Intel Pushes A Bunch Of Broadwell Code Into Coreboot

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Intel Pushes A Bunch Of Broadwell Code Into Coreboot

Intel Linux developers have landed a lot of Broadwell enablement code into Coreboot...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Intel-Broadwell-Coreboot-Push

[mcirsta]

one reason to get a Chromebook

With the mainstream hardware being more and more locked down for "security reasons" it seems Chromebooks are a good choice for people wanting an open source Linux laptop.

[uid313]

Intel should go full steam on Coreboot and really support it.
I wish I could run Coreboot on my desktop.

[chuckula]

With the mainstream hardware being more and more locked down for "security reasons" it seems Chromebooks are a good choice for people wanting an open source Linux laptop.

Could you point out an example of "mainstream" hardware that's locked down? Because about the only "locked down" products I've encountered are things like my smartphone (powered by ARM, not Intel).

I think there's a lot of FUD swirling around and it might be time to clear the air.

[pgeorgi]

Could you point out an example of "mainstream" hardware that's locked down?

Current generation Lenovo Thinkpad's (X1 Carbon, I think) have Intel Boot Guard set to Verified Boot. Trying to install coreboot result is an instant brick, even when the code is correct.

[rabcor]

Intel should go full steam on Coreboot and really support it.
I wish I could run Coreboot on my desktop.

Seconded, but doesn't the BIOS also have to support it?

[uid313]

Seconded, but doesn't the BIOS also have to support it?

The motherboard runs firmware. This firmware was previously BIOS. Modern systems now instead use UEFI as firmware.
Coreboot is an alternative to BIOS and UEFI.
So Coreboot replaces the firmware whether it is BIOS or UEFI with Coreboot.

Then Coreboot can either boot Linux directly, or it can load a implementation of BIOS or UEFI as a module.
There is a open source implementation of BIOS called SeaBIOS which you can run on top of Coreboot.
There is a open source implementation of UEFI made by Intel called TianoCore which can run on top of Coreboot.

[rabcor]

The BIOS is still there though, as in you still need to be able to configure the BIOS settings even if you're on coreboot or uefi. (That's I believe why they often call it UEFI BIOS).

So essentially to load coreboot you'd need to flash your BIOS right? Isn't that a bit risky?

[uid313]

The BIOS is still there though, as in you still need to be able to configure the BIOS settings even if you're on coreboot or uefi. (That's I believe why they often call it UEFI BIOS).

So essentially to load coreboot you'd need to flash your BIOS right? Isn't that a bit risky?

Yes, to load Coreboot you would need to flash your firmware, and yes that is right.
BIOS resides in the firmware.
So when you write Coreboot to the firmwire, you overwrite the currently residing BIOS in the firmware and replace it with Coreboot.

People call it "UEFI BIOS" as a misnomer, because people are used to call the firmware on the motherboard BIOS. BIOS can run on top of UEFI as a Compatibility Support Module (CSM).
Both BIOS and UEFI are firmware, and they can both be ran on top of Coreboot.

[rabcor]

But usually both the BIOS and UEFI come heavily customized from each motherboard manufacturer, I imagine their not cross compatible (seeing as not all motherboards have the same featureset and options to configure) if it overwrites the firmware won't this be a problem? configuring the motherboard that is..