87 lines
3.9 KiB
Markdown
87 lines
3.9 KiB
Markdown
% Osboot is now part of Libreboot
|
|
% Leah Rowe
|
|
% 15 November 2022
|
|
|
|
Long live Libreboot!
|
|
====================
|
|
|
|
The former `osboot` project, started by the same founder as Libreboot, Leah
|
|
Rowe, has today shut down; the osboot website now automatically redirects, via
|
|
HTTP 301, to the libreboot website. Everything osboot had, has now been added
|
|
to Libreboot, and development will now occur exclusively in Libreboot from now
|
|
on.
|
|
|
|
The result of this decision is that Libreboot does (and can) now support newer
|
|
hardware, such as the ThinkPad X230 or T440p.
|
|
|
|
Such was alluded to in the previous Libreboot release announcement:
|
|
|
|
<https://libreboot.org/news/libreboot20220710.html#planned-osbootlibreboot-merger>
|
|
|
|
The exact method proposed in that previous announcement has not been adopted.
|
|
Instead, Libreboot essentially now *is* osboot, under the Libreboot name.
|
|
|
|
The *binary blob minimalisation* policy of osboot has replaced the previous
|
|
policy used by Libreboot. It is a pragmatic policy revolved around providing
|
|
as much freedom as possible per platform, while no longer sticking only to
|
|
those *"pure"* platforms; all platforms from coreboot can now be supported, if
|
|
someone wishes to maintain the board in `lbmk`. The new policy is here:
|
|
|
|
<https://libreboot.org/news/policy.html> (same URL as the old one, but the
|
|
text has been updated in line with osboot policy)
|
|
|
|
To understand the full nature of this merge, you should read the policy
|
|
document linked above. Both osboot and Libreboot were largely identical, and
|
|
basically the same project. In order to make management of the projects much
|
|
easier, they were simply merged into one.
|
|
|
|
How the merge was conducted
|
|
---------------------------
|
|
|
|
Since 2020, Libreboot (and osboot) have both been through several reboots,
|
|
forking off each other other to keep in sync. It was starting to become too
|
|
much of a burden, which is the main reason the merger took place.
|
|
|
|
On November 14th, I (Leah Rowe) literally diffed all of Libreboot since the
|
|
last reboot (of the Libreboot repository) and checked each one against osboot,
|
|
adding whatever was missing from that *in osboot*. This then put the osboot
|
|
project in sync with Libreboot, but in line with osboot and with the additional
|
|
boards (plus scripts and so on) in osboot, compared to Libreboot pre-merge.
|
|
|
|
The same was *then* applied *in reverse*: differences in osboot were ported
|
|
back to Libreboot, carefully and methodically. All of this took place in a the
|
|
period of 1 day, because the overall structure of both projects was largely the
|
|
same and the build systems in both projects are extremely modular, making this
|
|
sort of work very easy indeed.
|
|
|
|
A similar process was performed with the Libreboot website and the osboot
|
|
website, but osboot already contained all the same documentation as Libreboot,
|
|
plus extra. The differences were therefore ported over to Libreboot.
|
|
|
|
Porting of documentation (from osboot over to Libreboot) was done by
|
|
Caleb La Grange (IRC nick `shmalebx9`), and reviewed by myself prior to going
|
|
live.
|
|
|
|
As of writing this post, one utility from osboot (for changing MAC addresses
|
|
inside Gbe regions on Intel machines that have an IFD) hasn't been moved over
|
|
yet, but I'm considering merging all outside utilities maintained by us (bucts,
|
|
ich9gen and nvmutil) into lbmk, making lbmk a BSD-like *monorepo* of sorts. We
|
|
shall see.
|
|
|
|
That's it really. Osboot and Libreboot are now operating as a single, unified
|
|
project, the way it should have been from the beginning. Quite boring news,
|
|
actually.
|
|
|
|
New Libreboot release coming soon!!!
|
|
====================================
|
|
|
|
CrOS devices re-added to Libreboot
|
|
----------------------------------
|
|
|
|
Documentation needs to be updated, to reflect this and many other things, but
|
|
ARM-based chromebooks are now once again supported in Libreboot, using the
|
|
u-boot payload inside coreboot.
|
|
|
|
This work is courtesy of Alper Nebi Yasak (`alpernebbi` on libera IRC) and it's
|
|
also part of the merge.
|