolph who originally wrote the xHCI patches.

Signed-off-by: Leah Rowe &lt;leah@libreboot.org&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>coreboot: only run GRUB as a secondary payload</title>
<updated>2024-05-27T13:24:26+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Leah Rowe</name>
<email>leah@libreboot.org</email>
</author>
<published>2024-05-27T13:24:26+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://browse.libreboot.org/lbmk.git/commit/?id=ec761c88f213171a50daa187c9e884e39cfdad8f'/>
<id>ec761c88f213171a50daa187c9e884e39cfdad8f</id>
<content type='text'>
See:
https://codeberg.org/libreboot/lbmk/issues/216

Almost all users will be OK running GRUB, but a
minority of users have experienced a fatal error
pertaining to grub_free() or grub_realloc() (as
my investigation of GRUB sources reveal when grepping
the error reported in the link above).

We don't yet know what the bug is, only that the
error occurs, leading to an effective brick if the
user has GRUB as their primary payload.

So far, it has only been reported on some Intel
SandyBridge-based Dell Latitudes in Libreboot, but
we can't be too sure.

The user reported that memtest86+ passes just fine,
and SeaBIOS works; BIOS GRUB also works, which means
that the bug is likely only in an area of GRUB that
runs specifically on the coreboot payload, so it's
probably a driver in GRUB when running on the metal
rather than BIOS/UEFI.

The build system supports a configuration whereby
SeaBIOS is the primary payload, but GRUB is available
in the SeaBIOS boot select menu, and an additional
configuration is available where GRUB is what SeaBIOS
executes first (while still providing boot select);
both of these are now the *only* configurations
available, on all x86 targets except QEMU.

The QEMU target is fine because if the bug occurs there,
you can just close QEMU and try a different image.

Even after this bug is later identified and fixed,
the GRUB source code is vastly over-engineered and there
are likely many more such bugs. SeaBIOS is a reliable
payload; the code is small and robust. Remember always:

Code

equals

bugs

Therefore, this configuration change is likely going
to be permanent. This will apply in the next release.

Signed-off-by: Leah Rowe &lt;leah@libreboot.org&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
See:
https://codeberg.org/libreboot/lbmk/issues/216

Almost all users will be OK running GRUB, but a
minority of users have experienced a fatal error
pertaining to grub_free() or grub_realloc() (as
my investigation of GRUB sources reveal when grepping
the error reported in the link above).

We don't yet know what the bug is, only that the
error occurs, leading to an effective brick if the
user has GRUB as their primary payload.

So far, it has only been reported on some Intel
SandyBridge-based Dell Latitudes in Libreboot, but
we can't be too sure.

The user reported that memtest86+ passes just fine,
and SeaBIOS works; BIOS GRUB also works, which means
that the bug is likely only in an area of GRUB that
runs specifically on the coreboot payload, so it's
probably a driver in GRUB when running on the metal
rather than BIOS/UEFI.

The build system supports a configuration whereby
SeaBIOS is the primary payload, but GRUB is available
in the SeaBIOS boot select menu, and an additional
configuration is available where GRUB is what SeaBIOS
executes first (while still providing boot select);
both of these are now the *only* configurations
available, on all x86 targets except QEMU.

The QEMU target is fine because if the bug occurs there,
you can just close QEMU and try a different image.

Even after this bug is later identified and fixed,
the GRUB source code is vastly over-engineered and there
are likely many more such bugs. SeaBIOS is a reliable
payload; the code is small and robust. Remember always:

Code

equals

bugs

Therefore, this configuration change is likely going
to be permanent. This will apply in the next release.

Signed-off-by: Leah Rowe &lt;leah@libreboot.org&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>remove all status checks. only handle release.</title>
<updated>2024-05-11T17:53:12+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Leah Rowe</name>
<email>leah@libreboot.org</email>
</author>
<published>2024-05-11T17:53:12+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://browse.libreboot.org/lbmk.git/commit/?id=05fbd392982344cf8f6743a59ba3817ab2771704'/>
<id>05fbd392982344cf8f6743a59ba3817ab2771704</id>
<content type='text'>
the release variable is all we need, turning a target on
or off for a given release.

the status checks were prone to bugs, and unnecessary; it
also broke certain benchmark scripts.

it's better to keep the lbmk logic simpler. board status
will be moved to the documentation instead.

Signed-off-by: Leah Rowe &lt;leah@libreboot.org&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
the release variable is all we need, turning a target on
or off for a given release.

the status checks were prone to bugs, and unnecessary; it
also broke certain benchmark scripts.

it's better to keep the lbmk logic simpler. board status
will be moved to the documentation instead.

Signed-off-by: Leah Rowe &lt;leah@libreboot.org&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
</feed>
