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authorFrancis Rowe <info@gluglug.org.uk>2015-10-12 18:28:15 (EDT)
committer Francis Rowe <info@gluglug.org.uk>2015-10-12 18:28:15 (EDT)
commitfc0da7144f973f7c07d0f85920136b84e1780e25 (patch)
tree0486ff4a350c540512efb04888bad8cf3c7231a3
parent826ec5bedb06bca40d1b0bbf615f45b4bcc10d09 (diff)
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</div>
<div class="section">
- <h1 id="ec">EC firmware</h1>
+ <h1 id="videoblobs">Caution: Video acceleration requires a blob. Do not install it. Use software rendering.</h1>
<p>
- It's free software. Google provides the source. Build scripts will be added later, with EC sources
- provided in libreboot, and builds of the EC firmware.
+ The lima driver source code for the onboard Mali GPU is not released. The developer withheld it for personal reasons.
+ Until that is released, the only way to use video on this laptop is to not have video acceleration, by
+ making sure not to install the relevant blob. Most tasks can still be performed without video acceleration, without
+ any noticeable performance penalty.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ In practise, this means that certain things like games, blender and GNOME shell (or other fancy desktops) won't work well.
+ The libreboot project recommends a lightweight desktop which does not need video acceleration, such as <i>LXDE</i>.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ <a href="#pagetop">Back to top of page</a>.
</p>
</div>
-
<div class="section">
- <h1 id="depthcharge">Depthcharge</h1>
+ <h1 id="wifiblobs">Caution: WiFi needs a blob. Do not install it. Use a USB dongle.</h1>
<p>
- These systems do not use the GRUB payload. Instead, they use a payload called depthcharge,
- which is common on Chromebooks.
+ These laptops have non-removeable (soldered on) WiFi chips, which require non-free firmware in the Linux kernel
+ in order to work.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The libreboot project recommends that you use an external USB wifi dongle that works
+ with free software. See <a href="index.html#recommended_wifi">index.html#recommended_wifi</a>.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ There are 2 companies (endorsed by the Free Software Foundation, under their <i>Respects your Freedom</i>
+ guidelines, that sell USB WiFi dongles guaranteed to work with free software (i.e. linux-libre kernel):
+ </p>
+ <ul>
+ <li><a href="https://www.thinkpenguin.com/gnu-linux/penguin-wireless-n-usb-adapter-gnu-linux-tpe-n150usb">ThinkPenguin sells them</a> (company based in USA)</li>
+ <li><a href="https://tehnoetic.com/tehnoetic-wireless-adapter-gnu-linux-libre-tet-n150">Tehnoetic sells them</a> (company based in Europe)</li>
+ </ul>
+ <p>
+ These wifi dongles are the Unex DNUA-93F, which uses the AR9271 (atheros) chipset, supported by
+ the free <i>ath9k_htc</i> driver in the Linux kernel. They work in <i>linux-libre</i> too.
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
- <h1 id="issues">Issues</h1>
+ <h1 id="ec">EC firmware is free software!</h1>
<p>
- Non-free drivers needed in linux kernel for video acceleration;
- it's possible to use it without video acceleration.
+ It's free software. Google provides the source. Build scripts will be added later, with EC sources
+ provided in libreboot, and builds of the EC firmware.
</p>
<p>
- Non-free drivers needed for built-in (soldered) wifi; it's possible
- to use an external USB wifi dongle. Check <a href="index.html#recommended_wifi">index.html#recommended_wifi</a>.
+ This is unlike the other current libreboot laptops (Intel based). In practise, you can
+ (if you do without the video/wifi blobs) be more free when using one of these laptops.
</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="section">
+ <h1 id="os">Replace ChromeOS immediately!</h1>
<p>
- Comes preinstalled (from the factory) with Google ChromeOS. This is a GNU/Linux distribution, but it's not general purpose
- and it comes with proprietary software. It's designed for <i><a href="https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/who-does-that-server-really-serve.en.html">SaaSS</a></i>. Libreboot recommends that all users of this laptop
- replace ChromeOS with Debian or Fedora. No FSF-endorsed distribution is available yet, but Guix and Trisquel might be easy
- enough to port.
+ This laptop comes preinstalled (from the factory) with Google ChromeOS. This is a GNU/Linux distribution, but it's not general purpose
+ and it comes with proprietary software. It's designed for <i><a href="https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/who-does-that-server-really-serve.en.html">SaaSS</a></i>. Libreboot recommends that all users of this laptop replace it with another distribution.
</p>
+ <h2>No FSF-endorsed distros available</h2>
+ <p>
+ The FSF has a <a href="https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html">list of distributions</a> that are 100% free software. None of these
+ are confirmed to work on ARM chromebooks yet. Parabola looks hopeful:
+ <a href="https://www.parabola.nu/news/parabola-supports-armv7/">https://www.parabola.nu/news/parabola-supports-armv7/</a>
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The libreboot project would like to see all FSF-endorsed distro projects port to these laptops. This includes Trisquel, GuixSD and others.
+ And ProteanOS. Maybe even LibreCMC. The more the merrier. We need them, badly.
+ </p>
+ <h2>What can be done meanwhile?</h2>
+ <p>
+ There are some other distributions, which are not freedom-friendly, but can be with some tweaking.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ There isn't much choice, but we can recommend these distributions for the time being:
+ </p>
+ <h3>Debian GNU/Linux</h3>
+ <p>
+ The FSF details the problems with Debian:
+ <a href="https://www.gnu.org/distros/common-distros.html#Debian">https://www.gnu.org/distros/common-distros.html#Debian</a>
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ You can actually run Debian without any proprietary software. The default installation comes without any proprietary software,
+ and although the project does have proprietary software, its only in a separate repository which isn't enabled by default.
+ The Debian project has a strict policy of keeping proprietary software out of the main repository, and moving it to a separate repository;
+ this repository is called <i>non-free</i>, with supplementary packages that require it in <i>contrib</i>, also not enabled by default.
+ If you install Debian and replace the kernel with <a href="http://www.fsfla.org/ikiwiki/selibre/linux-libre/">linux-libre</a>,
+ you can be reasonably certain not to install any proprietary software. However, make sure to exercise caution, since this isn't
+ endorsed at all, and mistakes can happen.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ <b>Note that this does not mean Debian is ok! Far from it! Institutionally, Debian is rotten because it distributes proprietary software,
+ even if it's optional and not included by default.</b>
+ </p>
+ <h3>Fedora GNU/Linux</h3>
+ <p>
+ Unlike Debian, Fedora (to the best of our knowledge) only distributes proprietary software in the form of firmware blobs for the Linux kernel.
+ There are repositories for Fedora that contain proprietary software, but none of these are official and have to be added. So just don't add them.
+ Then, delete <i>linux</i> and replace it with <a href="http://www.fsfla.org/ikiwiki/selibre/linux-libre/">linux-libre</a>.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ <b>Note that this does not mean Fedora is ok! Far from it! Institutionally, Fedora is rotten because it distributes proprietary software,
+ even if it's easy to remove.</b>
+ </p>
+ <h3>We need libre distributions to be ported.</h3>
+ <p>
+ As soon as possible, the libreboot project would like to remove mention of Fedora and Debian.
+ We find such distributions ethically repugnant.
+ </p>
<p>
- If you go with Debian, make sure to <b><i>not</i></b> enable the <i>non-free</i> and <i>contrib</i> repositories.
+ <a href="#pagetop">Back to top of page</a>.
</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="section">
+ <h1 id="depthcharge">Depthcharge</h1>
<p>
- If you go with Fedora, make sure to <i>delete</i> Linux and replace it with Linux-libre.
+ These systems do not use the GRUB payload. Instead, they use a payload called depthcharge,
+ which is common on Chromebooks.
</p>
</div>