Libreboot

Libreboot
Graphic of Canteloupe, Libreboot's mascot, which is a running deer in black and white

Two ThinkPad X60 laptops modified to use Libreboot as their firmware
Original author(s) Francis Rowe
Initial release 12 December 2013 (2013-12-12)
Stable release 20150518 (May 18, 2015 (2015-05-18)) [±][1]
Development status Active
Written in Mostly C, and about 1% in assembly
Platform IA-32, x86-64, ARMv7[2]
Type Firmware
License GPLv2
Website libreboot.org

Libreboot is a free software project aimed at replacing the proprietary BIOS firmware found in most computers with a libre, lightweight system designed to perform only the minimum number of tasks necessary to load and run a modern 32-bit or 64-bit operating system.

Libreboot was established as a distribution of coreboot without proprietary binary blobs.[3][4] Libreboot is not a straight fork of coreboot; instead, it is a parallel effort that works closely with and re-bases every so often on the latest coreboot as the upstream supplier, with patches merged upstream whenever possible. In addition to removing proprietary software, libreboot also attempts to make coreboot easy to use by automating the build and installation processes.[5][6]

Endorsed by the Free Software Foundation (FSF),[7] the Libreboot project made possible the required modifications for completely libre variants of some ThinkPad, Chromebook, and MacBook laptops.[8][9] According to its own documentation, it can work with any Linux distribution that uses kernel mode setting (KMS) for the graphics, while Windows is not supported and its use is discouraged by Libreboot.[10]

Supported systems

Libreboot supports the following systems:[9][11][12]

References

  1. ↑ "Libreboot release information". Libreboot. Retrieved July 4, 2015.
  2. ↑ "Coreboot ARM". coreboot. 2013-10-15. Retrieved 2014-02-01.
  3. ↑ "Libreboot". Free Software Foundation. Retrieved 31 July 2014.
  4. ↑ "Libreboot". Libreboot. Retrieved 31 July 2014.
  5. ↑ "About the libreboot project". Libreboot. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
  6. ↑ "Replace your proprietary BIOS with Libreboot". Free Software Foundation. August 4, 2014.
  7. ↑ "Campaign for Free BIOS — Free Software Foundation — working together for free software". fsf.org. Retrieved 15 October 2015.
  8. ↑ Gay, Joshua (9 October 2012). "Respects Your Freedom hardware product certification". Free Software Foundation. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  9. 1 2 "Hardware compatibility list". Libreboot. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  10. ↑ "Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about libreboot". Libreboot.org.
  11. ↑ Larabel, Michael (June 28, 2015). "Libreboot Now Supports An AMD/ASUS Motherboard". Phoronix. Retrieved July 14, 2015.
  12. ↑ Brad Linder. "Libreboot ported to Asus Chromebook C201 (free software bootloader)". Liliputing. Retrieved 15 October 2015.

External links

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