442 replies to this topic

[Kiko]

well than would it be possible to stop it emualting BIOS and start emulating itself. or does it already do that?

[bofors]

Kiko, on Jun 4 2006, 09:04 PM, said:

well than would it be possible to stop it emualting BIOS...?

Yes, that is one of the main goals for this project.  We are interested in using Apple's flashing EFI firmware onto Intel EFI boards to do this.  Intel also regular (not BIOS emulating) EFI firmware that will eventualy be released (perhaps when Vista supports EFI), so we could and probably will work with that too.

[bofors]

anomaly256, on Jun 3 2006, 03:34 PM, said:

As manchmod said, I'm using rEFIt to run the efi shell (aswell as other things).  I've been pretty busy at work lately, a deadline for our current project is getting close so I haven't had much free time to play around with efi.  However I have some free time coming up soon and will gladly devote my time to trying to pull this stuff apart

I'll post anything I find here.

Great, looking forward to your assistance.

[stainboy]

hi guys. i just read this. i thought it was important so here it is:

"And just by coincidence," Brookwood remarked, "the fact that their system relies on EFI, and no commodity Intel hardware at the motherboard level supports EFI, means that you can't start their stuff on a commodity board." In other words, Apple might not need fancy code to determine for Mac OS X to determine whether an attempt is being made to launch it in a non-Macintosh system. It could simply try tripping a BIOS interrupt - what developers call an "INT 13h." If it works...then OS X could easily halt itself.

We had been wondering for quirte a while whether a certain implementation of Intel's long-awaited Trusted Platform Module, known as LaGrande Technology (LT), would be making its premiere in the new Macs. Such a system, with its well-buried cryptographic keys, could make it easier for Apple to protect its intellectual property - both its operating system and the media components a user may download from iTunes. But we know that the 945 chipset does not carry LT. If it is the 945 that's running the Macs, this means that TPM won't play a role in 32-bit iMac and MacBook Pro architecture, at least for the next six months or so. If Apple truly does have something unique to hide beneath the lid of its new systems, this apparently isn't it.

hope you guys are on the rigth path.

best luck

[bofors]

That is from an article at TG Daily posted in January: http://www.tgdaily.c...tel-based_macs/

Not that this has much to do with EFI, but I had thought some form of LaGrande Technology was being used to secure OSx86.  We know for sure that Apple is using encrypted binaries which were being decoded by the TPM chip, but perhaps the memory was not protected because LaGrande was fully operational and that is how Maxxuss was able to get the decrypted files needed.

[np_]

rogabean, on May 21 2006, 09:10 PM, said:

Specifically what we are in need of right now are the boot files being used to tell the system how to boot OS X. It is quite possible that Apple has reworked the EFI firmware to read HFS+ partitions, but that is unconfirmed.

is up to "AppleEFIRuntime" and his "plugin" "AppleEFINVRAM"

where will look for System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi with "partition" UUID

set as "resource" (see IOKit reference of "publishResource(name, object)" )boot.efi = osx install UUID , stored at NVRAM in mac eeprom

depend's on bunch of "*.efi" modules

[stainboy]

bofors.

so you think it is important to get a board thats has both tpm and efi?
i know yours has but there are other efi (intel) boards that only have efi. in order to get things going in the future, the most compatible board should have both?

thx

[bofors]

Whether a board has a TPM chip or not should be irrelevant here.  This is because Apple's signs its TPM chips with its secret "endorsement key", TPM boards that you can buy are not encoded with that key.

EFI boards might make a difference in the future, after this project can flash them.  But for now, EFI should not be a primary factor in choosing which board to buy.

[Kiko]

Hey guys, Im not wanting to be annoying or anything, but thios board has been dead for like a couple days. What is happening?

[rogabean]

Well I can't speak for anyone else, but real life has kept me barely able to breathe as of late. That's the reason for my absence... Hopefully it will all calm down soon so I can get back to working on this.

[amalgam]

bofors, on Jun 20 2006, 12:56 AM, said:

Whether a board has a TPM chip or not should be irrelevant here.  This is because Apple's signs its TPM chips with its secret "endorsement key", TPM boards that you can buy are not encoded with that key.

EFI boards might make a difference in the future, after this project can flash them.  But for now, EFI should not be a primary factor in choosing which board to buy.

@bofors
Got impatient, reading all the questions from others that say "but what if" "I don't think" "isn't EFI illegal in Botswana", etc, etc. So bought a 945GNTLKR, knowing full well it's old tech. I'm gonna dink with all the things that come to mind.

Hopefully some others will do similar. After all, it's not like there's any personal health risks involved - just a piece of soon-to-be-antique hardware.

You seem to have a handle on what EFI is/can do, I'll try to add feedback as things progress.

BTW, both the Intel and Tianocore toolkits are full featured/fully working, just need people to get a better handle on how to use them is all.

I don't know what advantage will really be served putting a Apple firmware onto an Intel board, but that will be first order of business over here. It can't possibly work better than the Intel firmware (Apple power management comes to mind).

[Baltazar]

What about buying a Appleboard as a repairpart and go from there?!

[Kiko]

Well, i dont hink Apple repair boards are very cheap, also it would just be the same as having a working iMac wouldnt it?

[Baltazar]

Kiko, on Jul 19 2006, 01:48 AM, said:

Well, i dont hink Apple repair boards are very cheap, also it would just be the same as having a working iMac wouldnt it?

I'm thinking more like going for the upcoming Mac Pro board. And from there you could use cheaper stuff to build your own box. But as you say, it's probobly really expensive and I think it's a bit hard to get your hands on the Mac-boards.

[Kiko]

Well thanks for your idea, it might be an option for some pepole

[np_]

if apple make mistake and post leopard kernel sources for PPC ie darwin xnu, won't need any "EFI" loaders, cracks, flashing or sort of

the think is much more simple

[Kiko]

yeah, hahah, that what was what i had thought of then dismissed quickly. That would be an even better option

[stainboy]

oh that kind of better.... eheheheheehehe

[LedY]

More bonus content from Amit Singh's new OSX book...specifically stuff about the firmware, BIOS, and EFI.

http://www.osxbook.c...pter4/firmware/

[bofors]

Ditto: http://www.osxbook.c...efiprogramming/