Mekboy's blog - libre free software hardware linux rockpro64 open

PC on Libre/Free Software: hardware selection, RockPro64

I've been using a libreboot-ed ThinkPad T500, but USB system started to show its age - only one port works, and it's a random one on each boot.

Started to look for a replacement with these requirements:

Supported by Libre/Free Software - linux-libre, upstream U-boot without vendor blobs
Ability to install OS to SATA/NVMe drive. SD/eMMC/USB are too slow/unreliable
Sharing Internet connection via twisted pair and WiFi
Working Bluetooth
Upstream software: linux-libre, U-boot. I don't want to install forks of outdated versions.

Main candidates:

Blackbird, POWER9 CPU. Has a BMC, all firmware sources are available. Firmware for built-in NIC is in development, described here. Drawbacks are price and the fact that you can't order it (logistical problems due to covid, according to Talospace)
MNT Reform. ARM64 laptop, no vendor blobs except 16KiB one to initialize RAM. Shipping next year
RockPro64 - RK3399 SBC, 4G RAM, good-enough CPU (2xA72 + 4xA53), PCIe x4, 4xUSB, 1xRJ-45 (1 Gbit/s). Gentoo approves
Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L for libreboot treatment
HoneyComb LX2 aarch64, 16 A72 cores, a full-fledged motherboard. More expensive than RockPro64 (it has much more functionality). I couldn't find if it requires vendor blobs, and it's not in U-boot repo (by name)

I chose RockPro64. Pine64 sells a SATA card for it but it uses an ASM chip. Judging by forum threads and my experience ASM chips are not reliable - my mPCIe card on ASM1061 works with HDD but not SSD for some reason. Found this card - 4 ports, Marvell 88SE9215 chip, supported by Linux. Bluetooth and WiFi adapters that do not require vendor blobs were found on H-node (an excellent resource).

Resulting BOM: