New to linuxboot project. have query on ROM dump vendor

Shriti Gupta

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Apr 30, 2019, 6:28:31 AM4/30/19

to linuxboot

I was trying to build using linux boot. In README.md I found "For everything except qemu, you'll need to copy the vendor ROM dump" Suppose I am building it for winterfell. From where can I get ROM file.

I assume linuxboot is intended to remove dependency on UEFI vendor. Is it BIOS vendor file ? or CPU vendor ones ?

Regards,

Shriti

Ron Minnich

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Apr 30, 2019, 6:14:17 PM4/30/19

to Shriti Gupta, linuxboot

your best bet is to use flashrom -r to read the image.

We are not allowed to provide a copy of that image, sorry.

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Shriti Gupta

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May 1, 2019, 11:53:10 AM5/1/19

to linuxboot

Sure Ron, Thanks a lot for your response. Will try to read through flashrom. Actually I asked this query because as per my understanding linux boot was meant to remove dependency on BIOS vendor. So was thinking how is it removing dependency on them as the image we currently have is BIOS vendor image.

Regards,

Shriti

On Wednesday, May 1, 2019 at 3:44:17 AM UTC+5:30, Ron Minnich wrote:

your best bet is to use flashrom -r to read the image.

We are not allowed to provide a copy of that image, sorry.

On Tue, Apr 30, 2019 at 3:28 AM Shriti Gupta <shriti...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I was trying to build using linux boot. In README.md I found "For everything except qemu, you'll need to copy the vendor ROM dump" Suppose I am building it for winterfell. From where can I get ROM file.
> I assume linuxboot is intended to remove dependency on UEFI vendor. Is it BIOS vendor file ? or CPU vendor ones ?
> Regards,
> Shriti
>
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> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "linuxboot" group.

> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to linu...@googlegroups.com.

Ron Minnich

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May 1, 2019, 12:25:58 PM5/1/19

to Shriti Gupta, linuxboot

On Wed, May 1, 2019 at 8:53 AM Shriti Gupta <shriti...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Sure Ron, Thanks a lot for your response. Will try to read through flashrom. Actually I asked this query because as per my understanding linux boot was meant to remove dependency on BIOS vendor.

well, that's not correct. One goal of linuxboot is to minimize the
number of binary blobs in your boot path. Just how much is possible?
On x86, now and for the foreseeable future, complete removal of blobs
is impossible. That is how the various silicon providers want it.

Are there CPUs which allow us to get to 100% open source? Sure. RISCV
does, Power does, and even ARM does. Just not x86.

Another goal of linuxboot is to get us to stop writing all these
little boot loader operating systems. We do this by using Linux as our
bootloader. That's been ongoing for 20 years now, and it's now
recognized as a good path.

Note that none of these goals are inconsistent with binary blobs. We'd
rather not have binary blobs but in some cases there is no choice.
Even coreboot on any new x86 has binary blobs in almost every case.

Shriti Gupta

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May 3, 2019, 12:54:44 AM5/3/19

to linuxboot

Thank you Ron for giving such a detailed insight on this and clarifying the doubts I had and giving a clear picture on LinuxBoot.