Libreboot is a distribution of coreboot “aimed at replacing the proprietary BIOS firmware contained by most computers,” according to Wikipedia. It was briefly part of the GNU project, until maintainer Leah Rowe and the GNU project agreed to part ways in 2017.

But here in 2023, the GNU project has created a fork of Libreboot named GNU Boot… The GNU Boot fork “currently does not have a website and does not have any releases of its own,” points out Libreboot’s Leah Rowe, adding “My intent is to help them, and they are free — encouraged — to re-use my work… ” But things have gotten messy, writes Rowe:

They forked Libreboot, due to disagreement with Libreboot’s Binary Blob Reduction Policy. This is a pragmatic policy, enacted in November 2022, to increase the number of coreboot users by increasing the amount of hardware supported in Libreboot… I wish GNU Boot all the best success. Truly. Although I think their project is entirely misguided (for reasons explained by modern Libreboot policy), I do think there is value in it. It provides continuity for those who wish to use something resembling the old Libreboot project…

When GNU Boot first launched, as a failed hostile fork of Libreboot under the same name, I observed: their code repository was based on Libreboot from late 2022, and their website based on Libreboot in late 2021. Their same-named Libreboot site was announced during LibrePlanet 2023… [N]ow they are calling themselves GNU Boot, and it is indeed GNU, but it still has the same problem as of today: still based on very old Libreboot, and they don’t even have a website. According to [the FSF’s Savannah software repository], GNU Boot was created on 11 June 2023. Yet no real development, in over a month since then…

I’ve decided that I want to help them… I decided recently that I’d simply make a release for them, exactly to their specifications (GNU Free System Distribution Guidelines), talking favourably about FSF/GNU, and so on. I’m in a position to do it (thus scratching the itch), so why not? I did this release for them — it’s designated non-GeNUine Boot 20230717, and I encourage them to re-use this in their project, to get off the ground. This completely leapfrogs their current development; it’s months ahead. Months. It’s 8 months ahead, since their current revision is based upon Libreboot from around ~October 2022…

The GNU Boot people actually sent me a cease and desist email, citing trademark infringement. Amazing…
I complied with their polite request and have renamed the project to non-GeNUine Boot. The release archive was re-compiled, under this new brand name and the website was re-written accordingly. Personally, I like the new name better.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – Libreboot Creator Says After Coding a Fork for ‘GNU Boot Project’, FSF Sent a Cease-and-Desist Letter Over Its Name

Monday a researcher with Google Information Security posted about a new vulnerability he independently found in AMD’s Zen 2 processors. Tom’s Hardware reports:
The ‘Zenbleed’ vulnerability spans the entire Zen 2 product stack, including AMD’s EPYC data center processors and the Ryzen 3000/4000/5000 CPUs, allowing the theft of protected information from the CPU, such as encryption keys and user logins. The attack does not require physical access to the computer or server and can even be executed via JavaScript on a webpage…

AMD added the AMD-SB-7008 Bulletin several hours later. AMD has patches ready for its EPYC 7002 ‘Rome’ processors now, but it will not patch its consumer Zen 2 Ryzen 3000, 4000, and some 5000-series chips until November and December of this year… AMD hasn’t given specific details of any performance impacts but did issue the following statement to Tom’s Hardware: “Any performance impact will vary depending on workload and system configuration. AMD is not aware of any known exploit of the described vulnerability outside the research environment…”

AMD describes the exploit much more simply, saying, “Under specific microarchitectural circumstances, a register in “Zen 2″ CPUs may not be written to 0 correctly. This may cause data from another process and/or thread to be stored in the YMM register, which may allow an attacker to potentially access sensitive information.”
The article includes a list of the impacted processors with a schedule for the release of the updated firmware to OEMs.

The Google Information Security researcher who discovered the bug is sharing research on different CPU behaviors, and says the bug can be patched through software on multiple operating systems (e.g., “you can set the chicken bit DE_CFG[9]”) — but this might result in a performance penalty.

Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader waspleg for sharing the news.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – AMD ‘Zenbleed’ Bug Leaks Data From Zen 2 Ryzen, EPYC CPUs

“Over the past week, a Reddit employee has posted to subreddits with ousted mods, asking for new volunteers,” reports Ars Technica.

But it’s not always going smoothly…

A Reddit employee going by ModCodeofConduct (Reddit has refused to disclose the real names of admins representing the company on the platform) has posted to numerous subreddits over recent days, including r/IRLEasterEggs, r/donthelpjustfilm, r/ActLikeYouBelong, r/malefashionadvice, and r/AccidentalRenaissance… Like most official Reddit posts since the API war began, the comments under the job ads display users’ discontent.

“May I nominate a mod? I think u/ConspirOC would be a great mod, as he created this subreddit and has successfully run it for years, before you forcibly removed him,” a user going by LittleManOnACan wrote on ModCodeofConduct’s post seeking replacement r/IRLEasterEggs mods. “Additionally, fire Steve Huffman (Fuck u/Spez).”

There’s also a desire among Reddit users for a return to not just how things were but an acknowledgment of the efforts made by many previous moderators, how things changed, and why things are different now. A Redditor going by QuicklyThisWay wrote on ModCodeofConduct’s post for news mods for r/IRLEasterEggs:

“Just to be clear for anyone ‘applying’ to be a moderator. The user that created the subreddit and any other mods were removed by admins for making the community private. Even though the option to change to private is available to all subreddits at any time, the admins have not and will not respect any ‘autonomy’ moderators appear to have…

As Ars has previously detailed, user protests didn’t prevent third-party Reddit apps from closing. However, they have disrupted the platform.

Reddit didn’t answer questions Ars sent about its replacement mod criteria or how it’ll help ensure new mods can properly handle their newfound volunteer duties…
“mods Ars has spoken with over the weeks have frequently pointed to the potential for burnout, death threats, long training sessions (from other volunteer mods), and rapid turnover for Reddit mods…” the article notes, adding “Without mods proven to be dedicated and experienced, it’s unclear how fervently such efforts will continue in the future…

“Disgruntled mods and ex-mods continue seeking new platforms to continue community discussions, including Lemmy and Discord. And as of this writing, there are still 1,900 subreddits private, per the Reddark_247 tracker.”

Meanwhile, the third annual edition of Reddit’s annual pixel-placing event r/Place “turned into a battleground for dunking on the CEO,” reports Polygon.

A Reddit spokesperson declined to comment about this year’s edition of r/Place, telling Polygon via email “redditors are going to reddit.”
Gizmodo’s article includes a timelapse video (from YouTube) that they say captures “the whimsy — and anger — of its users,” including “plenty of protest art directed at CEO Steve Huffman, who goes by u/spez on the platform…”
While there are plenty of examples of “Fuck Spez” to go around, the most creative moment occurred at the end of the project. As r/Place wound to a close, users were able to place a pixel once every thirty seconds, but the pixel had to be white — an effort to wipe the slate clean. However, in the final moments of the project, users collaborated to leave one massive “FUCK SPEZ” across the canvas.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – Reddit Users Heckle Search for New Mods, as Some Mods Move to Lemmy and Discord

Friday Ameria’s Department of Energy announced plans to re-purpose some of the land it owns — “portions of which were previously used in the nation’s nuclear weapons program” — for generating clean energy. They’ll be leasing them out for “utility-scale clean energy projects” in an initiative called “Cleanup to Clean Energy.”
The agency has identified 70,000 acres for potential development, in New Mexico, Nevada, South Carolina, Idaho, and Washington:

“We are going to transform the lands we have used over decades for nuclear security and environmental remediation by working closely with tribes and local communities together with partners in the private sector to build some of the largest clean energy projects in the world,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “Through the Cleanup to Clean Energy initiative, the Department of Energy will leverage areas that were previously used to protect our national security and will repurpose them to the same end — this time, generating clean energy that will help save the planet and protect our energy independence.”

The announcement notes that in December 2021, President Biden directed U.S. federal agencies to “authorize use of their real property assets, including land for the development of new clean electricity generation and storage through leases, grants, permits, or other mechanisms.”
“As the leading Federal agency on clean energy research and development, DOE has both a unique opportunity and a clear responsibility to lead by example and identify creative solutions to achieve the President’s mandate.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – America Will Convert Land from Its Nuclear Weapons Program into Clean Energy Projects

“This week, social media has been aflutter over a claim for a new superconductor that works not only well above room temperatures, but also at ambient pressure,” writes Science magazine.

If true, the discovery would be one of the biggest ever in condensed matter physics and could usher in all sorts of technological marvels, such as levitating vehicles and perfectly efficient electrical grids. However, the two related papers, posted to the arXiv preprint server by Sukbae Lee and Ji-Hoon Kim of South Korea’s Quantum Energy Research Centre and colleagues on 22 July, are short on detail and have left many physicists skeptical… “They come off as real amateurs,” says Michael Norman, a theorist at Argonne National Laboratory. “They don’t know much about superconductivity and the way they’ve presented some of the data is fishy.” On the other hand, he says, researchers at Argonne and elsewhere are already trying to replicate the experiment. “People here are taking it seriously and trying to grow this stuff.” Nadya Mason, a condensed matter physicist at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign says, “I appreciate that the authors took appropriate data and were clear about their fabrication techniques.” Still, she cautions, “The data seems a bit sloppy….”

What are the reasons for skepticism? There are several, Norman says. First, the undoped material, lead apatite, isn’t a metal but rather a nonconducting mineral. And that’s an unpromising starting point for making a superconductor. What’s more, lead and copper atoms have similar electronic structures, so substituting copper atoms for some of the lead atoms shouldn’t greatly affect the electrical properties of the material, Norman says. “You have a rock, and you should still end up with a rock.” On top of that, lead atoms are very heavy, which should suppress the vibrations and make it harder for electrons to pair, Norman explains.

The papers don’t provide a solid explanation of the physics at play. But the researchers speculate that within their material, the doping slightly distorts long, naturally occurring chains of lead atoms… [Mason] notes that Lee and Kim also suggest that a kind of undulation of charge might exist in the chains and that similar charge patterns have been seen in high-temperature superconductors. “Maybe this material really just hits the sweet spot of a strongly interacting unconventional superconductor,” she says.

The big question will be whether anybody can reproduce the observations…

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – Many Physicists ‘Skeptical’ of Spectacular Superconductor Claims

Oxide Computer Company spent four years working toward “The power of the cloud in your data center… bringing hyperscaler agility to the mainstream enterprise.” And on June 30, Oxide finally shipped its very first server rack.

Long-time Slashdot reader destinyland shares this report:

It’s the culmination of years of work — to fulfill a long-standing dream. In December of 2019, Oxide co-founder Jess Frazelle had written a blog post remembering conversations over the year with people who’d been running their own workloads on-premises… “Hyperscalers like Facebook, Google, and Microsoft have what I like to call ‘infrastructure privilege’ since they long ago decided they could build their own hardware and software to fulfill their needs better than commodity vendors. We are working to bring that same infrastructure privilege to everyone else!”
Frazelle had seen a chance to make an impact with “better integration between the hardware and software stacks, better power distribution, and better density. It’s even better for the environment due to the energy consumption wins.”
Oxide CTO Bryan Cantrill sees real problems in the proprietary firmware that sits between hardware and system software — so Oxide’s server eliminates the BIOS and UEFI altogether, and replaces the hardware-managing baseboard management controller (or BMC) with “a proper service processor.” They even wrote their own custom, all-Rust operating system (named Hubris). On the Software Engineering Daily podcast, Cantrill says “These things boot like a rocket.”

And it’s all open source. “Everything we do is out there for people to see and understand…” Cantrill added. On the Changelog podcast Cantrill assessed its significance. “I don’t necessarily view it as a revolution in its own right, so much as it is bringing the open source revolution to firmware.”
Oxide’s early funders include 92-year-old Pierre Lamond (who hired Andy Grove at Fairchild Semiconductor) — and customers who supported their vision. On Software Engineering Daily’s podcast Cantrill points out that “If you’re going to use a lot of compute, you actually don’t want to rent it — you want to own it.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – Building a Better Server? Oxide Computer Ships Its First Rack

“A new group of automotive super friends is banding together,” reports the Verge, “promising to build the next big North American electric vehicle charging network.”

These worldwide automakers — BMW, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, and Stellantis — announced a planned joint venture Wednesday to erect easy-to-activate DC fast chargers along US and Canadian highways and in urban environments.

The grand plan for the currently unnamed partnership is to install “at least” 30,000 high-speed EV chargers by 2030, with the first ones to open summer 2024 in the US. The collective plans to leverage National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) funding in the US and will also use other private and public funding from state and federal sources to build out the network… The new stations will connect and charge EV models made by the partnered automakers without having to fumble with another charging station app. The companies also plan to integrate the developing “Plug and Charge” standard that the Federal Highway Administration is attempting to standardize… All stations will include the standardized Tesla North American Charging Standard (NACS) ports and also the current widely used Combined Charging System (CCS) plugs.

“The new joint venture is also planned to be entirely powered by renewable energy,” the article adds.
But “It’s not known if renewable energy will directly power them or if the companies plan to buy credits like Rivian announced Tuesday.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – Seven Major Automakers Plan 30,000 More High-Speed Chargers in North America by 2030