Hi Felix,

I bought a laptop of the company Tuxedo
where I can disable IME.

The options were really tricky. Difficult.

I will check again, if they enabled it again. Hopefully not.

I didn´t install any proprietary in the beginning.
But I don´t know, and that´s why my question,
if on my laptop is something installed beforehand.
I don´t have enough knowledge about boot process etc.

I assume Shepherd is the Guix init system like systemd in other linux 
distros. Is that right?

What is Grub? Is EFI a part of Grub?

I guess Guix community replaced "EFI" with "grubx64.efi"
that´s why we can find this file in the boot/EFI folder.

 > Booring often requires proprietary firmware blobs

What do you mean by "Booring" I don´t understand this word?
Thanks

Gottfried



Am 08.01.25 um 18:51 schrieb Felix Lechner:
> Hi Gottfried,
> 
> On Wed, Jan 08 2025, gfp wrote:
> 
>> I want to know briefly (for security reasons) what proprietary
>> packages/programmes are on my laptop installed or run.
> 
> I am not sure there is a single way.  I wouldn't install them in the
> beginning.
> 
>> I unset IME (Intel Management Engine)
> 
> I would disable IME completely.  The options are very tricky.  I believe
> the standard settings enable remote re-activation after it was turned
> off.
> 
>> What is the difference of Grub, EFI, Shepherd, gnu-boot?
> 
> EFI is proprietary (but grubx64.efi is not).  Everything else is free
> software.
> 
>> In the manual I read Guix starts immediately with Linux libre kernel.
> 
> That's after the boot process.  EFI and Grub come first.

> 
>> Could somebody briefly describe where are proprietary packages hidden
>> in those running/initialising services?
> 
> Booring often requires proprietary firmware blobs.  They are usually
> stored in ROM chips on your equipment.
> 
> Microcode updates are also proprietary.
> 
> Good luck!
> 
> Kind regards
> Felix