Libreboot T400 returns on Minifree, with Trisquel preinstalled at permanently reduced price
Hi everyone
I've re-added the T400 to Minifree, with Trisquel preinstalled by default as before. This complies with the FSF's Respects Your Freedom certification.
The price is also much lower than before (it's currently cheaper than all other Libreboot laptops sold by other companies):
https://minifree.org/product/libreboot-t400/
Spread the word! Every purchase funds my work on the ThinkPad X220 port to Libreboot, which I expect to have ready by around December 2017.
For a while, Minifree had been selling the X220 on preorder due to shortage of T400 laptops (X200 is discontinued still, for the same reason). Work is underway on that laptop still, but I've recently come into contact with a batch of 150 T400 laptops, and my suppliers collectively have much more than that in-between them.
~Leah
PS: The FSF RYF page currently lists Libreboot T400 from Minifree as discontinued; it was, when they made that change, but that is no longer the case. The Libreboot T400 from Minifree is indeed now shipping once again, worldwide!
Hi Heather,
Yes, the T420 uses the same chipsets as the X220. If Libreboot is successfully ported to the X220, then the T420 would be trivial. I'm working on the X220 first.
~Leah
About https://minifree.org/paypal/
You are entitled to make this decision. My question to minifree.org and libreboot.org is, could you on minifree.org or libreboot.org add a webpage for voluntary paypal payments? A page saying, if you want to make a voluntary paypal payment you may do so to this email address. The email address is for voluntary payments only.
Hi Tonlee,
as a rule, I don't generally take "donations" as such.
Libreboot is currently attempting to re-join the GNU project. If that is successful, then the project might start accepting donations through the FSF.
If not, then we might set up our own non-profit organisation (not sure which country. Maybe Germany) - or Libreboot could join Software Freedom Conservancy and go through their channels.
Hi Heather,
I'm happy to help you with flashing via IRC if you like. Minifree exists for people who can afford it and use it for convenience... but my aim generally is to create more Libreboot users :)
If recommending companies that compete with me commercially will increase that trend, then so be it.
Of course, Minifree is available and my instinct commercially is to recommend that, but I'm also a member of the Libreboot project which tries to be unbiased as much as possible. It goes beyond cognitive dissonance; I have 2 separate modes :)
In my capacity as a Libreboot maintainer, I recommend things which will benefit the Libreboot project. That is sometimes against the interests of my company. Which is fine. As long as I can eat and keep working on Libreboot :)
~Leah
Hi Heather,
I kind of have no choice but to be social publicly so I just stoic it up and go on auto pilot but yes I totally understand anxiety and all that. I too generally prefer IRC/email.
If you haven't already, the X60T is really easy to flash. You can it all in software, from the distro running on it, without taking it apart:
https://libreboot.org/docs/install/#flashrom_lenovobios
As for your X200T; that is a little bit harder. Unlike the regular X200 which has a SOIC-16 chip and is easier to flash (using a SOIC-16 clip), the X200T uses a different type of flash chip; you have to remove it with a hot-air gun, and then solder a SOIC-8 SPI chip (same pin-out as the WSON-8 chip on X200T) and flash that. swiftgeek on #libreboot IRC uses an X200T and can help you with that. My time is stretched so providing flashing service on X200T isn't really something I'm personally interested in... but there are people in #libreboot IRC who can help you.
We don't currently have soldering guides for X200S/X200T (regulary X200 doesn't require soldering). I'll ask swiftgeek to look into it. You just reminded me.
Yes, keep an eye out for announcements on libreboot.org if and when X220 becomes available. T420 would likely be easy, so at that time I'd be happy to help you flash it.
~Leah
your existing software configuration under GNU+Linux will work just fine. I've used KDE, GNOME, OpenBox, LXDE etc just fine on my own X60 and other libreboot systems
for libreboot install you just need a terminal, and the libreboot utils (e.g. flashrom)
Leah I admire you and your work since Libreboot born. You always helped me a lot. Also thanks you for your most complete documentation, guides, and a lot of helpful info. Thanks for gift to us the most important program for free software community. I do not have much money but I always can make some small donations, and I can do some donations through paypal, yes I know it is not the best way. Thanks for your work!
Hi Leah, a tad off-topic (and I guess demanding) here but what are the chances of Ivy Bridge laptops with libreboot (especially the X230, anyway) working after the X220? Or can a Librebooted T420 simply be upgraded to an Ivy Bridge CPU and retain libreboot?
I'm not sure about ivybridge. I'm working on sandybridge, since the X220 is a much more usable/popular laptop than the X230 and has more or less identical performance except for a few minor use-cases.
I think swiftgeek is interested in ivy though. Contact him in the #libreboot IRC channel on freenode
If I'm not mistaken, it is not possible to use ivy CPUs on sandy motherboards (and the X220 uses soldered CPUs afaik - haven't taken off heatsink to check that yet, since I don't need to at the moment on the one I have). The T420 probably uses socketed CPUs though.
(swiftgeek will probably know the answer to your question. Also, you could ask in coreboot IRC)
Someone upgraded (to i7-3632qm) T420 in Coreboot, he says that it needs some code for HD4000 GPU, nothing more. So, it is the same socket. x220 has soldered BGA.
Heather, so there you have it. It looks like I was right... except for the part about upgrading CPU. It seems you can use ivy CPU on sandy motherboard, on T420 at least. not sure about in factory BIOS but maybe you could ask in #coreboot IRC about it
Yes, same for the desktop motherboard, Ivy is retrocompatible with Sandy. I am also not sure about factory software, but all that CPU use same socket.
https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/5b8d6x/t420_now_works_with_ivybridge_cpu_here_are_the/
Hi Heather,
If X220 porting efforts in Libreboot are successful, and I then add the T420, you might be able to get your T420 flashed for free at a workshop somewhere. If you have something like a raspberry pi or beaglebone you could also try flashing it yourself, you just need a clip (pomona 5250) and some wires (about $20 USD at most), and there would be instructions on the libreboot site.
If you live in the USA and/or can travel to boston, the FSF usually hosts a Libreboot installation workshop at their annual LibrePlanet conference in Boston, MA. I personally ran the LibrePlanet 2015 and 2016 Libreboot installation workshops, working alongside Patrick McDermott (a former Libreboot developer), where people could bring their laptops for Libreboot installation.
~Leah
PS:
I didn't attend LibrePlanet 2017, but I'm considering whether to attend LibrePlanet 2018. If I do attend LP 2018 and you're able to make it, I'll probably run another Libreboot workshop there like I did in previous years.
Otherwise, you could look at hackerspaces near you if there are any. or GNU+Linux user groups. They might be able to help.
Coreboot does already support your T420, but you have to retain the Intel ME. This is what I'm trying to get rid of, so that the system can be supported in Libreboot. But coreboot+ME would be better than LenovoBIOS.
The Intel ME is a giant backdoor (Intel themselves even recently admitted it publicly), see:
https://libreboot.org/faq.html#intelme
That being said, you can take the ME region from a dump of the LenovoBIOS that you currently have, and remove the networking stack from it so that the backdoors no longer exist. The code that remains is some hw init, power management and the instructions in the ME firmware to disable 30 minute reset. See:
https://hardenedlinux.github.io/firmware/2016/11/17/neutralize_ME_firmware_on_sandybridge_and_ivybridge.html
So although not quite Libreboot yet, you could pretty much get rid of most of the blobs on your system.
Is a flashing something you can expect to do and not encounter errors? Or having to go through several flashing attempts?
Hi Heather,
Also, there is Libiquity which is based in New Jersey, USA.
http://libiquity.com/
I'm not sure whether they would actually sell T420/X220, when and if it would become available for Libreboot, but if you couldn't go to a workshop and couldn't install it yourself, you might be able to save a bit of money and ship it to them for flashing. You'd save money on international shipping, and wouldn't have to deal with customs etc.
That's Patrick's company (I mentioned Patrick in an earlier reply in the thread). It's basically Minifree's US counterpart (I don't run Libiquity or have affiliation to it, though, I just know the owner). He doesn't advertise a "libreboot installation service" on his website, but he has accepted peoples laptops before for that purpose.
That would probably be cheaper for you than getting Minifree to do it, which is based in the UK, if you couldn't flash it yourself and couldn't get it done at a workshop or hackerspace.
~Leah
On 28/05/17 04:30, wrote:
> I've re-added the T400 to Minifree, with Trisquel preinstalled by
> default as before. This complies with the FSF's Respects Your Freedom
> certification.
>
> The price is also much lower than before (it's currently cheaper than
> all other Libreboot laptops sold by other companies):
That's great news! Helping people to break free.
--
Ignacio Agulló · name at domain
I am a member!
In our shop Technoethical we sell readily available X200 Tablets with libreboot and fully free GNU distros.
https://tehnoetic.com/laptops/tet-x200t
And we also offer the service of libreboot installation service for the laptops we sell T500, T400, X200 Tablet, X200, and for other hardware on customer's request.
https://tehnoetic.com/laptops/tet-lis
We ship and install libreboot both from within Europe and America.
/tct
Heather, you could consider Technoethical to get your X200T flashed, yes. I forgot about that one.
As I said, I'm not interested in X200T but you could ship your X200T to Technoethical for libreboot install. You'll still have to deal with customs and so on (Technoethical is in Romania, afaik). Though according to their post above you might be able to send it to a US address. "sensiblemn" i think it is (on #libreboot IRC) is US-based and works for technoethical afaik. Actually, I met him at libreplanet 2015 and fosdem 2017
tct1 on #libreboot IRC is in charge of technoethical
Great news, the price is nice! And it seems the RAM is upgradable as well.
This is great news! Saving up for a purchase! :)
Spread the word! :)
I'm looking to bring about a great many new Libreboot users into the community with this new initiative (and others that I will announce in the near future).
For sure. Shared the link with colleagues.
Just wanted to compliment and encourage Leah in your work. It was about time we saw a libre machine at an affordable price. I remember when a X60 (or was it a T60?) was being sold for about 100€. Anyway, this machine looks good and supports everything one might need in GNU world. Again, keep that price range and I am sure many people will get into it.
One question, have you tried full-disk-encryption? I am currently using it in my laptop, and if I decide to change for a LibreBooted machine I would also want to use it (I can't feel at peace walking around with my hard drive unencrypted).
thanks. Keep up the great work.
Thanks. I was unware of that. Curious as if the process is exactly the same with Trisquel as it is with Debian. Probably yes.
I was also unware of the fact that changing the OS installation in a Librebooted device was harder/different than it is in a "regular" pc.
Thanks Heather for the info.
yes, those exact instructions will also work on trisquel
I would like to get a docking station for the t400, how's the libreboot compatibility in that regard?
In other words: are fully-functional docking stations for the t400?
Thank you very much everyone!
You can buy "Advanced Mini Dock" which is pretty good. We don't sell it on Minifree, but you can find it online cheaply.
The current release of Libreboot doesn't fully support it, but the next release will (coreboot, our upstream, and librecore, our future upstream, added support). Namely, the USB ports don't work (next release will support them) on the dock. The DVI output on it works, though, as do several other ports and the ethernet port on it works.
For additional USB ports, I'd recommend a powered USB hub. You can get these for about 10 USD
Thank you very much for the info.
I will buy one of those when you release the next version of libreboot. I'm interested on those docks for the extra VGA pors.
You are doing a terrific job, congratulations. :-)
Hi everyone,
See:
https://trisquel.info/en/forum/libreboot-t400-minifree-reduces-price-once-again
I reduced the price even further.
Hopefully more people can afford Libreboot laptops now!
~Leah