429e91f908
Re-add xHCI only on haswell and broadwell machines, where they are needed. Otherwise, keep the same GRUB code. The xHCI patches were removed because they caused issues on Sandybridge-based Dell Latitude laptops. See: https://codeberg.org/libreboot/lbmk/issues/216 The issue was not reported elsewhere, including on the Haswell/Broadwell hardware where they are needed, but the build system could only build one version of GRUB. The older machines do not need xHCI patches, because they either do not have xHCI patches, or work (in GRUB) because they're in EHCI mode when running the payload. So, the problem is that we need the xHCI patches for GRUB on Haswell/Broadwell hardware, but the patches break Sandybridge hardware, and we only had the one build of GRUB. To mitigate this problem, the build system now supports building multiple revisions of GRUB, with different patches, and each given coreboot target can say which GRUB tree to use by setting this in target.cfg: grubtree="xhci" In the above example, the "xhci" tree would be used. Some generic GRUB config has been moved to config/data/grub/ and config/grub/ now looks like config/coreboot/ - also, the grub.cfg file (named "payload" in each tree) is copied to the GRUB source tree as ".config", then added to GRUB's memdisk in the same way, as grub.cfg. Several other design changes had to be made because of this: * grub.cfg in memdisk no longer automatically jumps to one in CBFS, but now shows a menuentry for it if available * Certain commands in script/trees are disabled for GRUB, such as *config make commands. * gnulib is now defined in config/submodule/grub/, instead of config/git/grub - and this mitigates an existing bug where downloading gnulib first would make grub no longer possible to download in lbmk. The coreboot option CONFIG_FINALIZE_USB_ROUTE_XHCI has been re-enabled on: Dell OptiPlex 9020 MT, Dell OptiPlex 9020 SFF, Lenovo ThinkPad T440p and Lenovo ThinkPad W541 - now USB should work again in GRUB. The GRUB payload has been re-enabled on HP EliteBook 820 G2. This change will enable per-board GRUB optimisation in the future. For example, we hardcode what partitions and LVMs GRUB scans because * is slow on ICH7-based machines, due to GRUB's design. On other machines, * is reasonably fast, for automatically enumerating the list of devices for boot. Use of * (and other wildcards) could enable our GRUB payload to automatically boot more distros, with minimal fuss. This can be done at a later date, in subsequent revisions. Signed-off-by: Leah Rowe <leah@libreboot.org> |
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README.md
Libreboot
Find libreboot documentation at https://libreboot.org/
The libreboot project provides
libre boot
firmware that initializes the hardware (e.g. memory controller, CPU,
peripherals) on specific Intel/AMD x86 and ARM targets, which
then starts a bootloader for your operating system. Linux/BSD are
well-supported. It replaces proprietary BIOS/UEFI firmware. Help is available
via #libreboot IRC
on Libera IRC.
Why use Libreboot?
Why should you use libreboot?
Libreboot gives you freedoms that you otherwise can't get with most other boot firmware. It's extremely powerful and configurable for many use cases.
You have rights. The right to privacy, freedom of thought, freedom of speech and the right to read. In this context, Libreboot gives you these rights. Your freedom matters. Right to repair matters. Many people use proprietary (non-libre) boot firmware, even if they use a libre OS. Proprietary firmware often contains backdoors (more info on the FAQ), and it and can be buggy. The libreboot project was founded in December 2013, with the express purpose of making coreboot firmware accessible for non-technical users.
The libreboot project uses coreboot for hardware
initialisation.
Coreboot is notoriously difficult to install for most non-technical users; it
handles only basic initialization and jumps to a separate
payload program (e.g.
GRUB,
Tianocore), which must also be configured.
The libreboot software solves this problem; it is a coreboot distribution with
an automated build system (named lbmk) that builds complete ROM images, for
more robust installation. Documentation is provided.
How does Libreboot differ from coreboot?
In the same way that Debian is a GNU+Linux distribution, libreboot is
a coreboot distribution. If you want to build a ROM image from scratch, you
otherwise have to perform expert-level configuration of coreboot, GRUB and
whatever other software you need, to prepare the ROM image. With libreboot,
you can literally download from Git or a source archive, and run make, and it
will build entire ROM images. An automated build system, named lbmk
(Libreboot MaKe), builds these ROM images automatically, without any user input
or intervention required. Configuration has already been performed in advance.
If you were to build regular coreboot, without using libreboot's automated build system, it would require a lot more intervention and decent technical knowledge to produce a working configuration.
Regular binary releases of libreboot provide these
ROM images pre-compiled, and you can simply install them, with no special
knowledge or skill except the ability to follow installation instructions
and run commands BSD/Linux.
Project goals
- Support as much hardware as possible! Libreboot aims to eventually have maintainers for every board supported by coreboot, at every point in time.
- Make coreboot easy to use. Coreboot is notoriously difficult to install, due to an overall lack of user-focused documentation and support. Most people will simply give up before attempting to install coreboot. Libreboot's automated build system and user-friendly installation instructions solves this problem.
Libreboot attempts to bridge this divide by providing a build system automating much of the coreboot image creation and customization. Secondly, the project produces documentation aimed at non-technical users. Thirdly, the project attempts to provide excellent user support via IRC.
Libreboot already comes with a payload (GRUB), flashprog and other needed parts. Everything is fully integrated, in a way where most of the complicated steps that are otherwise required, are instead done for the user in advance.
You can download ROM images for your libreboot system and install them without having to build anything from source. If, however, you are interested in building your own image, the build system makes it relatively easy to do so.
Not a coreboot fork!
Libreboot is not a fork of coreboot. Every so often, the project re-bases on the latest version of coreboot, with the number of custom patches in use minimized. Tested, stable (static) releases are then provided in Libreboot, based on specific coreboot revisions.
How to help
You can check bugs listed on the bug tracker.
If you spot a bug and have a fix, the website has instructions for how to send patches, and you can also report it. Also, this entire website is written in Markdown and hosted in a separate repository where you can send patches.
Any and all development discussion and user support are all done on the IRC channel. More information is on https://libreboot.org/contact.html.
LICENSE FOR THIS README
It's just a README file. This README file is released under the terms of the Creative Commons Zero license, version 1.0 of the license, which you can read here:
https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode.txt