Re: RFC: Minimal Intel ME Diagnostic Driver

Hi,


On 8/8/26 10:23 AM, Abdelkader Boudih wrote:
> I am considering adding a small Intel ME driver to FreeBSD.
>
> I know, Intel ME is everybody's favorite invisible spyware, but hear 
> me out.
>
> The goal is not to implement the full MEI/HECI stack. I mostly want 
> basic diagnostic information: firmware version, state, mode, status 
> registers, and enough information to tell whether ME is running, 
> disabled, in recovery, or unhappy.
>
> There is a practical reason for this. When ME misbehaves, the machine 
> itself can misbehave: watchdog resets, unexpected reboots, or other 
> seemingly unrelated failures. I recently fixed a machine by reflashing 
> its BIOS after discovering that a single bit in the ME region was 
> corrupted.
>
> It would also be useful for coreboot work. Right now, after 
> flashing/corebooting some boards, I often have to boot Linux just to 
> inspect the ME state and firmware information.
>
> The initial driver would intentionally be limited to this diagnostic 
> functionality. I don't plan to implement the complete MEI/HECI 
> interface, but I would structure the driver so that the necessary 
> skeleton is there if somebody wants to extend it later. If Intel 
> sponsor anyone for ME support, wants to complete the functionality in 
> the future, they would have a reasonable starting point rather than 
> having to begin from scratch.
>
> Before I spend time implementing this, Id like to know whether such an 
> intentionally limited driver would be acceptable in the tree. I dont 
> want to build it and then discover that it cannot be accepted simply 
> because it doesnt implement the entire ME interface.
>
> Would this scope be acceptable, and is there a preferred place or 
> existing interface in the tree that I should build around?
>
> I have hardware to test it on ME 8 to 16.


This is the thing I would really like to see in FreeBSD.

It would be great to later even add the possibility to disable this 
spyware with this or something similar directly from FreeBSD:

- https://github.com/MangoKiwiPlumGrape/intel-me-disable


Regards,

vermaden