1 Upcoming release - coreboot 4.21
2 ========================================================================
4 The 4.21 release is scheduled for August 21st, 2023
6 In the past quarter year, the coreboot project has gotten over 1200 new
7 patches from around 140 authors, 20 of whom contributed for the first
10 Thank you to all of our donors, the code contributors, the people who
11 take time to review all of those patches and all of the people who care
12 about the coreboot project. There have been a number of new companies
13 starting to use coreboot recently, and we appreciate all of the
14 contributions and support.
16 ## Upcoming switch from master branch to main branch
18 Historically, the initial branch that was created in a new git
19 repository was named ‘master’. In line with many other projects,
20 coreboot has decided to switch away from this name and use the name
21 ‘main’ instead. You can read about the initial reasoning on the SFC’s
22 website: https://sfconservancy.org/news/2020/jun/23/gitbranchname/
24 At some point before the 4.22 release, coreboot will be switching from
25 the master branch to the main branch. This shouldn’t be a difficult
26 change for most people, as everyone will just have to rebase on top of
27 a different branch name.
29 We’ve already created the main branch, and it is currently synced with
30 the master branch. Please update any scripts to point to main instead
33 At the point of the changeover, we will move all patches in gerrit to
34 the main branch and disable pushes to the master branch.
36 After the switch, we will sync the main branch to the master branch for
37 a while to give people a little more time to update any scripts that
38 are currently pointed at the master branch. Note that this update will
39 probably be done just once per day, and the frequency of updates will
40 be decreased over time. We plan to stop updating the master branch
41 following the 4.22 release.
43 Significant or interesting changes
44 ----------------------------------
46 ### lib: Support localized text of memory_training_desc in ux_locales.c
48 Most of the text in coreboot is for logging, and does not use
49 localization. There are however, some bits of text that can be
50 presented to the user, and this patch supplies a method to localize
53 To support the localized text, we need to get the locale id by vboot
54 APIs and read raw string content file: preram_locales located at either
57 The preram_locales file follows the format:
59 [PRERAM_LOCALES_VERSION_BYTE (\x01)]
60 [string_name_1] [\x00]
61 [locale_id_1] [\x00] [localized_string_1] [\x00]
62 [locale_id_2] [\x00] [localized_string_2] …
64 [string_name_2] [\x00] ...
66 This code will search for the correct localized string that its string
67 name is `memory_training_desc` and its locale ID matches the ID vb2api
68 returns. If no valid string found, we will try to display in English
72 ### Improved the bootsplash support
74 The JPEG decoder, that was added many years ago to display a bootsplash
75 in coreboot, has a few quirks. People used to do some voodoo with GIMP
76 to convert images to the right format, but we can also achieve the same
77 with ImageMagick's `convert`. The currently known constraints are:
79 * The framebuffer's color format is ignored,
80 * only YCC 4:2:0 color sampling is supported, and
81 * width and height have to be a multiple of 16 pixels.
83 Beside that, we can only display the bootsplash if it completely fits
84 into the framebuffer. As the latter's size is often decided at runtime,
85 we can't do much more than offering an option to set a specific size.
87 The build system has been extended so that the necessary adjustments to
88 the picture can be done by it and several options have been added to
92 ### libpayload/uhci: Re-write UHCI RH driver w/ generic_hub API
94 This is a complete rewrite of the UHCI root-hub driver, based on the
95 xHCI one. We are doing things by the book as far as possible. One
96 special case is uhci_rh_reset_port() which does the reset sequencing
97 that usually the hardware would do.
99 This abandons some quirks of the old driver:
100 * Ports are not disabled/re-enabled for every attachment anymore.
101 * We solely rely on the Connect Status Change bit to track changes.
102 * Further status changes are now deferred to the next polling round.
105 ### linux_trampoline: Handle coreboot framebuffer & 64-bit addresses
107 Translate the coreboot framebuffer info from coreboot tables to the
110 To support full 64-bit addresses, there is a new field `ext_lfb_base`
111 since Linux 4.1. It is unclear, however, how a loader is supposed to
112 know if the kernel is compatible with this. Filling these previously
113 reserved bits doesn't hurt, but an old kernel would probably ignore
114 them and not know that it's handling a clipped, invalid address. So we
115 play safe, and only allow 64-bit addresses for kernels after the 2.15
116 version bump of the boot protocol.
119 ### arch/x86: Don't allow hw floating point operations
121 Even though coreboot does not allow floating point operations, some
122 compilers like clang generate code using hw floating point registers,
123 e.g. SSE %XMMx registers on 64bit code by default. Floating point
124 operations need to be enabled in hardware for this to work (CR4). Also
125 in SMM we explicitly need to save and restore floating point registers
126 for this reason. If we instruct the compiler to not generate code with
127 FPU ops, this simplifies our code as we can skip that step.
129 With clang this reduces the binary size a bit. For instance ramstage
130 for emulation/qemu-q35 drops by 4 kB from from 216600 bytes
131 decompressed to 212768 bytes.
133 Since we now explicitly compile both ramstage and smihandler code
134 without floating point operations and associated registers we don't
135 need to save/restore floating point registers in SMM.
137 The EFER MSR is in the SMM save state and RSM properly restores it.
138 Returning to 32bit mode was only done so that fxsave was done in the
139 same mode as fxrstor, but this is no longer done.
142 ### Caching of PCIe 5.0 HSPHY firmware in SPI flash
144 This adds the ability to cache the PCIe 5.0 HSPHY firmware in the SPI
145 flash. A new flashmap region is created for that purpose. The goal of
146 caching is to reduce the dependency on the CSME (Converged Security and
147 Management Engine) and the HECI (Host Embedded Controller Interface) IP
148 LOAD command which may fail when the CSME is disabled, e.g. soft
149 disabled by HECI command or HAP (High Assurance Platform mode). By
150 caching that firmware, this allows the PCIe 5.0 root ports to keep
151 functioning even if CSME/HECI is not functional.
154 ### Extracting of TPM logs using cbmem tool
156 CBMEM can contain logs in different forms (at most one is present):
157 * coreboot-specific format (CBMEM_ID_TPM_CB_LOG exported as
159 * TPM1.2 format (CBMEM_ID_TCPA_TCG_LOG)
160 * TPM2 format (CBMEM_ID_TPM2_TCG_LOG)
162 The last two follow specifications by Trusted Computing Group, but
163 until now cbmem couldn't print them.
165 These changes make the cbmem utility check for existence of TPM1.2/TPM2
166 logs in CBMEM and add code necessary for parsing and printing of their
169 `cbmem -L` for CONFIG_TPM1=y case
174 Platform class: PC Client
178 Digest: 5622416ea417186aa1ac32b32c527ac09009fb5e
179 Event data: FMAP: FMAP
182 `cbmem -L` for CONFIG_TPM2=y case
187 Platform class: PC Client
192 SHA256: 68d27f08cb261463a6d004524333ac5db1a3c2166721785a6061327b6538657c
193 Event data: FMAP: FMAP
197 ### soc/amd: read domain resource window configuration from hardware
199 Read the MMIO and IO decode windows for the PCI root complex and the
200 PCI bus number range decoded to the PCI root complex from the data
201 fabric registers and pass the information to the resource allocator so
202 it has the correct constraints to do its job. Also generate the
203 corresponding ACPI resource producers in the SSDT so that the OS knows
204 about this too. This is required for the upcoming USB 4 support.
207 Additional coreboot changes
208 ---------------------------
210 * Added SPDX headers to more files to help automated license checking.
211 The linter has been enabled to check the Makefiles as well.
212 * Cleaned up Kconfig files and source code.
213 * Enabled acpigen to generate tables for SPCR (Serial Port Console
214 Redirection) and GTDT (Generic Timer Description Table).
215 * The resource allocation above the 4GiB boundary has been improved.
216 * Most of the code has been adjusted to make use of C99 flexible arrays
217 instead of one-element or zero-length arrays.
218 * Additional Dockerfiles based on Arch and Alpine Linux have been added
219 to build-test with alternate build environments, including musl-libc.
220 They are very basic at the moment and not equal to the coreboot-sdk.
221 They will be extended in the future.
222 * Added support for ITE IT8784E to superiotool.
223 * Added support for Intel 700 chipset series to inteltool and a build
224 issue with musl–libc has been fixed.
225 * Added support for Intel 800 chipset series to ifdtool.
226 * The coreboot-sdk container has been extended so that it allows
227 extracting the MRC binary from Haswell-based ChromeOS firmware images.
228 * From now on POST code preprocessor macros should have a POSTCODE
229 prefix following the name of the POST code.
230 * The NASM compiler provided by the coreboot toolchain wasn’t properly
231 integrated into xcompile and thus it wasn’t used by the build system.
232 Instead, it was required to install NASM on the host in order to use
233 it. This has been fixed.
234 * The time measurement done in abuild got improved and also an issue
235 has been fixed when the variant name contains hyphens.
236 * The RISC-V code was enabled to build with Clang.
237 * Initial work has been done to transform Camelcase options to
239 * The buildgcc script is now able to just fetch the tarballs if desired,
240 which is needed for reproducible build environments for example.
244 Changes to external resources
245 -----------------------------
250 * Added binutils-2.40_stop_losing_entry_point_when_LTO_enabled.patch
251 * Upgrade IASL from 20221020 to 20230628
252 * Upgrade LLVM from 15.0.7 to 16.0.6
253 * Upgrade NASM from 2.15.05 to 2.16.01
254 * Added nasm-2.16.01_handle_warning_files_while_building_in_a_directory.patch
255 * Upgrade CMake from 3.26.3 to 3.26.4
256 * Upgrade GCC from 11.3.0 to 11.4.0
257 * Added gcc-11.4.0_rv32iafc.patch
260 ### Git submodule pointers
263 * amd_blobs: Update from commit id 1cd6ea5cc5 to 6a1e1457af (5 commits)
264 * arm-trusted-firmware: Update from commit id 4c985e8674 to 37366af8d4
266 * blobs: Update from commit id 01ba15667f to a8db7dfe82 (14 commits)
267 * fsp: Update from commit id 6f2f17f3d3 to 3beceb01f9 (24 commits)
268 * intel-microcode: Update from commit id 2be47edc99 to 6f36ebde45 (5
270 * libgfxinit: Update from commit id 066e52eeaa to a4be8a21b0 (18
272 * libhwbase: Update from commit id 8be5a82b85 to 584629b9f4 (2 commits)
273 * qc_blobs: Update from commit id 33cc4f2fd8 to a252198ec6 (4 commits)
274 * vboot: Update from commit id 35f50c3154 to 0c11187c75 (83 commits)
277 * goswid: Update from commit id bdd55e4202 to 567a1c99b0 (5 commits)
278 * nvidia/cbootimage: Update from commit id 65a6d94dd5 to 80c499ebbe (1
282 ### External payloads
284 * Update the depthcharge payload from commit ID 902681db13 to c48613a71c
285 * Upgrade EDK2-MrChromebox from version 202304 to version 202306
286 * Upgrade SeaBIOS from version 1.16.1 to version 1.16.2
287 * Update tint from version 0.05 to version 0.07
288 * Update U-Boot from version 2021.07 to version v2023.07
293 * ByteDance ByteDance bd_egs
305 * HP Compaq Elite 8300 USDT
306 * HP EliteBook 820 G2
308 * Intel Raptorlake silicon with Alderlake-P RVP
309 * Inventec Transformers
310 * MSI PRO Z790-P (WIFI)
311 * MSI PRO Z790-P (WIFI) DDR4
312 * Star Labs Star Labs StarBook Mk VI (i3-1315U and i7-1360P)
317 * System76 gaze17 3050
318 * System76 gaze17 3060-b
334 * Removed src/soc/intel/quark
337 Statistics from the 4.20 to the 4.21 release
338 --------------------------------------------
340 * Total Commits: 1252
341 * Average Commits per day: 12.59
342 * Total lines added: 317734
343 * Average lines added per commit: 253.78
344 * Number of patches adding more than 100 lines: 86
345 * Average lines added per small commit: 36.22
346 * Total lines removed: 261063
347 * Average lines removed per commit: 208.52
348 * Total difference between added and removed: 56671
354 Significant Known and Open Issues
355 ---------------------------------
358 Issues from the coreboot bugtracker: https://ticket.coreboot.org/
360 +-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
362 +=====+=================================================================+
363 | 499 | edk2 boot fails with RESOURCE_ALLOCATION_TOP_DOWN enabled |
364 +-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
365 | 495 | Stoney chromebooks not booting PSPSecureOS |
366 +-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
367 | 478 | X200 booting Linux takes a long time with TSC |
368 +-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
369 | 474 | X200s crashes after graphic init with 8GB RAM |
370 +-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
371 | 457 | Haswell (t440p): CAR mem region conflicts with CBFS_SIZE > 8mb |
372 +-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
373 | 453 | Intel HDMI / DP Audio device not showing up after libgfxinit |
374 +-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
375 | 449 | ThinkPad T440p fail to start, continuous beeping & LED blinking |
376 +-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
377 | 448 | Thinkpad T440P ACPI Battery Value Issues |
378 +-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
379 | 446 | Optiplex 9010 No Post |
380 +-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
381 | 439 | Lenovo X201 Turbo Boost not working (stuck on 2,4GHz) |
382 +-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
383 | 427 | x200: Two battery charging issues |
384 +-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
385 | 414 | X9SAE-V: No USB keyboard init on SeaBIOS using Radeon RX 6800XT |
386 +-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
387 | 412 | x230 reboots on suspend |
388 +-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
389 | 393 | T500 restarts rather than waking up from suspend |
390 +-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
391 | 350 | I225 PCIe device not detected on Harcuvar |
392 +-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
393 | 327 | OperationRegion (OPRG, SystemMemory, ASLS, 0x2000) causes BSOD |
394 +-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
398 coreboot Links and Contact Information
399 --------------------------------------
401 * Main Web site: https://www.coreboot.org
402 * IRC: https://web.libera.chat/#coreboot
403 * Downloads: https://coreboot.org/downloads.html
404 * Source control: https://review.coreboot.org
405 * Documentation: https://doc.coreboot.org
406 * Issue tracker: https://ticket.coreboot.org/projects/coreboot
407 * Donations: https://coreboot.org/donate.html