Coreboot: Difference between revisions
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Regular BIOS are nasty binary blobs already. EFI potentially can prevent us from installing Free software on the machine, by restricting installs to Windows or whatever OS has a key it is configured to recognize. | Regular BIOS are nasty binary blobs already. EFI potentially can prevent us from installing Free software on the machine, by restricting installs to Windows or whatever OS has a key it is configured to recognize. | ||
=How to coreboot= | |||
==What you'll need== | |||
Live linux with sshd OR flashrom installed | |||
==Get hardware info== | |||
Coreboot needs to know what kind of flash memory you have and what kind of writer (programmer) is available. | |||
Look here: http://www.coreboot.org/Support | |||
Follow the directions. | |||
==Build coreboot image== | |||
No one knows how to do this. The developers didn't bother to document it. Too bad! | |||
==Build payload== | |||
Same here. | |||
==Flash image to CMOS== | |||
Use the flashrom tool to flash images to CMOS. | |||
''READ THE FLASHROM MANPAGE BEFORE YOU START'' | |||
flashrom needs sudo | |||
sudo flashrom -p internal | |||
flashrom without parameters probes the local hardware. Use the -p option to specify a programmer. | |||
Output on warthog: | |||
<pre> | |||
flashrom v0.9.6.1-r1563 on Linux 3.2.0-4-amd64 (x86_64) | |||
flashrom is free software, get the source code at http://www.flashrom.org | |||
Calibrating delay loop... OK. | |||
Found chipset "AMD Hudson". Enabling flash write... OK. | |||
Found Winbond flash chip "W25Q32" (4096 kB, SPI) at physical address 0xffc00000. | |||
No operations were specified. | |||
</pre> | |||
==PROFIT== | |||
Revision as of 17:29, 21 June 2013
What's Coreboot?
coreboot is an alternate firmware image for PC BIOS. It is tiny and only loads a "payload", usually a linux kernel or SEABIOS or such. http://www.coreboot.org/Welcome_to_coreboot
http://www.seabios.org/SeaBIOS
Why coreboot?
Because EFI. We can't grant or adopt hardware that contains locked non-free firmware. Regular BIOS are bad enough!
Regular BIOS are nasty binary blobs already. EFI potentially can prevent us from installing Free software on the machine, by restricting installs to Windows or whatever OS has a key it is configured to recognize.
How to coreboot
What you'll need
Live linux with sshd OR flashrom installed
Get hardware info
Coreboot needs to know what kind of flash memory you have and what kind of writer (programmer) is available.
Look here: http://www.coreboot.org/Support
Follow the directions.
Build coreboot image
No one knows how to do this. The developers didn't bother to document it. Too bad!
Build payload
Same here.
Flash image to CMOS
Use the flashrom tool to flash images to CMOS.
READ THE FLASHROM MANPAGE BEFORE YOU START
flashrom needs sudo
sudo flashrom -p internal
flashrom without parameters probes the local hardware. Use the -p option to specify a programmer.
Output on warthog:
flashrom v0.9.6.1-r1563 on Linux 3.2.0-4-amd64 (x86_64) flashrom is free software, get the source code at http://www.flashrom.org Calibrating delay loop... OK. Found chipset "AMD Hudson". Enabling flash write... OK. Found Winbond flash chip "W25Q32" (4096 kB, SPI) at physical address 0xffc00000. No operations were specified.