libreboot/RELEASE

GNU Libreboot 20160818

This is a brand GNU release. Libreboot joined the GNU project on 14 May 2016.
This 18 August 2016 release is the first GNU release of libreboot.

NEW BOARDS ADDED:
* ASUS Chromebook C201 (ARM laptop) (thanks to Paul Kocialkowski)
* Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L motherboard (desktop) (thanks to Damien Zammit)
* Intel D510MO motherboard (desktop) (thanks to Damien Zammit)
* ASUS KCMA-D8 motherboard (desktop) (thanks to Timothy Pearson)
* ASUS KFSN4-DRE motherboard (server) (thanks to Timothy Pearson)
* ASUS KGPE-D16 motherboard (server) (thanks to Timothy Pearson)

For boards previously supported, many fixes from upstream have been merged.

Other changes (compared to libreboot 20150518):
(this is a summary. For more detailed change list, refer to the git log)

256MiB VRAM allocated on GM45 (X200, T400, T500, R400) instead of 32MiB.
This is an improvement over both Lenovo BIOS and Libreboot 20150518, allowing
video decoding at 1080p to be smoother. (thanks Arthur Heymans)
To clarify, GM45 video performance in libreboot 20160818 is better than on
the original BIOS and the previous libreboot release.

64MiB VRAM on i945 (X60, T60, MacBook2,1) now supported in coreboot-libre, and
used by default (in the previous release, it was 8MiB allocated). Thanks to
Arthur Heymans.

Higher battery life on GM45 (X200, T400, T500, R400) due to higher cstates now
being supported (thanks Arthur Heymans). C4 power states also supported.

Text mode on GM45 (X200, T400, T500, R400) now works, making it possible to
use MemTest86+ comfortably. (thanks to Nick High from coreboot)

Dual channel LVDS displays on GM45 (T400, T500) are now automatically
detected in coreboot-libre. (thanks Vladimir Serbinenko from coreboot)

Partial fix in coreboot-libre for GRUB display on GM45, for dual channel
LVDS higher resolution LCD panels (T400, T500). (thanks Arthur Heymans)

Massively improved GRUB configuration, making it easier to boot more
encrypted systems automatically, and generally a more useful menu for booting
the system (thanks go to Klemens Nanni of the autoboot project).
Libreboot now uses the grub.cfg provided by the installed GNU/Linux distribution
automatically, if present, switching to that configuration. This is done across
many partitions, where libreboot actively searches for a configuration file
(also on LVM volumes and encrypted volumes). This should make libreboot more
easy to use for non-technical users, without having to modify the GRUB
configuration used in libreboot.

Utilities archives is now source only. You will need to compile the packages
in there (build scripts included, and a script for installing build dependencies
in Trisquel 7). (binary utility archives are planned again in the next
release, when the new build system is merged)

SeaGRUB is now the default payload on all x86 boards. (SeaBIOS configured to
load a compressed GRUB payload from CBFS immediately, without providing an
interface in SeaBIOS. This way, GRUB is still used but now BIOS services are
available, so you get the best of both worlds). Thanks go to Timothy Pearson
of coreboot for this idea.

crossgcc is now downloaded and built as a separate module to coreboot-libre,
with a universal revision used to build all boards.

Individual boards now have their own coreboot revision and patches, independently
of each other board. This makes maintenance easier.

Updated all utilities, and modules (coreboot, GRUB, etc) to newer versions,
with various bugfixes and improvements upstream.

RTC century byte issue now fixed on GM45 in coreboot-libre, so the date
should now be correctly displayed when running the latest linux kernel, instead
of seeing 1970-01-01 when you boot (thanks to Alexander Couzens from coreboot)

Build system now uses multiple CPU cores when building, speeding up building
for some people. Manually specifying how many cores are needed is also possible,
for those using the build system in a chroot environment. (thanks go to
Timothy Pearson from coreboot)

In the build system (git repository), https:// is now used when cloning coreboot.
http:// is used as a fallback for GRUB, if git:// fails.

New payload, the depthcharge bootloader (free bootloader maintained by Google)
for use on the ASUS Chromebook C201. (thanks go to Paul Kocialkowski)

Various fixes to the ich9gen utility (e.g. flash component density is now
set correctly in the descriptor, gbe-less descriptors now supported)

The official documentation included in the release in provided in texinfo
format, instead of HTML; this was one of the requirements for joining GNU.
(the other requirement is a new build system, to comply with GNU standards,
e.g. Makefiles, and common Makefile entries present in all GNU software. As of
Libreboot 20160818, this new build system is not yet merged, but will be
in the release afterwards)
ChangeLog and NEWS files are included in the release, to comply with GNU
standards (they are dumps of the git-log output)