Group: Hardware/Software/Boot software

Revision as of 10:19, 10 June 2024

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.		GNU/Linux
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.

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.	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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@@ Line 60: / Line 60: @@
 * QEMU
 |
-* GNU Linux operating system
+* GNU/Linux operating system
 |-
 ! Coreboot
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 * QEMU
 |
-* Linux kernel + initrd
+* initrd+Linux
 * GRUB
 * SeaBIOS
@@ Line 87: / Line 87: @@
 * UEFI (Tianocore, nonfree UEFI, etc)
 |
-* GNU Linux operating system with grub.cfg
+* GNU/Linux operating system with grub.cfg
 * Ipxe
 * Memtest86+
@@ Line 101: / Line 101: @@
 * UEFI through PXE or iso or floppy.
 |
-* GNU Linux operating system
+* GNU/Linux operating system
 * Ipxe
 * Memtest86+
@@ Line 127: / Line 127: @@
 * QEMU
 |
-* GNU Linux operating system with syslinux.cfg
+* GNU/Linux operating system with syslinux.cfg
 |-
 |}