From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: ludo@gnu.org (Ludovic =?utf-8?Q?Court=C3=A8s?=) Subject: Re: Meltdown / Spectre Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2018 15:11:10 +0100 Message-ID: <87r2qo4ltt.fsf@gnu.org> References: <874lnzcedp.fsf@gmail.com> <20180106174358.GA28436@jasmine.lan> <87lghapeu5.fsf@gmail.com> <87incc6z9o.fsf@gmail.com> <87fu7g436e.fsf@fastmail.com> <87vagad3xx.fsf@netris.org> <20180110050427.GB29390@jasmine.lan> <878tcy83eq.fsf@gnu.org> <87fu75ryzp.fsf@gnu.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:38365) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1eboQw-0000hA-EQ for guix-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 17 Jan 2018 09:11:22 -0500 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1eboQr-00053z-CS for guix-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 17 Jan 2018 09:11:18 -0500 In-Reply-To: <87fu75ryzp.fsf@gnu.org> (Mike Gerwitz's message of "Tue, 16 Jan 2018 21:38:18 -0500") List-Id: "Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: guix-devel-bounces+gcggd-guix-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sender: "Guix-devel" To: Mike Gerwitz Cc: development@libreboot.org, guix-devel@gnu.org Mike Gerwitz skribis: > On Tue, Jan 16, 2018 at 12:10:53 +0100, Ludovic Court=C3=A8s wrote: >> Should GuixSD nevertheless provide a mechanism to support microcode >> updates, while not steering users to particular proprietary microcode? >> Just like Linux-libre (attempts to) support loading of proprietary >> firmware at the user=E2=80=99s choice? Would it make sense at all? > > Does Linux-Libre specifically support loading proprietary firmware, or > does the project phrase it as _any_ firmware, free or not, that the user > may provide? It obviously supports loading free firmware like what we provide in Guix. However, firmware is searched for under a specific file name, you can tell that some of these correspond to proprietary firmware only. Now, I wrote =E2=80=9Cattempts to=E2=80=9D because my understanding is that= , even though the project intends to permit it, the deblobbling code often/always breaks the non-free firmware loading code. > My point being: if there only exists proprietary microcode, it's hard to > make the argument that a freedom-respecting user will use a microcode > update tool for anything other than proprietary software. In that case, > does the inclusion of the microcode updater in Guix encourage the use of > non-free microcode, even if it doesn't state where to get it? Right, it=E2=80=99s a valid argument. Thanks, Ludo=E2=80=99.