From fc0da7144f973f7c07d0f85920136b84e1780e25 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Francis Rowe Date: Mon, 12 Oct 2015 18:28:15 -0400 Subject: docs/hcl/c201.html: Make it more useful to read --- (limited to 'docs/hcl') diff --git a/docs/hcl/c201.html b/docs/hcl/c201.html index b3c24b9..3da373e 100644 --- a/docs/hcl/c201.html +++ b/docs/hcl/c201.html @@ -52,42 +52,123 @@
-

EC firmware

+

Caution: Video acceleration requires a blob. Do not install it. Use software rendering.

- 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. +

+

+ 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 LXDE. +

+

+ Back to top of page.

-
-

Depthcharge

+

Caution: WiFi needs a blob. Do not install it. Use a USB dongle.

- 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. +

+

+ The libreboot project recommends that you use an external USB wifi dongle that works + with free software. See index.html#recommended_wifi. +

+

+ There are 2 companies (endorsed by the Free Software Foundation, under their Respects your Freedom + guidelines, that sell USB WiFi dongles guaranteed to work with free software (i.e. linux-libre kernel): +

+ +

+ These wifi dongles are the Unex DNUA-93F, which uses the AR9271 (atheros) chipset, supported by + the free ath9k_htc driver in the Linux kernel. They work in linux-libre too.

-

Issues

+

EC firmware is free software!

- 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.

- Non-free drivers needed for built-in (soldered) wifi; it's possible - to use an external USB wifi dongle. Check index.html#recommended_wifi. + 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.

+
+ +
+

Replace ChromeOS immediately!

- 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 SaaSS. 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 SaaSS. Libreboot recommends that all users of this laptop replace it with another distribution.

+

No FSF-endorsed distros available

+

+ The FSF has a list of distributions that are 100% free software. None of these + are confirmed to work on ARM chromebooks yet. Parabola looks hopeful: + https://www.parabola.nu/news/parabola-supports-armv7/ +

+

+ 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. +

+

What can be done meanwhile?

+

+ There are some other distributions, which are not freedom-friendly, but can be with some tweaking. +

+

+ There isn't much choice, but we can recommend these distributions for the time being: +

+

Debian GNU/Linux

+

+ The FSF details the problems with Debian: + https://www.gnu.org/distros/common-distros.html#Debian +

+

+ 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 non-free, with supplementary packages that require it in contrib, also not enabled by default. + If you install Debian and replace the kernel with linux-libre, + 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. +

+

+ 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. +

+

Fedora GNU/Linux

+

+ 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 linux and replace it with linux-libre. +

+

+ 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. +

+

We need libre distributions to be ported.

+

+ As soon as possible, the libreboot project would like to remove mention of Fedora and Debian. + We find such distributions ethically repugnant. +

- If you go with Debian, make sure to not enable the non-free and contrib repositories. + Back to top of page.

+
+ +
+

Depthcharge

- If you go with Fedora, make sure to delete 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.

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