Welcome

This is the place to look for recent announcements, activities, personal statements and ingoing donations – all provided to give you the best reasons to follow and endorse Zerocat and its ambitions.

2022/09/30

Chipflasher’s Flashrom Interface: Test Reports Available

Branch flashrom-interface, commit 91b1f109:

Automated test reports via Makefile
Test equipment, set 1, successfully flashed

2022/09/22

Chipflasher’s Flashrom Interface: Refined Testboard Features

Branch flashrom-interface, commit 98cbba6f:

Testboard features have been refined and enriched:

Onboard board version configuration via diplexer
Onboard firmware configuration via DIP switches
SPI voltage monitor and semaphoric flag system
Repetitive SPI power-up pulse
Automated SPI power suspend/resume cycle
Improved LED software status report

A difficult-to-flash target ThinkPad T60 with MX25L1605D is now supported.

2022/09/16

Chipflasher’s Flashrom Interface: Testboard with new Features

Branch flashrom-interface, commit a29e1a01:

In preparation for the next chipflasher PCB, the handmade testboard introduces new features:

Reduced set of LEDs for operator’s improved focus.
Unused pins are grouped together to ease future implementations.
Voltage monitor on net Vcc_SPI for safe within-spec-operation.
Alternate, analog voltage monitor input for testing purposes.
Sense input on net RS232_RST for improved status report and reset.
Reviewed capacitor values for flicker-free power shutdown.

Chipflasher Flashrom Interface, Testboard Documentation

2022/08/30

Chipflasher’s Flashrom Interface: Testboard Documentation

Branch flashrom-interface, commit 0cd1b4b9:

Documentation of the handmade testboard, used for prototyping, is available. Now heading for a new board feature: SPI Bus Voltage Monitor

2022/08/22

Chipflasher’s Flashrom Interface: New Default RS232 Baudrate

Branch flashrom-interface, commit d72b996a:

The SPIN/PASM code is now able to deal with an RS232 baudrate of 115200. This rate is set as default. A typical flash procedure of a 4M flash chip is now done within 35 minutes.

2022/08/18

Chipflasher’s Flashrom Interface: Full Power SPI Clock Driver @ 40MHz

Branch flashrom-interface, commit f91b83fa:

The SPI clock driver is now able to drive the clock line with full power over the full range of frequencies, using up to four pins in parallel.
The strength of the driver can be set during compile time, thus allowing mitigation of voltage over- and undershots.
The default strength of the driver is set to 50%.

2022/08/15

Donation received

Stichting NLnet sends €1.500,- for Zerocat Chipflasher Flashrom Interface, Milestone #4(13). Milestones left for this summer: 8

2022/07/29

Chipflasher’s Flashrom Interface: New Tasks Identified

Six additional tasks have been identified. These are now defined as milestones 8 through 13 in a project amendment paper, signed by Bob Goudriaan on behalf of the NLnet foundation. The final budget has been increased.

The project is now heading for an updated chipflasher PCB with improved firmware and will again apply for FSF’s RYF certification by end of this year.

2022/07/27

Chipflasher’s Flashrom Interface: Ultrafast SPI Routines

Branch flashrom-interface, commit 7d693973:

Breaking the ultrasonic barrier with SPI clock rates up to 40MHz!

Clock speed can be selected during runtime:

    flashrom -p serprog:dev=/dev/ttyS0:57600,spispeed=40M

2022/07/21

Chipflasher’s Flashrom Interface: Faster SPI Routines

Branch flashrom-interface, commit f8919500: The SPI bus is now accessed via PASM routines, which provide much better clock rates. Eight bits of data read/write is done with 5MHz. Other bit lengths are still transferred at good clock rates, such like 4MHz (read) and 3.33MHz (write).

See SPI Clock Speed with Flashrom for some pretty oscilloscope snapshots.

2022/07/11

Chipflasher’s Flashrom Interface: Optimized SPI Routines

Branch flashrom-interface, commit 4825a98e: The Spin routines that access the SPI bus have been cleaned and optimized. SPI modes 0 (default) and 3 are both supported.

2022/07/08

Donation received

Stichting NLnet sends €1.750,- for Zerocat Chipflasher Flashrom Interface, Milestone #3(7). Milestones left for this summer: 3

2022/06/30

Ready to fly: Chipflasher’s Flashrom Interface is Up and Running

I am very pleased to announce herewith the successful release of Chipflasher’s Flashrom Interface. The project’s core milestone #3(7) is now done. It links a widely used free software project to hardware of a free design, even down to chip level.

I receive great support from OSE-Germany e.V. and associated fellows, as well as from Michiel Leenaars from the NLnet Foundation. I am very grateful to meet your friendly companionship and encouragement!

Now have fun to see the documentation: Chipflasher Flashrom Interface

— Kai Mertens

2022/06/26

Team Member leaves Zerocat

Ricardo Morte kindly asks to have his contact details removed from the team page. He would like to direct his focus towards other projects, and changes his list of priorities.

2022/06/19

More Laptops in Shop

Occasionally, ThinkPads come with flash chips that have volatile registers. The chipflasher now handles these types more reliably with kick2, the second firmware approach. Selected devices move into the shop:

At power-up, volatile registers are set into Software Protection Mode (SPM) by the flash itself, that is why Hardware Protection Mode (HPM) cannot be applied via jumper.

2022/05/26

Keys Updated

I have just refreshed the expiration dates of my GnuPG Keys.
New key files are available on pages Team and OpenPGP.
— Kai Mertens

2022/05/25

Professional Circuit Schematics

The documentation of the Chipflasher Device provides professional circuit schematics, now split into pages: Small fixes applied, readability greatly improved!

2022/05/21

Firmware Write Protection for ThinkPad T60

Project Zerocat Flash Access advances to version v0.3.0 and ships a new how-to: See T60 SPI Flash Connector to learn about Hardware Protection Mode (HPM) for the firmware of the T60.

In addition, the T60 is now covered by the corresponding shop service:
SPI Flash Interface + Write Protection Jumper

2022/05/16

Donation received

Stichting NLnet sends €1.250,- for Zerocat Chipflasher Flashrom Interface, Milestone #7(7). Milestones left for this summer: 4

2022/05/08

New Projects

Zerocat Hyperbola Setup – Get the Hyperbola Operating System installed.

The Hyperbola Wiki provides detailed information on how to set up the Hyperbola Operating System, manually. Zerocat wraps selected steps into a script, such that the installation is automated and easier to accomplish.
Zerocat Parabola Setup – Get the Parabola Operating System installed.

This project offers a drop-in replacement for the original Install CLI of the parabola-dual-openrc-lxde-2020.08.03-netinstall.iso, which can be downloaded from the Parabola Wiki.
Zerocat Sleeve – Create a nice sleeve for your laptop.

A small, ancillary project for the creation of nice sleeves with a cat logo.

2022/04/24

Firmware Write Protection for ThinkPad T530

Project Zerocat Flash Access advances to version v0.2.0 and ships a new how-to: See T530 SPI Flash Connector to learn about Hardware Protection Mode (HPM) for the firmware of the T530.

In addition, the T530 is now covered by the corresponding shop service:
SPI Flash Interface + Write Protection Jumper

2022/04/19

New Logotypes and Icons

Zerocat used to use the last letter of the latin alphabet for its icons, in conjunction with an emphasized exclamation mark. However, we have to face the fact that this letter has been hijacked. As a consequence, we now drop that letter and use different icons as a clear act of sympathy and empowerment for the ukrainian people and for peace.

Resurrection Sunday, 2022/04/17

New Chipflasher PCB

The chipflasher project comes with an updated printed circuit board (PCB). Version board-v1.3.0 brings new features:

Board version stamp
Onboard cooling areas for voltage regulators U5 and U7
Additional, fast SPI bus power capacitor C11 footprint
Refined routes and power tracks
Better cooling for MOSFET Q1
Space for angular, 90° SPI bus connector
Auxiliary connector with 12 GPIOs and power pins on solder side

The CAD files have not yet been used for production – a budget of €500,- is needed to place the order of PCBs and to start assemblage. Please help!
See Donate for bank account details. — Kai Mertens

2022/04/09

New Service

SPI Flash Interface + Write Protection Jumper

This service greatly improves the integrity of your ThinkPad, as it applies hardware write protection to the firmware. Selected ThinkPads are supported, according to elaborated how-tos of the Zerocat Flash Access project.

2022/03/30

New Laptops in Shop

First “Next Generation Zerocat Laptops“ are now available for purchase. They come with exciting key features at very affordable prices:

encrypted Operating System preinstalled
Chipflasher Interface below Keyboard
Hardware Write Protected BIOS Chips
Intel ME disabled/neutralized, firmware deleted/cleaned
Zerocat Bootmenu and Branding

All tools required to create these laptops are freely licensed.
See shop’s product pages for references.

Note that Zerocat Coreboot Machines now ships an utility script that eases installation of Hyperbola GNU/Linux-libre – a young distribution that aims to improve reliability and integrity of the GNU System. See webpage for an example script run.

2022/02/27

Website Clean-up

Dropdown All Projects provides instant access to all projects’ master documentations. Page Core Projects becomes redundant and is deleted.
Project Turning Hook turns into a private repository.
Page Power Station is removed.

This clean-up eases orientation and helps focussing on core activities.

2022/02/21

New Team Member

It’s always satisfying to modify and free yet another Thinkpad: digging deeper, finding tweaks, making firmware replacement even simpler. My T430 has been flashed without even touching the fan! Let’s elaborate clipless procedures for more models, come and join the Zerocat Flash Access project!

— Jorgo Triantafilidis

2022/02/08

New Project

Zerocat Flash Access – Interfacing BIOS Chips in Hardware Protection Mode

This project demonstrates how your Free-Software Laptop security is further enhanced by activating the Hardware Protection Mode (HPM) of its BIOS chips. This feature is of special significance because it guarantees that your machine will always boot with the same code.

— Kai Mertens

2022/01/24

Donation received

Dave Dlugaiczyk sends €500,- to support the Zerocat Label.

2022/01/16

Let’s start 2022 with some first, good news!

We use Tox. See Team for contact details.
Follow me by reading my Tox Status Message!

All Core Projects have been updated: Zerocat Chipflasher v0.6.2, Zerocat Coreboot Machines v0.16.3, Zerocat Artwork v0.0.7, Zerocat Project Template v0.0.12, Zerocat Label Documentation v0.2.0 – These projects now refer to the same guix channel, guix b603554ed0, helping you to create bit-identical results.

Next steps will be: A new Chipflasher PCB, a Funding Page Proposal, new Laptops for the Shop

— Kai Mertens

2022/01/12

Donation received

Stichting NLnet sends €1.250,- for Zerocat Chipflasher Flashrom Interface, Milestone #2(7).

2021/12/31

Hurray, the year is over!

It was a difficult year for me and many others, so we do not need to make a resumé! Let’s focus on the next steps instead – I can’t wait to make them all come true in 2022:

Zerocat Chipflasher Flashrom Interface made great progress and continues to receive funding from the NLnet foundation! The project is now starting with core milestone #3(7).

Boost production of the latest free software laptops. In 2022 we will continue to provide the best quality laptops and promote their use. Current trends in digital surveillance, social control and pressure, makes this more relevant than ever. We are all in urgent need of private, secure communication equipment and all-purpose computers.

Launch of Zerocat’s crowd funding page. As we move into many new projects, we need funds to scale up!

I wish you all the very best for the new year and invite you to stop using compromised hardware and smartphones, throw them away! The sooner we liberate ourselves from that crap, the better we can save families, neighboorhoods and societies.

— Kai Mertens

2021/12/27

Zerocat Chipflasher v0.6.1 released!

This is a major step! The interface to the project’s connect utility has greatly been improved. You have full access to chips’ configuration registers and their protection and lock bits.

As an exciting, special feature, it also lets you access and lock the Secured One-Time-Programmable Regions, often found on ThinkPads. Lock the regions, before someone else will do it!

Furthermore, end-of-write-cycle detection can be switched from polling to timeout – This eases flashing of ThinkPad models T530 and W530.

Please note that Zerocat Coreboot Machines has been advanced, too. It now ships version v0.16.2.

Last but not least, all project documentations support inline images – I very much hope you like that!

— Kai Mertens

2021/10/26

Zerocat Coreboot Machines v0.16.0 released!

The project has been cleaned up, it should be very easy to use now. Special thanks to those hackers that have supplied hardware and that have tried the project on their own – you helped to improve it! See NEWS.

— Kai Mertens

2021/10/11

Some Progress / Jour Fixe

Zerocat Coreboot Machines comes with important fixes and new targets. See NEWS.

Zerocat Artwork ships new, simple screen backgrounds, which look very nice in conjunction with the boot menu provided by Zerocat Coreboot Machines.

Zerocat Chipflasher comes with fixed “Batch Erase” option. See Version History.

The Jour Fixe moves from sundays to mondays. See Team Page This gives room for family activities on week-ends.

Post 2021/06/26 has been edited.

— Kai Mertens

2021/09/26

New Projects / New Versions / New Documentation

Logotypes and graphics are now shipped with Zerocat Artwork. Let’s go for new logotypes, screen backgrounds, as well as T-Shirt templates.

Zerocat Project Template offers a simple project skeleton with markdown-based documentation system. It is meant as a starting point for new projects, and to ease contribution.

Zerocat Coreboot Machines now comes with version “v0.15.0”, which in turn uses upgraded Coreboot, GRUB2 and SeaBIOS. The bootmenu has been refined to support encrypted disks behind USB-SATA-Adapters.

Projects Zerocat Turning Hook, Zerocat PS/2-Keyboard and Zerocat Label Documentation have been cleaned up.

— Kai Mertens

2021/06/28

Project Chipflasher “flashrom-interface” has been updated.

Interface configuration has been put under user control.

Firmware “kick2” comes with improved block read operations (byte, page, block, chip) for the “connect” utility.

Next steps are tracked in project’s TODO file.

— Kai Mertens

2021/06/26

Sad to say, Zerocat Store Corner is closed.

It is time to look for a new location, long-term or temporal, event-based.

— Kai Mertens

2021/06/14

New Achievement!

Installation of an encrypted Parabola GNU/Linux-libre System is now supported per Zerocat’s alternate install script. See “Coreboot-Machines” dropdown menu.

— Kai Mertens

2021/04/22

Donation received

Stichting NLnet sends €1.250,- for Zerocat Chipflasher Flashrom Interface, Milestone #1(7).

2020/12/23

Free designs become even more important these times, ...

... as we see that societies rely on solidarité rather than on commercial market in cases of emergency. The right way to go is to request free designs not only for software, hardware and seeds, but for immunology vaccine as well.

— Kai Mertens