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Comment by mattstocum | Hacker News Reader

Macs used to require a physical step in addition to the software setup to modify the boot ROM. I think it was something along the lines of load firmware update which initiates a reboot, after reboot press and hold the power button until there was a loud beep from the computer, then the firmware update could proceed. Not convenient, but more secure.

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That's resetting the PRAM and was required on old macs for some of the fimrware changes to actually take place (since the firmware was cached).

PowerPC Macs (in the 2000s, before the switch to Intel) did indeed require a manual step to update Boot ROM/firmware - a different mechanism than resetting the PRAM. You'd run the installer, then either shut down or reboot the Mac. As it booted, you'd either hold down the power button or the interrupt button (depending on the model) to initiate the update.

No, resetting PRAM is triggered by holding down command-option-P-R. This was a special step that was required specifically for firmware updates.

This reminds me of the hardware switch in the original Chromebook, the cr-48, which requires you to flip a switch underneath a piece of tape before you can install an alternative operating system.

https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/developer-information-f...

Actually, Chromebooks should be the most secure laptop platform nowadays, since every Chromebook has signed binaries and to enter in developer mode, you need some kind of switch so you can overwrite your bootloader.

Of course, this is assuming Chromebooks' bootloader doesn't have any secured problems.

Assuming that the signing key hasn't been compromised and added to an attacker's collection of keys, which is something certain three letter agencies have a habit of doing.

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