libreboot/www/news/libreplanet2018-workshop.md

% Libreboot installation workshop at FSF LibrePlanet 2018 conference % Leah Rowe % 21 March 2018

LibrePlanet is the annual conference held by the Free Software Foundation in Boston, MA, USA. This year, it's being held at MIT university on March 24th and 25th. More details about it are here: https://libreplanet.org/2018/

The FSF isn't officially hosting a Libreboot workshop at LibrePlanet this year. At the 2015 and 2016 LibrePlanet conference, there were workshops there run by myself and Patrick McDermott, a former member of the Libreboot project. The FSF has confirmed that they don't have a dedicated room for it this year, due to increasing number of conference goers.

Therefore, an unofficial workshop is being set up. I've already issued a news post about this on the libreplanet-discuss mailing list: https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/libreplanet-discuss/2018-03/msg00037.html

With John Sullivan's blessing: https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/libreplanet-discuss/2018-03/msg00039.html

If you, the reader, are attending LibrePlanet this year, and you would like to get a Libreboot system flashed for you, then take it with you to LibrePlanet. There will be knowledgeable people there who can flash Libreboot for you.

Find one of the people on the list below (list will be updated if more people volunteer to flash). If it's Kurt, they'll flash for you at the Technoethical booth. If it's someone else, they can take you into the speakers' lounge (it does not matter if they're not a speaker). John Sullivan of FSF has approved this. There are tables, chairs and power sockets in that room. There are also tables and chairs outside the speakers' lounge, in the common area at the conference, but I highly recommend using the speakers' lounge. That's where I took people, on LibrePlanet 2015 and 2016 :) It's really comfy in there.

John Sullivan of FSF has also confirmed that that there is a dedicated alcohol-free social and hacking time at the FSF office on Saturday 24th March, between 1900-2130 (7-9:30 PM). You could also flash someone's laptop for them there, in the conference room at the FSF, or on a table outside. Or the sysadmin room, if that's OK with them.

I've been asking around. The following people have confirmed so far that they will be providing Libreboot flashing services at the conference:

• Kurt from Technoethical, an FSF-endorsed Libreboot hardware seller. They will also have their own samples. They'll be at the Technoethical booth there. IRC nick sensiblemn_ or sensiblemn on #libreboot IRC
• zyliwax from #libreboot IRC - has confirmed that they will be there
• Patrick McDermott (pehjota) of Libiquity. Patrick is also present at LibrePlanet, and has brought flashing equipment. What Patrick said on the libreplanet-discuss mailing list: look for the person that is wearing a grey Libiquity polo shirt. They posted this picture on the mailing list, so you know how to find this person: http://www.libiquity.com/media/images/patrick-mcdermott.jpg
  • of note: Patrick is bringing CH341A-based programmer, and can flash D8/D16
• You could also find an FSF sysadmin and ask them to flash Libreboot for you.

I would be grateful if anyone else would also be willing to provide flashing. I myself am not attending the conference physically, unfortunately.

See mailing list post for more info. If you would like to help Kurt and zyliwax out, please either reply to that mailing list post on libreplanet-discuss or email me directly: leah@libreboot.org and I'll add your name in the above list.

Basically, all you need for flashing someone's laptop at the conference is:

• Portable SPI flasher (USB powered. SSH into it via your laptop, use the SPI flasher's own 3v3, etc). Make sure to use the workaround-mx patch on flashrom, so that you can use --workaround-mx on Macronix chips, if flashing an X200, otherwise flashing will be unreliable (see mailing list post linked above) - portability is important, in case you sit down with someone in a place without power sockets. See guides on libreboot.org for setting up SPI flashers, but ignore the notes about external PSUs and instead just wire up the flasher's own 3v3 connection. The workaround-mx patch is here: https://notabug.org/consts/libreboot/raw/2caaac00972d9ea56b0fcd7c95897e90283b05b8/projects/flashrom/patches/0005-Workaround-MX25-reliable-operation.patch apply this on flashrom src and build with that. To use it, just pass the --workaround-mx option in flashrom.
• Screwdrivers (phillips head 0 and 00 - sometimes labelled PH0 or PH00, respectively)
• Thermal paste and thermal cleaning material, for T400 flashing
  • arctic mx-4 paste recommended. For cleaning material, use anti-static cloth and isopropyl alcohol - as pure as possible! ideally close to 100%! 70% rubbing alcohol is common in USA, and not suitable for electronics
• Anti-ESD wrist/ankle strap, to protect against damage from electrostatic discharge when working with circuit boards.

Optionally:

• Bring DIP8 25xx SPI chips with Libreboot, for ASUS KCMA-D8 or KGPE-D16, for the conference goer to put in their D8/D16 when they get home. Also PLCC32 LPC 1MB (or bigger, with padding at the beginning) chips for ASUS KFSN4-DRE
• Soldering equipment (knife tip, hot air, etc) for X200T flashing. NOTE: FSF has soldering equipment in their office, you could ask them to lend it to you if you're flashing a laptop there at the FSF office. NOTE2: Kurt from Technoethical is also bringing soldering equipment.