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Linux: Booting Via UEFI Can Brick Samsung Notebooks
wehe writes "Heise News reports today some Samsung notebooks can be turned into a brick if booted just one time via UEFI into Linux. Even the firmware does not boot anymore. Some reports in the Ubuntu bug tracker system report that such notebooks can not be recovered without replacing the main board. Other Linux distributions may be affected as well. Kernel developers are discussing a change in the Samsung-laptop driver."
It appears even Samsung is having trouble tracking down the problem (from the article): "According to Canonical's Steve Langasek, Samsung developers have been attempting to develop a firmware update to prevent the problem for several weeks. Langasek is advising users to start Ubuntu installation on Samsung notebooks from an up-to-date daily image, in which the Ubuntu development team has taken precautions to prevent the problem from arising. It is, however, not completely clear that these measures are sufficient."
UEFI is working as intended.
Be seeing you...
Now THAT ladies and gentlemen, is a true brick. Not these smartphone soft-bricks that can be solved by a quick flash. you don't go home happy after a brick. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.
Not sure what Samsung you're talking about. Some of the Samsung products I own incorporate free (really free, libre) software products in full compliance with the GPL. They seem to treat free/libre software as an ally, not an enemy.
Samsung notebooks can be turned into a brick if booted just one time
Why do people say "one time" when there's been a shorter word for it for hundreds of years? Damn Fugees...
Why do people say "hundreds of years" when there's been a shorter word for it for centuries?
Please.
When I first installed linux it was the powerpc version, that is, a port, on a powerbook, in 2002.
One kernel recompilation and wireless worked, sound worked, gigabit ethernet worked, radeon 3d worked (lots of frames too). Only thing missing, the faxmodem.
Logic says the intel version should have been simpler, because of the 10x-100x mindshare it had. When I switched to intel, not exotic models, it wasn't. In the following years, i had INCREASING difficulties with laptops. The broadcom driver, 3d needing proprietary drivers (and proprietary IMHO means more lockups, instead of more quality). Then with desktops (firmware for the network card, a blasphemy because common protocols for any os to speak to a network card are there at any level of hardware abstraction).
Now, bricking a machine needs something more than a bug, it needs a feature. It makes perfect sense commercially. Hardware makers might bicker about windows to get better deals, but they sure know that if the world switched to linux their sales would go down, for lack of artificial obsolescence represented by the OS/drivers/app upgrade cycle.
The fight for the desktop has begun. Valve, restricted boot, UEFI, ACPI... Buy wisely.
---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
Hmm, let's see who is behind UEFI, shall we? AMD, AMI, Apple, Dell, HP, IBM, Insyde, Intel, Lenovo, Microsoft, Phoenix. Yup, Linux haters all. Obviously this is all Microsoft's fault.
Software can do it if it causes low-level data corruption in a component.
It's amazing how many things in modern systems have internal firmware these days. For example, any eMMC flash chip (found in many smartphones) has internal firmware that handles wear levelling algorithms and such.
Samsung's 2011 smarphones were rather notorious for containing eMMC chips that were not JEDEC compliant - if you issued a secure erase command to the chip, it had a very good chance of corrupting the wear leveller's internal state. This would render the eMMC chip mostly inoperable (this failure mode was nicknamed "Superbrick" for the fact that it couldn't be recovered via JTAG). If you corrupted the firmware itself somehow (which apparently happened more than 50% of the time if an attempt was made to update/reset it according to Samsung engineers...), it would render it fully inoperable and effectively dead.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
On the other hand, people might upgrade their hardware more often if they could be assured their new hardware wouldn't come with Microsoft's latest abomination and a shit-ton of bloatware.
I highly doubt this. Most consumers still call their computer case the "CPU" and buy new computers when they don't have to because they don't realize Windows and their computer are different things. Basically, the average person looks at their computer like they would an advanced VCR.
The sad fact is, most people go out and buy new computers precisely because it has the newest version of Microsoft's abomination and all that bloatware which are marketed as features on the box and by the Best Buy droids. Computer manufactures know this, love it, and bank on it. It's how companies like Intel can get away with requiring a new goddamned socket every year (or less) and not have people storming their castle with pitchforks and torches. My parents don't care. Dell don't care either, because they're selling whole systems and not parts. Likewise, every time Microsoft come out with a new version of Windows, computer makers start seeing dollarsigns.