Notices by Leah Rowe is not a Rowebot (libreleah@mas.to)

I was thinking about that PlayStation (PS1/PSX) *slim* I did the other day and thought an HDMI mod would be nice. (digital-to-digital)

Same GPU as on SCPH-555x boards that PS1Digital/Retrogem use, I think? Not sure about digital audio - lots of address and data lines between SPU/CPU though, maybe doable.

Anyway. Don't remove the analog AV port. Remove the power jack! Replace it with USB-C and do video output on that, alongside USB-C power input.

I can see it in my head. I might research this.

@mindpersephone Composite video on a 14" CRT is the only way to play retro games in my opinion.

@mindpersephone I still have a CRT TV at my lab. I play old computer games on it, mostly playstation games.

Libreboot 9020 SFF running U-Boot UEFI payload. I was able to boot the OpenBSD installer perfectly, install it *with GPT partitioning* (fails in SeaBIOS), and boot it, perfectly.

Puffy UEFI is very much a thing in the next Libreboot release.

This is using the new "SeaUBoot" setup, previously mentioned. Unless interrupted via ESC menu, SeaBIOS will auto-load U-Boot from the flash, which provides a 64-bit UEFI environment on x86.

This is thanks to the work done by Simon Glass for U-Boot on x86.

"SeaUBoot" ROM images now available in Libreboot. This will feature in the next release.

Implemented in this patch:
https://browse.libreboot.org/lbmk.git/commit/?id=7d1fd1cc6a176d15d8a938cd0df9868cbbb86d8f

These images have SeaBIOS, GRUB and U-Boot. Boot anything you want in SeaBIOS by pressing ESC to access the menu; this includes GRUB, which is still in flash.

With SeaUBoot, a bootorder file makes SeaBIOS boot U-Boot from flash first, unless interrupted.

Same concept as SeaGRUB.

Nice UEFI-first setup.

Gonna try *UEFI* OpenBSD. Installation and booting.

@Logical_Error expect bugs. that's why i chainload it from seabios in case of brick. worst case, seabios still works and you can still access grub from seabios too.

@mstrohm SecU-re-Boot though. That has a nice ring to it!

@mstrohm I'm uncertain as to whether U-Boot supports UEFI's "SecureBoot" feature; I haven't tested it yet, but I will.

Libreboot has (since very early days) supported a feature that I call "Secure libreBoot", whereby GRUB is the primary payload (after coreboot init) or SeaBIOS doesn't load oproms and loads GRUB straight away, with the SeaBIOS menu disabled.

GRUB then requries a password, optional GPG check on your kernel, and full disk encryption including /boot.

See:

https://libreboot.org/docs/linux/grub_hardening.html

@MarkDW No-U-Boot

Yes, Libreboot has UEFI now!

Still probably won't boot Windows.

My motivation here is U-Boot also has a slew of other boot methods, and will make dealing with Linux distros a lot easier for most people; it will also be of great help to BSD users, who currently rely on SeaBIOS in Libreboot.

I will provide a "SeaU-Boot" setup in the upcoming release, where SeaBIOS has a bootorder file loading U-Boot first, while still allowing other options via ESC menu. Same concept as SeaGRUB but with U-Boot.

Arch Linux on a Librebooted Dell Latitude E6230 -- installed using the recently added U-Boot payload.

U-Boot provides a 64-bit UEFI environment on x86 in Libreboot. All of the photos below are of UEFI booting, in Libreboot!

U-Boot on x86 is still quite imperfect on real hardware, but can work well. A lot more testing needed; the way I do it is I load U-Boot from flash, via SeaBIOS ESC menu.

Simon Glass has been helping me. This will be available on most machines in the next Libreboot release.

x86_64 U-Boot added to Libreboot, as a secondary payload, executable from the SeaBIOS or GRUB payload menus. Patches as follows:

https://browse.libreboot.org/lbmk.git/commit/?id=747b6514eaf00ac71af475daab98509bf8870b23

https://browse.libreboot.org/lbmk.git/commit/?id=f13819386bf35f081eecbacea965549b7df75e24

https://browse.libreboot.org/lbmk.git/commit/?id=637c0a1521a03e3f65de85dcc5ffd478b37a5360

Highly experimental. I added 32-bit U-Boot to Qemu the other week; U-Boot is now enabled on *most* mainboards (except ones with not enough flash). The 64-bit target has basic UEFI support.

This is using the work done by Simon Glass, Martin Roth and others in bringing U-Boot to coreboot on x86.

@JustinDerrick And yes having my remaining grandmother visit me and not know who I am is a kind of pain that is quite unforgettable.

She is otherwise happy on most days, and able to remember most of her family; it's mainly just the grandchildren who she has forgotten. It will get worse.

She will die not knowing her own identity, if it gets to that.

Senile people everywhere will die sooner, if laws like this pass. Their relatives will demand it.

Once you open pandora's box, it cannot be shut.

@JustinDerrick Is death a competition? I'm sorry for your loss aswell as for those others have endured, but my points stand. It will take more than reminding me of something that literally happened hundreds of times as I wrote this reply, to make me change my mind.

@mackaj Of course, but it'll eventually be expanded to include the mentally ill. People who can get better.

What if you're given that 6-months-to-live and you actually live 36? It happens.

What if a miracle cure is discovered the day after the doctor murdered you, at your behest?

What if an abusive spouse signs your death warrant when you're in a coma?

All manner of things are possible. Of course, I understand that for some, such a bill may provide great relief, but I'm adamant in my stance.

@JustinDerrick Grandmother who died from lung cancer, who I couldn't visit due to covid lockdown. Other grandmother has dimensia and no longer remembers that I exist. A long time friend who received my phone call an hour too late.

I could go on. I know all about loss.

@neil Mood

@neil And... 2025? What about 2025?

@neil What happens after Black Friday is over?

In my country, the United Kingdom, there is a bill to be debated in parliament about whether to legalise euthanasia, these days called "assisted dying":

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47158287

I ask my British readers: contact your MPs. Tell them to stop this madness. I've contacted mine.

Euthanasia is wrong. Murder is wrong, and doubly so by the state. Spend more on improving end of life care instead.

They did it in Canada. The mentally ill can have the state kill them.

It's sick, and must not be allowed.