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Matthew Garrett Has a Fix To Prevent Bricked UEFI Linux Laptops
hypnosec writes "UEFI guru Matthew Garrett, who cleared the Linux kernel in Samsung laptop bricking issues, has come to rescue beleaguered users by offering a survival guide enabling them to avoid similar issues. According to Garrett, storage space constraints in UEFI storage variables is the reason Samsung laptops end up bricking themselves. Garrett said that if the storage space utilized by the UEFI firmware is more than 50 percent full, the laptop will refuse to start and ends up being bricked. To prevent this from happening, he has provided a Kernel patch."
more than 50 per cent full = fail is bad and Samsung needs to come out with a bios update to fix that.
n/t
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
No the bricked laptops are still bricked. This just stops more laptops from falling to the same bug.
---The UEF Interface seems to work just fine with Win OS and iOS. How is that a bios problem?
Samsungs implementation of UEFI is the problem, not the UEFI specification. No, it's not a 'bios' problem, UEFI replaced bios, but Samsung seems to have done something odd in their implementation of UEFI.
"---Gee wonder why the great mass migration to Linux hasn't happened?
Well sure, that has always been an issue. Linux apparently isn't important enough for companies to bother testing for it, which means it only works with contrived hacks, which means no one uses it, which means companies don't think it's important enough to bother testing for it.
Just sue on the small claims court.
You pay like 35 pounds to issue the legal challenge, and you almost automatically win because the problem is due to a defective product.
Samsung on the other hand will have to show as represented by some lawyer, and has to pay everything.
If it doesn't show, they will get a decision by default, which is almost the same...
Why do you think companies do replace items like that instead of flatly refusing?
Because they can't afford the bad publicity and the continuously court auditions.
Besides, don't even try to do a class action... is way more fun to have the company to run amok between 1000 court rooms almost at the same time...
BTW i'm not a lawyer and this is not legal advise. :)
The UEF Interface seems to work just fine with Win OS and iOS. How is that a bios problem?
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2027819/not-just-linux-windows-can-brick-samsung-laptops-too.html No bad on Windows too.
Please don't quote other peoples comments as fact, I suggest you check out the reply to it.
As for the Mass Migration to Linux, that happened with Android, which is set to become the most installed OS this year.
You can sometimes on many "bricked" devices like linksys router bricks after borking a dd-wrt install
and on the samsung laptops as well by playing with the jtag
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Test_Action_Group
most stuff has jtag support and in some cases you can use the jtag header to unbrick a device.
I've unbricked an old WRT54GL after a screwup I did on an older dd-wrt install few years ago using jtag.
it's not something a normal user would be able to do or have confidence in doing, so yea in most cases the normal user will never unbrick.
It's been demonstrated that this bug can be elicited from Windows as well. And Windows expects to be able to write even more info than Linux was. Linux was just the first to expose the problem by trying to use UEFI variables to hold kernel panic info (Apple does something similar). IT didn't help that the UEFI driver itself caused the kernel panic, after which the kernel writes some debug log info to the UEFI to support later postmortem analysis.
The fix is in the wrong place. Is basically broken hardware, something that run as root/admin (intended or not) could brick them at any time. Is a problem just waiting to happen, avoiding them is the right solution.
procedure. Some ARM chips have bootstrap code that will talk to a usb device (i.e. looks like a serial port, sort of), and there is a program that lets you load the initial software no matter what's in flash. That usb port might just be a header or a bunch of pads on the cpu.
With other devices you have to go into a jtag port, (i.e. a header or perhaps just solder pads) load a tiny program into ram, and use THAT to program the flash.
If they build them with empty flash, there has to be a way to do the initial load. If they build them with programmed flash, it might not be possible without unsoldering the flash chip(s) or something like that.
If they can, they weren't bricked in the first place. That's what "bricked" means.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
According to Garrett, storage space constraints in UEFI storage variables is the reason Samsung laptops end up bricking themselves.
Is? Is?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
The name is a contrast to the Divided Test Action Group, which collapsed because of internecine squabbling that led to layoffs, punch ups in the parking lot and eventually drive by shootings.
Brian Damage, their former CTO, is currently serving fourteen life sentences in a SuperMax prison for a flame thrower revenge attack on the Floor 6.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
Are you not seeing the insanity of avoiding errors caused by being 100% full by bricking the device at 50% full?
Reactor explosion timer destroyed. Reactor Explosion Uncertainty Emergency Preemption Protocol activated. This facility will self-destruct in two minutes.
No, the problem is that on the approach to the bridge is a sign "height limitation 3m", but actually the bridge has only 1.5m clearance. Cars still pass, but even the tiniest lorry will bump into it.