Leah Rowe
d8bcd5c704
also w541mrc_12mb remove these mentions. clarify that only NRI is provided now, for libre raminit on haswell machines. Signed-off-by: Leah Rowe <info@minifree.org>
167 lines
6.6 KiB
Markdown
167 lines
6.6 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: Insert vendor files on Sandybridge/Ivybridge/Haswell
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x-toc-enable: true
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...
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**NOTE: This page also applies to PM45 machine Dell Latitude E6400 if it
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contains an Nvidia GPU (Libreboot vendor scripts can insert the VGA ROM)**
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This is not a general purpose installation guide, but you *should read it*
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before installing Libreboot! *This* guide *must* be followed, no matter what
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method you use to install Libreboot; even if you compile from source, you should
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still read this page for later reference.
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For how to use an external programmer see the [25xx NOR flashing guide](/docs/install/spi.html)
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Introduction
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============
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**PLEASE MAKE SURE you have build dependencies installed first. Although you
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do not need to re-compile release ROMs, you should follow these instructions
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before reading the instructions below:
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<https://libreboot.org/docs/build/#first-install-build-dependencies>**
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Coreboot is nominally free software, but requires certain vendor code on some
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boards, for certain functionalities; we cover this more thoroughly in
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the [Freedom Status](../../freedom-status.md) page and in the [Binary Blob
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Reduction Policy](../../news/policy.md).
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Well, not all of these files are freely redistributable. Coreboot does provide
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vendor files in some cases, if the vendor has allowed it. In other cases,
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extraction from factory firmware is required, or you can extract them from
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vendor-supplied updates - Libreboot's build system does the latter.
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When you [compile Libreboot ROM images from source](../build/), Libreboot will
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automatically download any given files that are required, for any given board
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target. This is done without user intervention, and only when absolutely needed
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to make the machine boot properly.
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The problem?
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------------
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Well, if the files cannot be freely redistributed, then we can't provide them.
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So how do we handle *that*, in the context of Libreboot releases?
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The solution
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------------
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The answer is very simple: these files are **NOT** provided, at all! However,
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the very same logic used by the build system can be run standalone, to re-insert
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these vendor files on release ROMs. The `inject` script detects what files are
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needed for your ROM image.
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The script will detect what board you're inserting on, or you can manually tell
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it what board, and it will fetch them for you, inserting them, so that your
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board is ready to flash - flashing it without these required files may result in
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a brick.
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Vendor file locations
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--------------
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During auto-download of files, they are saved to these locations within the
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Libreboot build system:
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* ME firmware: `vendor/*/me.bin` - the `*` can be any given directory. Different ones will
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be used by given boards, but the directory name may not match the board
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target name.
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* SMSC SCH5545 fan control firmware (for Dell T1650): `vendor/t1650/sch5545ec.bin`
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* SMSC KBC1126 embedded controller firmware, on HP EliteBooks: `ec/`
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* Intel MRC firmware, provides raminit on HP EliteBook 820 G2
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The above list refers to the *non-redistributable files*, and these are not
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directly included in releases. These are auto-downloaded during the build.
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The `me.bin` files are produced by extracting them from vendor updates and
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neutering them with `me_cleaner` so that Intel ME is disabled during early boot.
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Injecting vendor files into ROM
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------------------------------------
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You must determine the correct board name, for your board, based on the list
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generated when running this command:
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./build roms list
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In order to inject the necessary files into a rom image, run the script from the root of lbmk and point to the rom image.
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If you only wish to flash a release rom then the process of injecting the necessary files is quite simple.
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Run the injection script pointing to the release archive you downloaded:
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./vendor inject libreboot-RELEASE_targetname.tar.xz
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The script can automatically detect the board as long as you do not change the file name.
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You can then find flash-ready ROMs in `/bin/release/`
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Alternatively, you may patch only a single rom file, but you must supply the
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correct board target name as alluded to above.
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For example:
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./vendor inject -r x230_libreboot.rom -b x230_12mb
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Optionally, you can use this script to modify the mac address of the rom with the `-m` flag.
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For example:
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./vendor inject -r x230_libreboot.rom -b x230_12mb -m 00:f6:f0:40:71:fd
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Check that the files were inserted
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==================================
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You *must* ensure that the files were inserted.
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Some examples of how to do that in lbmk:
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./update trees -b coreboot utils
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Now you find `cbutitls/default`, which is a directory containing `cbfstool`
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and `ifdtool`. Do this on your ROM image (`libreboot.rom` in the example
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below):
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./cbutils/default/cbfstool libreboot.rom print
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You should check that the files were inserted in cbfs, if needed; for example,
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EC firmware or MRC firmware.
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Next:
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./cbutils/default/ifdtool -x libreboot.rom
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This creates several `.bin` files, one of which says `me` in it (Intel ME).
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Run hexdump on it:
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hexdump flashregion_2_intel_me.bin
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Check the output. If it's all `0xFF` (all ones) or otherwise isn't a bunch
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of code, then the Intel ME firmware wasn't inserted.
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You'll note the small size of the Intel ME, e.g. 84KB on sandybridge platforms.
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This is because lbmk *automatically* neuters it, disabling it during
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early boot. This is done using `me_cleaner`, which lbmk imports.
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NOTE: the MAC changer makes use of `nvmutil`, which you can read more about in
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the [nvmutil documentation](nvmutil.md).
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Errata
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======
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NOTE: As of Libreboot releases from May 2024 onward, the Intel MRC is no longer
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included for Haswell; MRC is a blob for raminit, but we now provide libre
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raminit. The following targets no longer exist in the build system:
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* `t440pmrc_12mb` (use `t440plibremrc_12mb` instead)
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* `t440pbmrc_12mb` (use `t440plibremrc_12mb` instead)
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* `w541mrc_12mb` (use `w541_12mb` instead)
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* `w541bmrc_12mb` (use `w541_12mb` instead)
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* `dell9020sff_12mb` (use `dell9020sff_nri_12mb` instead)
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* `dell9020sffbmrc` (use `dell9020sff_nri_12mb` instead)
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* `dell9020mt_12mb` (use `dell9020mt_nri_12mb` instead)
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* `dell9020mtbmrc` (use `dell9020mt_nri_12mb` instead)
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This is written as errata because some users may still be using older release
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images but on the newer build system from May 2024 onward; you must use the
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Libreboot 20240225 release if you want to inject MRC and so on, for these older
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targets.
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Libreboot's [binary blob reduction policy](../../news/policy.md) is very strict,
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and states: if a blob can be avoided, it must be avoided. Therefore, the MRC
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is removed on Haswell and Libreboot will only use the libre raminit (called
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NRI, short for Native Ram Initialisation).
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