System76 fixes major bug with Intel Management Engine on new Raptor Lake laptops, adds Secure Boot Support

System76 has modified its biosalternative coreboot implementation to allow disabling the Intel Management Engine on new Raptor Lake laptops. This fixes a major bug in the laptops. The laptops also receive support for Secure Boot.

System76 writes in a blog post that it made that bug fix with a firmware update. In an earlier version of coreboot that shipped with the laptops, the Intel Management Engine was disabled. After that, however, it turned out that the Intel ME turned back on for many users. This turned out to be due to a bug in biosalternative coreboot. That bug could cause a buffer overflow that caused Management Engine to start over and over again. System76 says it has now fixed that, but it does not yet work properly for models with Intel’s eleventh generation Tiger Lake U CPUs. The bug fix should be now too upstream of coreboot.

System76 hardware also gains support for Secure Boot in the firmware update. This is necessary for laptops that run Windows 11. The support also extends to current, thirteenth-generation Intel CPUs, and System76 says support will also be available for future Intel CPUs. System76 also wants to work on support for Secure Boot keys for Pop!_OS, the company’s own Linux operating system.

System76 also says that in the firmware update, the maximum power limit for Raptor Lake CPUs has gone to 45W, up from 28W. Modern laptops also get support for Nvidia’s Dynamic Boost and security updates have been added to the system.