[Arm-netbook] [Dev] [libreplanet-discuss] EOMA68 and freedom in digital technology

[Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton]

---
crowd-funded eco-conscious hardware: https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68


On Mon, Sep 19, 2016 at 3:11 PM, mike.valk at gmail.com
<mike.valk at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 2016-09-14 12:34 GMT+02:00 Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton <lkcl at lkcl.net>:
>>
>> ---
>> crowd-funded eco-conscious hardware: https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Sep 14, 2016 at 10:07 AM, Josh Branning
>> <lovell.joshyyy at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> > Getting rid of boot0 is not far away:
>> >
>> >
>> > http://git.denx.de/?p=u-boot/u-boot-sunxi.git;a=tree;f=board/sunxi;h=6419936f8b204d43c146ff5d8c88d1b0484fdcae;hb=refs/heads/next
>
>
> Can't reply to josh directly.
>
> There are two problems. 1st a legal one 2nd a technical. The technical one
> is being resolved by the community. With little help from Allwinner. I say a
> "little help" not "no help". When A64 is bootable by uboot then it might by
> a possible EOMA68 target, from firmware perspective.
>
> AFAIK:
>
> The early boot loader in AW SOC's is BROM: http://linux-sunxi.org/BROM. It
> built in on production and cannot be modified, hence ROM: Read Only Memory.

 ... as such it's known, it's unmodifiable, it's inviolate, and it can
be analysed for security vulnerabilities, after which, any analysis
can be trusted... because there's no way that the ROM can be modified.

> The ROM can be read however. The BROM is the first software loaded in the
> chain. Currently it can load the AW Boot0 or U-Boot SPL.

 BROM merely loads anything with a signature ASCII letters "eGON" into
memory at address 0x400... and executes it.  simple as that.

> So if i'm correct there is a for stage boot sequence.
> 1. BROM (Find and start bootable software)
> 2. Boot0/U-Boot SPL (Init Hardware like memory, uart, clocks, regulators
> then load the next stage)
> 3. Boot1/U-Boot (Init perhipials and load the final stage: Linux)

 or any other OS.

> 4. Linux

 or any other OS

> The SoC have a tiny bit embedded RAM (SRAM).

 my understanding is that it's the 1st level cache.

> Look at Oracle, Samsung, Google, SCO, etc. They have done all of the above.
> And now they are 'actively' changing their ways. But they are big enough to
> stall. SCO tried and died. It's never pretty.

 there's cases in china where the government has cracked down on
copyright infringment.  certainly there are known cases in taiwan.

> Luke's EOMA68-A20 is something unheard of. Buying hardware without SDK and
> probably support. And selling it with a totally free stack of software and
> firmware.

 ... except for MALI (so far).

> That and no co-processors which can work independently from your system to
> help/spy/corrupt you.

 that we know of / have found... yet.  big important distinction.

> The only exception is the BROM. But that can/should be considered hardware
> as it cannot be changed and is build-in. Plus the bonus that it can be read
> and verified.

 correct.