Originally posted by blackiwid
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An Effort Making An Open-Source Radeon Video BIOS
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Originally posted by wargames View PostI agree with you, I was just saying that if they really want to intercept our communications, there is nothing we can do. They have the money, they have the most talented brains, and they have the power to do anything they want thanks to the false flag operations they use to change the laws.
Basicly its a point of how expensive you do make it for them. as example if everybody uses pgp emails... they could not record all mail in a readable way. ok they would still get meta-data. who has contacts with whom... and when and wheres the location of him.
So I try to make it as secure as possible and I do most stuff luke said in his post. But I want at least that such a organisation has to hack me, instead of just having a open backdoor installed. so a person has to invest at least 5-10 mins to hack me, instead a programm that automaticly does that on nearly every maschine worldwide by just logging in...
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Originally posted by eisenhart View PostIs there a demand for further development?
If I look to comments, not much.
While I'm not entirely sure what it all does, is it flashable to a card? Or is it a replacement for the files in /lib/firmare. If so, does it do the stuff normal firmware does? E.g. video decoding acceleration?
Btw, if its a replacement for /lib/firmware, it's not a bios replacement, but a firmware replacement?
All still very exciting.
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Originally posted by oliver View PostYou mean as a todo for you?
While I'm not entirely sure what it all does, is it flashable to a card? Or is it a replacement for the files in /lib/firmare. If so, does it do the stuff normal firmware does? E.g. video decoding acceleration?
Btw, if its a replacement for /lib/firmware, it's not a bios replacement, but a firmware replacement?
All still very exciting.
If someone says: "Hey, I replace the blob with open bios.", this is a right motivation.
This is not a motivation: "Why does the guy this?" "It isnt better then blob." "It relies on atombios." "Waste of time" "..."
Its flashable to a card, a replacement for ATI/AMD video bios. Like this http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/
Ideally same functionality, but open. You dont get a faster or better card. There is still a video driver in OS.
Maybe you can change some values, but it is not a goal.
I think I should write a FAQ.
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Originally posted by oliver View PostYou mean as a todo for you?
While I'm not entirely sure what it all does, is it flashable to a card? Or is it a replacement for the files in /lib/firmare. If so, does it do the stuff normal firmware does? E.g. video decoding acceleration?
Btw, if its a replacement for /lib/firmware, it's not a bios replacement, but a firmware replacement?
All still very exciting.
If someone says: "Hey, I replace the blob with open bios.", this is a right motivation.
This is not a motivation: "Why does the guy this?" "It isnt better then blob." "It relies on atombios." "Waste of time" "..."
Its flashable to a card, a replacement for ATI/AMD video bios. Like this http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/
Ideally same functionality, but open. You dont get a faster or better card. There is still a video driver in OS.
Maybe you can change some values, but it is not a goal.
I think I should write a FAQ.
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So if I understand correctly, it replaces the bios on the card, exports the same tables just as atombios did, you extract them from atombios and we still require the propriatary firmware blob in /lib/firmware?
I would love to use it, I should find some old videocards to start testing it, but what's are the supported cards? Yeah a faq would help a lot here
I think it can be the starting point for something beautiful and yeah, it's definitely worth it. Also, one blob gone is still one blob gone.
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Even if it isn't that much yet, good news for me.
Binary blobs are obsolete.
Besides all the secret services around the world, just think of SMM. Or TR069 to configure your router remotely. There are a lot of dangerous things in the firmware, some maybe once built with a good intention but now prone to security holes and generally dangerous to the user and system. Open Firmware is more trustworthy in the long term, and once grown also more stable.Stop TCPA, stupid software patents and corrupt politicians!
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Wireshark would bust an NSA backdoor in a graphics card
Originally posted by blackiwid View PostFirst it cant hurt. 2nd NSA Scandal. could somebody say me if you coulld implement a nsa backdoor into such a firmware and 2nd question, if not, could you do it in a driver like the proprietary nvidia driverblob or the one from amd?
and another question is it possible to hinder a bios to make tcp connections and send data?
I would love to have a coreboot patched system but they are very rare, at the moment.
And no I dont think the radeon firmware is a big problem. the one from intel is also closedsource. I dont get the big difference rms does about if its flashable or not... antifeatures could be in the initial firmware if its possible.
I would love to hear something about it. I am no driver developer so I am not shure, I think a firmware of a grafic card should not be able to make the kernel send data into the internet right? could a full blob do that? could it have direct hw-access to other cards or something?
Nvidia and ATI would shit bricks if the NSA asked them to risk installing a surveillance program that could be detected by a random hacker from Anonymous, then revealed in all it's glory to their potential customers. All this assumes the graphics card can even get access to the network, the only thing I ever worried about was passwords echoed to the screen, an unnecessary risk that is always blocked by just about everyone. If Intel does this, it won't be in the graphics but elsewhere-and they'd still have Wireshark, etc to worry about.
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If it was constantly sending out packets it would be too obvious. What you need is it to only respond when a request is made of sort. Probably some kind of key. I think the chances are its there, just really really well hidden. But then again, if its not there, they'd probably have a few zero day exploits up their back pockets..
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