Group: Hardware/Software/Boot software

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Boot software distribution

Project Freedom Usage Hardware supported Can load
Any GNU/Linux distribution Depends, see https://www.gnu.org/distros for more details on distribution freedom. Usually ship packages of bootloader and sometime they come with installation instructions. Depends on the distribution GNU/Linux and/or that distribution.
Canoeboot Should be fully free
  • BIOS replacement
  • Deblobs Libreboot, focus on features at the expense of manitenance.
  • GNU/Linux
GNU Boot Fully free (GNU Project).
  • BIOS replacement
  • Long term focus (stability, easy maintenance, etc).
  • Still in RC, need help to review the installation instructions.
Guix FSDG compliant Unification of:
  • a GNU/Linux distribution
  • a package manager
  • deployment tool

Can be installed on top of another distribution to produce bootloader packages but lacks documentation for that.

Boot software

Project Freedom Usage Can be loaded by Can load
Barebox ?
  • Bootloader for some comuters.
  • Complete BIOS replacement for some other computers.
  • Hardware
  • nonfree first stage bootloaders
  • QEMU
  • GNU/Linux operating system
Coreboot The nonfree software present in its source code seem now gone. But it reuses external nonfree software to support many computers. In some case it doesn't do much anymore and the nonfree software does almost all the work.
  • Partial BIOS replacement: initialize the hardware only, doesn't load an operating system.
  • Hardware
  • QEMU
  • initrd+Linux
  • GRUB
  • SeaBIOS
  • Tianocore
GNU GRUB Fully free (GNU Project)
  • Complete BIOS replacement for Some Lemote computer.
  • Bootloader for all other cases.
  • BIOS (SeaBIOS, nonfree BIOS, etc)
  • Coreboot
  • Hardware in the case of some Lemote computers.
  • QEMU
  • UEFI (Tianocore, nonfree UEFI, etc)
  • GNU/Linux operating system with grub.cfg
  • Ipxe
  • Memtest86+
IPXE Probably fully free. Shipped as-is by FSDG distributions.
  • Network Bootloader.
  • BIOS through PXE or iso or floppy.
  • GRUB
  • QEMU
  • UEFI through PXE or iso or floppy.
  • GNU/Linux operating system
  • Ipxe
  • Memtest86+
SeaBIOS Probably fully free. Shipped as-is by FSDG distributions.
  • Implements the BIOS interface.
  • Will execute "Option ROMs" it finds (i.e. from a nonfree VBIOS).
  • Coreboot
  • QEMU
  • UEFI (Tianocore, nonfree UEFI, etc).
  • GRUB
U-Boot Contains nonfree software
  • Bootloader for some comuters.
  • Complete BIOS replacement for some other computers.
  • BIOS (SeaBIOS, nonfree BIOS, etc)
  • Hardware
  • nonfree first stage bootloaders
  • QEMU
  • GNU/Linux operating system with syslinux.cfg


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