Re: [Tails-dev] [Tails - Feature #10972] Port Tails to ARM p…

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Autor: Chris
Data:  
Dla: n9iu7pk, The Tails public development discussion list
Temat: Re: [Tails-dev] [Tails - Feature #10972] Port Tails to ARM platforms
> https://labs.riseup.net currently issues an exprired certificate ... so
> by this way:
>
>> * Indentify what kind of target ARM platform we should support.
> In general >= armv7. I've got more modest while trying to cross-compile
> - for the moment my target platform is a raspberry pi 2.


You will want to target the Rockchip RK3188 and Allwinner A20. The
reason is that we can design hardware around these SoCs such that the
hardware can be booted without any proprietary pieces. Proprietary
software is a huge security threat. We are all currently dependent on it
because our hardware is dependent on it.

It's fairly well known within the free software community by those
working on hardware related projects that there are almost certainly
backdoors in Intel and AMD hardware (American companies). It's
advertised as a remote management functionality. In reality it can't be
disabled, manufacturers can't design around it, they won't give us the
source code, and it posses a serious security threat. They are hiding a
backdoor in plain sight on behalf the of the US government (most likely
scenario anyway).

Fortunately we know where China's been hiding its backdoors and it's at
the OS/bootloader level. At least that is the case with the systems
based around the Allwinner A20. Fortunately we can get the complete set
of corresponding sources for the critical functionality of this SoC.
Between the two pieces of information we can be reasonably confident
that combining this SoC with a set of other components where we have the
complete set of corresponding sources secure devices can be developed.

I've been involved in various projects to get sources released for
components where we have had no options. For example there were no
802.11n USB wifi chips post draft-n so I started working on getting the
complete set of sources out of one of the major companies designing USB
wifi chips.

We have a Crowd Funding campaign going on right now intended to make it
easier to design secure devices. The schematics are available for a
laptop and desktop design and these devices are based around a new
'Computer Card' standard called EOMA68. You can even download the
sources for the keyboard/screen/touchpad controller. With these designs
available and the new standard it should be relatively easy to design
other devices or upgrade to a newer Computer Card without replacing the
entire device. So for example when a computer card comes out with the
quad core Rockchip RK3188 any devices designed around this standard can
be easily upgraded.

https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68


There are a few devices I'd suggest focusing Tails development around as
they have the same SoCs which are or will be used in the above projects
(because of the source code situation). Doing so will enable users to
eventually improve there defensive posture.

For the ARM RockChip RK3188 here is probably a good development board to
use:

http://www.giadatech.com/pshow-128.html

The original Banana Pi and the original Cubie Board contain the
Allwinner A20 and are good development choices:

http://www.bananapi.org/p/product.html
http://cubieboard.org/model/cb1/

>
>> * how do we get an OS to boot from removable media on these platforms?
> In case of armhf armv7 i.e. raspberry pi 2: uboot. A removable media
> setup is not a quite difficult process.
>
>> * does all of the software we ship build+work fine on these platforms?
> (e.g. Tor Browser isn't built on ARM yet)
> No. I still couldn't build all tails packages (and the tor browser is
> not a tails package)
>
> --
> Best Regards!
> n9iu7pk
>
> PGP pool.sks-keyservers.net 0x4D12FFCB
> 7426 4598 B5AD 4D12 1699 C710 D602 E331 4D12 FFCB
>
> redmine@???:
>> Issue #10972 has been updated by BitingBird.
>>
>> % Done changed from 0 to 10
>>
>> ----------------------------------------
>> Feature #10972: Port Tails to ARM platforms
>> https://labs.riseup.net/code/issues/10972#change-59050
>>
>> * Author: N9iu7pk
>> * Status: In Progress
>> * Priority: Normal
>> * Assignee: N9iu7pk
>> * Category: Hardware support
>> * Target version:
>> * QA Check:
>> * Feature Branch:
>> * Type of work: Code
>> * Blueprint: https://tails.boum.org/blueprint/ARM_platforms/
>> * Easy: No
>> * Affected tool:
>> ----------------------------------------
>> * Indentify what kind of target ARM platform we should support.
>> * how do we get an OS to boot from removable media on these platforms?
>> * does all of the software we ship build+work fine on these platforms?
>> (e.g. Tor Browser isn't built on ARM yet)
>>
>>
>> ---Files--------------------------------
>> statPackages.txt (8.84 KB)
>> statPackages.txt (25.2 KB)
>> statPackages.txt (26 KB)
>> 20160217_build-state.txt (3.43 KB)
>> signature.asc (801 Bytes)
>> 20160531_buildState.txt (2.71 KB)
>>
>>
>
>
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