AMD Ryzen Powered Framework Laptop Linux Testing Held Up By BIOS Issue

[deusexmachina]

They have to act like no one is asking for open firmware and they have to act like it would be hard to do or it would be an issue for their IP... When the only reason they won't do open firmware is due to obfuscating crap, sometimes for intelligence agencies which make sure their chip fabs stay alive & funded.

[bridgman]

When the only reason they won't do open firmware is due to obfuscating crap, sometimes for intelligence agencies which make sure their chip fabs stay alive & funded.

Huh ? As far as I know we don't have fabs. Maybe we didn't do enough for the intelligence agencies ?

[cb88]

They have to act like no one is asking for open firmware and they have to act like it would be hard to do or it would be an issue for their IP... When the only reason they won't do open firmware is due to obfuscating crap, sometimes for intelligence agencies which make sure their chip fabs stay alive & funded.

It's probably more an issue of... we dont' want to warranty laptops that have ran non validated firmware. If you load open firmware in the future it will probably be treated like overclocking... and I think that is probably fine for the most part.

In any case its not like the legit firmware is getting validated enough as it is apparently...

[ThomasW]

open firmware

The other side of this is security. You need a dialog like Androids red/yellow/orange state. [1] Otherwise nobody will know if somebody tempered your device.
Currently Boot guard does this with signed firmware, but if this gets opened up there needs to be a solution. People celebrate devices where they can tamper the firmware, but if they can, anybody can and there is no way to find it out.\
I am not sure about it, but I think you can't find out about a tampered firmware with a TPM.

[1] https://source.android.com/docs/secu...boot/boot-flow

[mikelpr]

AMD and framework should take coreboot seriously, using edk2 for Windows...

[RosePeach]

Framework has posted an announcement about the firmware issue: https://community.frame.work/t/annou...0-series/37367

[cmakeshift]

In any case its not like the legit firmware is getting validated enough as it is apparently...

Yeah, we already have to deal with all kinds of crap already, manufacturer-provided and self-made... But when the firmware sucks (as it frequently does) and there's no alternative, we're expected to just suck it up. Very annoying.

I for one am still hoping for the day in which open firmware becomes more common on current platforms. We have OpenSIL in the oven, at least. I've always wanted to play around with CoreBoot and LinuxBoot, but never had compatible hardware, whenever I looked it up. I supposed that's true for most people who wanted to do the same

[umbra]

I requested a 3.0 BIOS release like two weeks ago now from Framework and still haven't received it yet :/

hey Michael. Over the last few weeks Framework has released a couple of BIOS updates. Is your device working now?

[nealeu]

hey Michael. Over the last few weeks Framework has released a couple of BIOS updates. Is your device working now?

Looking at https://knowledgebase.frame.work/fra...ries-r1rXGVL16, there don't seem to have been any updates for the AMD BIOS.

[umbra]

Looking at https://knowledgebase.frame.work/fra...ries-r1rXGVL16, there don't seem to have been any updates for the AMD BIOS.

not sure why that link hasn't been updated, but we're on the 3.03 beta version now. https://community.frame.work/t/amd-r...lease/37479/37