Damien Zammit - Coreboot

• Coreboot is a Free Software replacement for proprietary BIOS - really important project
• Coreboot does the minimal initialisation of hardware, hands off rest of the task to a "payload" program like GRUB or SeaBIOS
• sister project Flashrom handles complex task of writing to different flash ROM chips
• lots of manual work for Coreboot to support each new machine, even if similar components
• recent Intel machines require proprietary blob
• AMD have an agreement with Coreboot to provide full specs - yay!
• installing Coreboot on T60
  • T60 that Damien owns has about 5 different variations
  • visually identify flashrom chip (get hands dirty)
  • first time compiled Coreboot and flashed, machine was dead
    • you need a recovery method first, eg. external flashing device
    • always take a backup of existing BIOS with Flashrom
  • was able to restore original BIOS with external clip and Rasberry Pi
  • T60 had some unusual settings that reverse flash memory - challenging
  • once installed relatively easy to upgrade
• Damien also working on replacing binary blob in modern Intel boards
  • null modem cable to give serial output from Coreboot eg. printf
• EFI is just software with an agreed spec. - Coreboot replaces it
• Damien also tried Coreboot on a modern AMD AGESA HUDSON board and worked first time - F2A85-M ~ $70 for board
• Libreboot restricted subset of Coreboot without binary blobs
• Also started a wiki about why proprietary blobs in BIOS is bad and issues with Intel
  • additional ARC CPU with RSA signed code that can control main CPU and talk to the Internet
    • runs a real-time OS
    • every model after T60/X60
    • not an issue with AMD boards

Gnews

OpenSSL Heartbeat vulnerability

• affects both servers and clients
  • upgrade Android 4.1 or greater
  • not all TLS implementations, not GnuTLS
  • not GPG related
• upgrade and replace private keys
• must also restart all services
• broken into mainstream, lots of confusion and bad reporting
• interesting issues relating to free software
  • wouldn't have been discovered or fixed easily otherwise
  • trolling about Free Software negatives
• interesting that two discovered at same time

TPP

• http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/30/large-crowds-fill-taipei-streets-in-protest-over-china-trade-bill/
• not much happening right now - that makes it hard to fight
  • nebulous
• possibly get a talk on this some time from EFA

Project Gooseberry

• looking for more donations by this weekend
• feature length film

Embrace the Remix Ted video

• ted.com videos supported by free software without flash!
• very much worth a watch - touches on copyright and patent problems

Novena

• http://makezine.com/2014/04/02/the-worlds-first-open-source-laptop-makes-its-debut/
• support folks who are supporting open hardware

Talk by Jacob Appelbaum at Libre Planet

• talks and shows a Novena