L'Agenda du Libre

Language

Part of the event will be held in English, but people who speak both English and French and who are knowledgeable of the topics will be there.

Background

The BIOS/UEFI is software that is responsible for initializing the computer hardware and loading an operating system. Most of the BIOS/UEFI are not free software.

This has many consequences: many implement annoying restrictions that prevent you from replacing removable WiFi cards, have unsolvable bugs, etc.

As they run before the operating system and are responsible of loading it, they can also potentially modify it and some even do that (see the Computrace Wikipedia article for more details).

This makes it impossible to trust computer when the BIOS/UEFI is not free software.

Fortunately, there are many distributions of BIOS/UEFI replacement. Some of them are fully free like GNU Boot or Canoeboot. To use these you need a compatible computer.

These BIOS/UEFI are stored on a flash chip that is located on the mainboard of the computer. In most cases, to replace the nonfree BIOS/UEFI, you need a flash chip programmer.

In addition of nonfree BIOS/UEFI, many recent computers also come with a Management Engine (more details in the The Intel Management Engine: an attack on computer users' freedom article), which pose extremely serious freedom issues.

The Management Engine is also located in the exact same flash chip than the BIOS/UEFI and it is possible to limit the damage it does by removing part of its code with tools like me_cleaner (see https://github.com/corna/me_cleaner for more details) and a flash chip programmer.

However if you do it wrong there is a risk of damaging or even completely breaking the computer, especially for laptops. This happened to many people.

Program

We will explain in which cases the risks are low or high and how to do it with laptops, with a Chipflasher from Zerocat in order to show how to practically reduce risks.

A big part of the explanations will be done by Kai Mertens who is the designer of the Zerocat Chipflasher, and he will be there in person.

The a Chipflasher from Zerocat is a versatile device that is designed specially for tasks like that. Its operation requires some training and some knowledge about typical difficulties in in-system flash programming.

This device comes with freedom in mind, down to details. It started as a cellar-project during the time of Snowden revelations, and now reaches a point of maturity in cooperation with the GNU Boot project. Key features that make this device a reproducible tool on GNU/Linux-Libre systems, now and in future, will be explained.

You will be trained in device operation, targeting a hard-to-flash ThinkPad systemboard. Successful operation should result in a successful boot of the liberated laptop - but let’s see!

There will also be a demo of kick2-connect (the advanced interface) @230400 baud (high speed serial port) via Grasshopper (a serial port adapter), operating on a variety of discrete SPI flash to show and explain the menu features.

In addition there will also be GNU Boot maintainer(s) and other people interested in the Zerocat Chipflasher during that event and we should normally have a KGPE-D16 (the fastest GNU Boot compatible computer) as well so we could also show how to install GNU Boot on it.

Though priority will be given to explanations about the Chipflasher from Zerocat as its designer comes from far away (Germany).