xref: /aosp_15_r20/external/coreboot/Documentation/releases/coreboot-4.15-relnotes.md (revision b9411a12aaaa7e1e6a6fb7c5e057f44ee179a49c)
1coreboot 4.15
2================================
3
4coreboot 4.15 was released on November 5th, 2021.
5
6Since 4.14 there have been more than 2597 new commits by more than 219 developers.
7Of these, over 73 contributed to coreboot for the first time.
8
9Welcome to the project!
10
11Thank you to all the developers who continue to make coreboot the
12great open source firmware project that it is.
13
14Important Announcement
15----------------------
16We are going to be changing the cadence from every 6 months, to every 3 months.
17That means the 4.16 release will be coming in February, 2022.
18
19
20New mainboards
21--------------
22* Asus p8h61-m_pro_cm6630
23* Asus p8h77-v
24* Asus p8z77-v
25* Google nipperkin
26* Lenovo w541
27* Siemens mc_ehl
28* Supermicro x9sae
29* System76 addw1
30* System76 addw2
31* System76 bonw14
32* System76 darp6
33* System76 darp7
34* System76 galp2
35* System76 galp3
36* System76 galp3-b
37* System76 galp4
38* System76 galp5
39* System76 gaze14
40* System76 lemp10
41* System76 oryp7
42* System76 oryp8
43
44Removed mainboards
45------------------
46* Google Mancomb
47
48Deprecations and incompatible changes
49-------------------------------------
50
51### COREBOOTPAYLOAD option
52
53Drop the deprecated COREBOOTPAYLOAD option, and replace it with MrChromebox's
54updated UefiPayloadPkg option. Simplify the Kconfig options to make it easier
55to build from upstream edk2 master. Drop the EDK2_USE_8254_TIMER Kconfig
56option since it applies only to CorebootPayloadPkg. Clean up the Makefile now
57that we're only building from a single edk2 package/target.
58
59### Remove old lp4x and ddr4 versions of spd_tools
60
61The migration to the new unified version of spd_tools is complete, so
62the old lp4x and ddr4 versions can be removed.
63
64### Remove AMD PI 00630F01
65
66No board currently uses AMD PI 00630F01 so remove it.
67
68Significant changes
69-------------------
70
71### Merged family of Asus mainboards using H61 chipset
72
73By using newer coreboot features like board variants and override devicetrees,
74lots of code can now be shared. This should ease maintenance and also make it
75easier for newcomers to add support for even more mainboards.
76
77### Changed default setting for Intel chipset lockdown
78
79Previously, the default behaviour for Intel chipset lockdown was to let the FSP
80do it. Since all related mainboards used the coreboot mechanisms for chipset
81lockdown, the default behaviour was changed to that.
82
83### Payloads unit testing
84
85Libpayload now supports the mock architecture, which can be used for unit testing
86payloads. (For examples see
87[depthcharge](https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/platform/depthcharge/)
88payload)
89
90### Unit testing infrastructure
91
92Unit testing of libpayload is now possible in the same fashion as in the main
93coreboot tree.
94
95### Introduce new method for accessing cpu_info
96
97There is currently a fundamental flaw in the current cpu_info()
98implementation. It assumes that current stack is CONFIG_STACK_SIZE
99aligned. This assumption breaks down when performing SMM relocation.
100
101The first step in performing SMM relocation is changing the SMBASE. This
102is accomplished by installing the smmstub at 0x00038000, which is the
103default SMM entry point. The stub is configured to set up a new stack
104with the size of 1 KiB (CONFIG_SMM_STUB_STACK_SIZE), and an entry point
105of smm_do_relocation located in RAMSTAGE RAM.
106
107This means that when smm_do_relocation is executed, it is running in SMM
108with a different sized stack. When cpu_info() gets called it will be
109using CONFIG_STACK_SIZE to calculate the location of the cpu_info
110struct. This results in reading random memory. Since cpu_info() has to
111run in multiple environments, we can't use a compile time constant to
112locate the cpu_info struct.
113
114This CL introduces a new way of locating cpu_info. It uses a per-cpu
115segment descriptor that points to a per-cpu segment that is allocated on
116the stack. By using a segment descriptor to point to the per-cpu data,
117we no longer need to calculate the location of the cpu_info struct. This
118has the following advantages:
119* Stacks no longer need to be CONFIG_STACK_SIZE aligned.
120* Accessing an unconfigured segment will result in an exception. This
121  ensures no one can call cpu_info() from an unsupported environment.
122* Segment selectors are cleared when entering SMM and restored when
123  leaving SMM.
124* There is a 1:1 mapping between cpu and cpu_info. When using
125  COOP_MULTITASKING, a new cpu_info is currently allocated at the top of
126  each thread's stack. This no longer needs to happen.
127