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Article published by: Leah Rowe

Date of publication: 31 December 2023

NOTE: Libreboot standardises on flashprog now, as of 27 January 2024, which is a fork of flashrom.

This article pertains to the current Libreboot (lbmk) revision at this time of writing, which is 11a821637d8a36f4a72001ef8d8c41952f066cc3 from 31 December 2023. A release is also being considered for some time in January of 2024, based on this audit and new features that are planned, plus new boards. To compliment this audit, the TODO page, which now lists what tasks the project is interested in or working on at any given time.

A lot of work has gone into Libreboot since Libreboot Build System Audit 3, which coincided with the Libreboot 20231021 release, right up to Libreboot 20231106.

The main purpose of audit 4 has been to finish audit 3. More logic has been generalised, and another sloccount reduction has been observed: 1618 SLOC in the shell scripts, versus 1744 as of audit 3, with increased (not decreased) functionality. This accounts for a 7.22% decrease in the complexity of lbmk, which is the Libreboot build system.

These and subsequent changes will be present in the next Libreboot release, after Libreboot 20231106, but they can already be obtained now, if you compile Libreboot from source via lbmk.git.

Although audit 3 was the previous audit, several changes were made after that, up to the Libreboot 20231106 release. Therefore, this audit changelog is relative to Libreboot 20231106, not audit 3. Most of this is minor code cleanup patches that, together, account for the moderate code size reduction, but there are some new features and bug fixes too.

Not all of these are actually audit-related, but are still nice changes, and will be included in the release changelog, for the next release after Libreboot 20231106. The changes are, from newest to oldest:

In addition to specific changes listed below, there are several commits part of the audit titled “general code cleanup”, which go through the entire build system, sweeping it for bad or unclean code, cleaning up the coding style, removing obsolete code or generally improving the coding style/quality, to make the code more readable. Such has been the main focus of this audit.

And now, specific changes:

• GRUB: bumped the revision again, to the 2.12 release which came out on 20 December 2023. We previously bumped this to a November revision, mentioned earlier in this changelog, but now we can use the officia/ GRUB 2.12 release.
• target.cfg files are now possible for single-tree projects, not just multi-tree projects. For single-tree projects, it goes at config/projectname/target.cfg, and it goes on the existing config/projectname/tree/target.cfg location for multi-tree projects.
• script/update/trees: Support adding custom arguments to the make command, when running a makefile within a project. This is defined by makeargs in the target.cfg file for a given project.
• Generic cmake handling now supported, in script/update/trees - it is no longer hardcoded, for the uefitool package (from which we run uefiextract). Simply: define cmakedir in a project target.cfg file. It could even be cmakedir="." if you wish, so that all of it is built, though we specify cmakedir="UEFIExtract" for uefitool.
• Unify script/update/trees and script/build/grub - now, generic autoconf handling is present in script/update/trees, so it can be used for any project, including GRUB, and arguments for configure/autogen/bootstrap scripts are configurable in project target.cfg files. The actual running of grub-mkstandalone is now handled from script/build/roms. This reduces the number of shell scripts from 12 to 11, in lbmk.
• disable u-boot on x86 qemu for now (prevents a build error in lbmk)
• script/build/serprog: Return error status (exit) if basename fails, when processing various board targets available on stm32/rp2040 projects. Patch courtesy of Leah Rowe.
• NEW BOARD: HP 8300 CMT mainboard, added by Riku Viitanen, who worked on it with a tester in the IRC channel.
• Fixed implicit typecasting bug on flashprog 1.2 source code, thus preventing a build issue (tested on Debian 12.2). Patch courtesy of Leah Rowe.
• script/build/roms: Rename check_target to configure_target and prepare_target to configure_dependencies, for increased code clarity.
• git/pico-serprog: Use Riku’s newer revision, which sets the drive level to 12mA by default, up to the previous default of 4mA. The new level is within safety specifications on all flash ICs, but will result in greater reliability, especially on ISP-based flashing setups. Also merged a fix by Riku Viitanen, fixing a build error on boards where PICO_DEFAULT_LED_PIN is not defined by the pico sdk; in these cases, the status LED is simply unused.
• script/build/roms: Improved error handling for ROM image build functions, which run inside subshells. They now more reliably cause an exit from lbmk, under error conditions, and those exits are guaranteed now to be non-zero. Patch courtesy of Leah Rowe.
• script/build/roms: Remove redundant check on cros roms, where it checked whether initmode was normal; on these setups, it’s always libgfxinit.
• BOARD: the e6400_4mb target is unaltered, but now a new e6400nivida_4mb target is defined. This target disabled libgfxinit, and only executes the nvidia VGA ROM, so it’s only applicable to the nvidia variant of Dell Latitude E6400. The e6400_4mb variant enables both, but causes some issues on nvidia models when nomodeset is used - only KMS works, but nouveau is unstable in certain conditions and on some linux/mesa versions, with this board when Libreboot is used. So it’s recommended on nvidia variants to use the e6400nvidia_4mb option, and use e6400_4mb only on intel variants. Patch courtesy Leah Rowe, responding to a bug report on the IRC channel.
• set projectname/version strings properly, in scripts that call it. It was previously done unconditionally in err.sh, without being called, but this was later changed, and scripts that use it weren’t adapted, so it turned out that the strings were empty when used. Now the strings are properly set, in all scripts that need them. These strings are provided by the build system, which checks itself at startup. Patch courtesy of Leah Rowe.
• script/update/trees: Fix infinite loop caused in some conditions, when vendor files are being used. The trees script calls the vendor download script, which in turn calls the trees script; an additional check has been introduced, to prevent a runaway condition where the two scripts endlessly call each other, thus preventing an infinite loop. Patch courtesy Leah Rowe.
• script/vendor/download: check whether a config file exists, before trying to read it. This reduces the chance of crashing the build system, when running the script on certain targets. Patch courtesy of Leah Rowe.
• script/vendor/inject: Fixed a bad error check, when running cd to switch to the ROM images directory, when creating archives. Patch courtesy Leah Rowe.
• Don’t delete microcode updates on GM45 ROMs in releases. Microcode updates are always included in builds, but the release build scripts were copying certain ROM images to cerate versions (alongside the default ones) with microcode disabled. This is no longer required, due to the existence of the Canoeboot project. You can also still delete them very easily, using cbfstool, if they are included in a given set of images, so this change reduces the uncompressed size of the ROM images in releases. This also means that the file names of all ROM images now match the file names in canoeboot images, when dealing with a mainboard supported by both projects. Patch courtesy of Leah Rowe.
• script/update/release: Don’t test script/vendor/inject at the end. This is regularly tested anyway, during development, so it’s a waste of time to have it done by the release build script. This reduces the amount of time taken to build a release archive. Patch courtesy of Leah Rowe.
• script/update/release: Don’t insert crossgcc tarballs into release archives. These are re-inserted needlessly, when they are already hosted by the GNU project and have decent mirrors in general. I always keep backups of these anyway, and do several mirrors, and not including them reduces the size of the Libreboot release archives. This means that the release archives now require an internet connection to use, because crossgcc tarballs will be downloaded at build time, but they are the same tarballs that you would download as part of a release anyway, but now if you’re only building for one coreboot tree within lbmk, you only need to download one set of archives instead of getting them all. Patch courtesy of Leah Rowe.
• script/build/serprog: general code cleanup, generalising a lot more code, especially the if/else chains for checking what type of firmware is build. Patch courtesy of Leah Rowe.
• main build script: simplified TMPDIR handling. There were cases where the TMPDIR variable was already set, and being re-set needlessly. The new code is simpler, and less error-prone. Patch courtesy of Leah Rowe.
• include/mrc.sh: general code cleanup, removing dead code and optimising the general style of it, to reduce sloccount. Patch courtesy of Leah Rowe.
• Corresponding to the change below by Riku, the vendor filenames were also changed to match the 68* naming scheme.
• config/vendor/sources: document HP laptop ROM families, for certain models, according to name scheme 68SFC, 68SCE, 68ICE and 68ICF. Some of these boards iare part of the same families, and use the same blobs. Patch courtesy of Riku Viitanen.
• script/build/roms: remove the modify_coreboot_rom function. Fake PIKE2008 ROMs are now inserted by defining option roms in the coreboot config, where the given path is /dev/null. The top swap setting on i945 is now enabled via CONFIG_INTEL_ADD_TOP_SWAP_BOOTBLOCK in the coreboot build system - basically, what this does is cat two identical copies of the bootblock together and insert the larger bootblock file (twice the size) at the end of the flash, whereas previously we did this in lbmk using dd. The benefit of the new setup is that it results in higher build speeds, and now the duplicated bootblock now appears in CBFS, so cbfstool will prevent overwriting it.
• include/mrc.sh: Also don’t use the dedicated unzip logic in the script. Re-use the generic logic provided by include/git.sh instead. Patch courtesy of Leah Rowe.
• include/mrc.sh: Don’t run the shellball provided by Google. Just directly run unzip instead. The shellball is just a zip file attached to some shell logic, that self-decompresses itself. Running unzip directly, gets you the same hash, and it’s much simpler in lbmk. Patch courtesy of Leah Rowe, after the shellball’s behaviour was pointed out by Nicholas Chin.
• script/update/trees: Greatly simplified crossgcc handling. Now the list of crossgcc targets are directly defined in target.cfg files, and the for loop in update/trees just goes through it, checking the relevant toolchain. Patch courtesy of Leah Rowe.
• config/ifd/xx30: Fixed bad component density count for 16MB setups, and reduced chip count from 2 to 1. This should make internal flashing work, on X230 setups where the user replaced the two flashes with a single 16MB flash. Patch courtesy of Nicholas Chin.
• NEW BOARD: HP EliteBook 8460p support added. Patch courtesy of Riku Viitanen.
• include/git.sh: Simplified submodule handling by not using subshells for running cd to a git repository. Instead, the -C option is used in Git.
• main build script, in the initialise_command (now initcmd) function: simplify handling of arguments, when determining what command was passed, and how to run it. Patch courtesy Leah Rowe.
• script/update/release: remove unnecessary “continue” command at the end of a for loop.
• include/option.sh: general code cleanup in the scan_config() function, on the if/else block assigning variables after scanning configs.
• include/option.sh: print errors to stdout instead, on the item() function
• include/git.sh: reduced code indentation, on the part that applies patches in a git repository.
• include/git.sh: simplify tree name check, by breaking earlier when the correct tree name is found on a multi-tree project. Patch courtesy of Leah Rowe.
• grub.cfg: Support scanning for extlinux configs, which are essentially the same as syslinux ones. If found, they are passed through GRUB’s syslinux parser, which then presents a menu as if it were a GRUB configuration. This should increase compatibility with distros that use extlinux, such as the Alpine Linux distribution.
• grub.cfg: Handle GRUB and syslinux/extlinux configs, on the USB boot menu option. Now it scans for both, thus increasing compatibility with many modern Linux distro installers. Before this change, Libreboot’s design was made with BIOS systems in mind, because we historically only supported systems that were BIOS-based, whereas GRUB is more common as a bootloader on UEFI-based install media, but in the past we mostly assumed isolinux/syslinux for that.
• grub.cfg: support ESP and extlinux setups. The so-called EFI System Partition is basically a FAT32 partition that can contain bootloaders and configurations, and it is commonly used on some machines that Libreboot supports, prior to Libreboot installation. GRUB also supports parsing syslinux configs, and extlinux configs are essentially the same. So now Libreboot GRUB automatically scans for GRUB and syslinux/extlinux configs by default, including on the ESP. This will increase compatibility with a wide variety of distros, without introducing UEFI support yet on x86, because those same Linux kernels can also run on bare metal (and this is exactly how it works, when you use GRUB as a payload).
• grub.cfg: Don’t boot linux unless there is a grub.cfg file provided on the HDD/SSD. Previously, a fallback entry existed as a last resort, if all else failed, but it made several assumptions that are mostly no longer valid in 2023. Patch courtesy of Leah Rowe.
• grub.cfg: scan LVMs first. This makes it more likely that an encrypted system (encrypted /boot) will boot first, once found and unlocked. Patch courtesy of Leah Rowe.
• dell-flash-unlock: in the README, link to several useful guides including Open Security Training section about BIOS and SMM internals on x86. Patch courtesy of Nicholas Chin. In general, update the README to include instructions related to disabling /dev/mem protection, and info about the newer boards now added to lbmk, that the utility can be used on.
• grub.cfg: Added BTRFS subvolume support, by default. Patch courtesy of the contributor, alias semigel.
• NEW BOARD: EDP variant of the ThinkPad X220, for use with eDP mod kits. These kits enable use of much nicer, higher resolution screens. We already provided a variant of the X230 for this, in lbmk. Patch courtesy of the contributor, alias risapav (real name not given).
• lbmk: remove support for the DEBUG environmental variable. It was never very useful anyway, and introduced about 10 years ago when the Libreboot build system was much less advanced than it is now. We already have much better debugging these days, when dealing with build system issues. Patch courtesy of Leah Rowe.
• lbmk scripts: Did a general sweep with shellcheck, fixing errors that it flagged, such as lack of double quotes in some places, and non-standard behaviour being used. The actual patch shows what is meant by this. Patch courtesy of Leah Rowe.
• lbmk scripts: Handle exit status correctly, when dealing with subshells. This continues on from the other fix below, after doing a sweep of the entire build system. Patch courtesy of Leah Rowe.
• script/update/trees: Correctly return error status when git am fails, while applying patches. Although it was printing an error message, the script was making improper use of subshells, leading to a zero exit, when it should have exited with non-zero status in such situations. Patch/fix courtesy of Leah Rowe.
• Bumped flashprog revision back to version 1.2, because the 1.4 RC we were importing has issues (also, Nico Huber’s flashprog will probably be used in future releases of Libreboot). Patch courtesy of Leah Rowe.
• Debian dependencies config: Fixed the freetype dependency, as tested on modern Debian Sid
• GRUB modules: re-added fat/ntfs file system support. Some users on EFI-based setups transferring to Libreboot couldn’t boot their linux systems, which had files installed onto EFI System Partitions. The next release after Libreboot 20231106 will once again work correctly on such setups. Patch courtesy of Leah Rowe.
• GRUB revision: bumped it to November 2023 revision, which contains several important fixes. Look at the patch for actual fixes, listed in the code import. It’s a lot.
• main build script: set --author in Git, when re-initialising the Git history on release archives. Patch courtesy of Leah Rowe.
• lbmk return status: don’t rely on return status for unconditional returns. There were some parts of lbmk that, in practise, would always exit, but could theoretically not, even when they are supposed to, regardless of exit status. Patch courtesy of Leah Rowe.
• lbmk help text: support showing the Libreboot version, project name and the version date, based on git metadata. Patch courtesy of Leah Rowe.
• Re-added GRUB modules: f2fs, json, read, scsi, sleep, diskfilter, hashsum, loadenv, setjump - needed on some setups. Patch courtesy of Leah Rowe.
• util/nvmutil: Added useful help dialog, showing usage instructions when no/invalid arguments are given. Patch courtesy of Riku Viitanen.
• Fixed the util/nvmutil Makefile, courtesy of Riku Viitanen. It was not properly formatted to include nvmutil.c, when running make-all.
• Dell Latitude E6430: Added VBT to CBFS, which was missing in the Libreboot 20231106 release. Also enable DRAM clear on boot. Patch courtesy of Nicholas Chin.
• BOARD ADDED: Dell Latitude E6530. Courtesy of Nicholas Chin.
• config/ifd: Renamed e6430 to dell_ivybridge, because the files can be re-used by other planned ports for Dell latitudes in lbmk. Patch courtesy of Nicholas Chin.

Exact git log, relative to 20231106:

* 11a82163 Bump GRUB to 2.12 release
* f3098f56 git.sh multi-tree: grab submodules *after* patches 
* 5fb6e36f update/trees: clean up the coreboot-version check 
* 4c9ee172 update/trees: support custom make/autogen argument 
* c6a0e495 update/trees: generic cmake handling 
* 30337b8f update/trees: avoid namespace clash in function 
* b0615581 update/trees: dont hardcode autoconf/bootstrap arg 
* eb3a8e2b unify script/update/trees and script/build/grub 
* 34ded35f lbmk scripts: general code cleanup 
* 4e067799 disable u-boot on x86 qemu 
* bc87b5f6 lbmk scripts: general code cleanup 
* 0c1d08d8 build/serprog: err if basename fails 
* eff9130b update/trees: further simplify crossgcc handling 
* 6752780f coreboot: update hp elitebook configs 
*   15298985 Merge pull request 'Add HP 8300 CMT port' (#173) from Riku_V/lbmk:hp8300cmt into master 
|\  
| * 74147ea4 Add HP 8300 CMT port 
|/  
* 0aca6332 lbmk scripts: shorter code lines 
* 575332f2 fix flashprog build error (implicit enum typecast) 
* b4ab3057 lbmk scripts: general code cleanup 
* 38a7aa31 build/roms: rename two functions for clarity 
* 746d9cad build: remove test command 
* 655d3cdc lbmk scripts: general code cleanup/optimisation 
* 25f9d948 git/pico-serprog: update revision again 
* e0fee7a4 git/pico-serprog: update revision 
* a48b3841 build/roms: improved error handling for roms 
* 33695a56 build/roms: remove redundant check 
* d5f8f657 dell/e6400nvidia_4mb: new configuration (nvidia) 
* 9d5d98eb set version/projectname properly 
* aa525142 update/trees: fix infinite loop 
* 465077bc vendor/download: check whether configs exist first 
* 39293279 vendor/inject: fix dodgy error check (cd command) 
* f44b99c8 don't delete microcode updates in rom images 
* 72cd169e update/release: don't test ./vendor inject 
* e8eb52f8 update/release: don't insert crossgcc tarballs 
* b0e5fc9d lbmk scripts: general code cleanup 
* b111f484 build/serprog: general code cleanup 
* 2f98ca6d build: simplified TMPDIR handling 
* ab65ea4c general code cleanup 
* fa25414b mrc.sh: run debugfs from extract_partition 
* 8a875722 mrc.sh: general code cleanup 
*   12e644b3 Merge pull request 'hp-ec-fw' (#172) from Riku_V/lbmk:hp-ec-fw into master 
|\  
| * 584c66e9 rename hp elitebook ec fw after rom families 
| * f7fda791 document hp laptop rom families 
|/  
* 92986f0c build/roms: remove modify_coreboot_rom() 
* 493ebdfb mrc.sh: remove redundant extraction logic 
* 1153bc3b mrc.sh: don't run the shellball. use unzip. 
*   28dfd91a Merge pull request 'hp8460pintel: actually enable vbt' (#171) from Riku_V/lbmk:vbt8460p into master 
|\  
| * aa4160e3 hp8460pintel: actually enable vbt 
|/  
* 3ccf1941 update coreboot configs 
* 95788059 update/trees crossgcc: call err if arch isn't set 
* 90ac30b1 update/trees: simplified crossgcc handling 
*   4711098e Merge pull request 'config/ifd/xx30: Fix 16_ifd component density and count' (#170) from nic3-14159/lbmk:xx30_16_ifd_fix into master 
|\  
| * dbec5bf3 config/ifd/xx30: Fix 16_ifd component density and count 
* |   4fb48595 Merge pull request 'Add HP EliteBook 8460p' (#169) from Riku_V/lbmk:hp8460p into master 
|\ \  
| |/  
|/|   
| * b0b4f86b Add HP EliteBook 8460p 
* | 7f98ab8e git.sh: simplify submodule handling 
* | 124b5beb build initialise_command: simplify handling 
* | 9c00746b update/release: minor cleanup 
* | f6ebab57 option.sh scan_config: clean up if/else block 
* | 3b7009aa option.sh: print error on stderr, not stdout 
* | c75ca20c option.sh: don't rely on zero status on printf 
* | 578f105d git.sh git_am_patches: reduce indentation 
* | cbd19d81 git.sh fetch_config: simplify tree name check 
|/  
* b9f69f26 grub.cfg syslinux: support scanning /boot/EFI/ 
* 766bb46c grub.cfg: fix path 
* 430918ee grub.cfg: handle btrfs subvols for extlinux.conf 
* d74c6c71 grub.cfg: scan extlinux/extlinux.conf 
* f1d6c143 grub.cfg: support grub and extlinux on ata/ahci 
* 6db94c1a grub.cfg: merge isolinux/grub usb menuentries 
* c4544e04 grub.cfg: handle extlinux in the default menuentry 
* eaa1341b grub.cfg syslinux: support ESP and extlinux.conf 
* b817001e grub.cfg: don't boot linux without a grub.cfg 
* 2d6e5ca4 grub.cfg: scan lvm volumes last 
* 49eed9ac Revert "grub.cfg: try luks2/crypto-lvm before non-crypto" 
*   aed4dff8 Merge pull request 'Dell-flash-unlock README updates from upstream' (#168) from nic3-14159/lbmk:dell-flash-unlock-updates into master 
|\  
| * d207e9bc README.html: Add possibly not working systems 
| * ab59f912 README.html: Add E6500, E6420, and E6530 as supported 
| * ca28255d README.html: Add instructions for relaxing memory permissions 
| * f4819081 README.html: Add references to Open Security Training 
* | 20389655 grub.cfg: try luks2/crypto-lvm before non-crypto 
* |   3a36c827 Merge pull request 'master' (#165) from risapav/lbmk:master into master 
|\ \  
| * | 15226f9e added x220edp_8mb 
| * | 1c337ac7 added x220edp_8mb 
| * | e6629606 added x220edp_8mb 
| |/  
* |   0a8ef113 Merge pull request 'Update config/grub/config/grub.cfg' (#167) from semigel/lbmk:semigel-btrfs-subvol-patch-1 into master 
|\ \  
| |/  
|/|   
| * ababbc09 Update config/grub/config/grub.cfg 
|/  
* 39a3de57 remove DEBUG handling in lbmk (not needed) 
* 1eb4df67 fix several shellcheck warnings 
*   54ca5f24 Merge pull request 'config/dependencies/debian: add unifont-bin & xfonts-unifont' (#163) from Riku_V/lbmk:debgrub into master 
|\  
| * 2e6073f2 config/dependencies/debian: add unifont-bin & xfonts-unifont 
* | 2e779a54 handle errors on exits from subshells 
* | 9558e2fc improved safety/error handling on multitree git-am 
* | 7af200a1 Merge pull request 'fix void dependencies: openssl-devel' (#161) from Riku_V/lbmk:fixvoid into master 
|\| 
| * 6d8d2e75 fix void dependencies: openssl-devel 
|/  
*   cb3fad07 Merge pull request 'fix void dependencies: freetype-devel' (#160) from Riku_V/lbmk:fixvoid into master 
|\  
| * 01a82431 fix void dependencies: freetype-devel 
|/  
*   5a6dec97 Merge pull request 'fix void dependencies typo' (#159) from Riku_V/lbmk:fivoid into master 
|\  
| * 50bfe1ca fix void dependencies typo 
|/  
* 4e00ac00 revert flashprog back to version 1.2 
* 83c8248f dependencies/debian: fix libfreetype-dev 
* 39aad578 grub: re-add fat/nt file system modules 
* 47ef411e Bump GRUB revision to 8 November 2023 revision 
* ce1176f5 fix typo in help text 
* 70882902 build: set --author when running git init 
* 5af3ae05 lbmk: don't use status for unconditional returns 
* 64f93374 lbmk: support showing the revision in help text 
* f4b2a588 build: don't generate version/versiondate as root 
* c4d90087 add grub mods: diskfilter,hashsum,loadenv,setjmp 
* d0d6decb re-add grub modules: f2fs, json, read, scsi, sleep 
*   f60286a3 Merge pull request 'Dell Latitude E6530 support' (#151) from nic3-14159/lbmk:e6530 into master 
|\  
| * 36d4c906 Add Dell Latitude E6530 support 
| * 8bb95639 config/ifd: Rename e6430 to dell_ivybridge 
*   4d7cb99c Merge pull request 'config/coreboot/e6430_12mb: Fix configs' (#150) from nic3-14159/lbmk:e6430-config-fixes into master 
|\  
| * a02c7e31 config/coreboot/e6430_12mb: Fix configs 
* d3ade208 Merge pull request 'nvmhelp' (#152) from Riku_V/lbmk:nvmhelp into master 
* 86608721 nvmutil: print usage 
* f12f5c3a nvmutil: fix makefile 

This is 117 changes, since Libreboot 20231106.

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