Group:Hardware/Upstream projects/Coreboot

Introduction

While Coreboot contains and uses nonfree software, it is being reused by several boot distributions like GNU Boot (100%free), Canoeboot (100%free), Libreboot (now ships free and nonfree software). It also contains a wide variety of projects.

This means that we have to care about the upstream status of computers that can be supported by GNU Boot or Canoboot. And we also need FSDG compliant ways to be able to use and package the tools that are developed in the Coreboot source tree.

Tools

FSDG Distribution	Package	Tools
Guix	ifdtool	ifdtool
Guix	intelmetool	intelmetool
Guix	me-cleaner	me_cleaner.py
Parabola	libreboot-utils	bincfg bucts cbfs-compression-tool cbfstool cbmem cse_fpt cse_serger demefactory ectool elogtool fmaptool ich9deblob ich9gen ich9show ifdtool ifittool ifwitool intelmetool inteltool me_cleaner.py nvramtool rmodtool spkmodem-recv superiotool
PureOS	coreboot-utils	amdfwtool cbfstool cbmem ectool fmaptool ifdfake ifdtool ifwitool intelmetool inteltool intelvbttool msrtool nvramtool rmodtool romcc superiotool viatool
PureOS	nvramtool	nvramtool
Trisquel 10 (nabia)	nvramtool	nvramtool

Computers status

This section is for computers that worked with either Coreboot, older versions of Libreboot or GNU Booot at some point, and that can or could have been added to GNU Boot or Canoboot mostly as-is.

Original vendors	Model(s)	Maintainer(s)	Chipset or microarchitecture family	Status	Last review
Acer	G43T-AM3	Unmaintained	Intel G43	Seem fine. Also has native GPU initialization.	Coreboot 4.21
Apple	iMac 5,2 Macbook 1,1 Macbook 2,1	Evgeny Zinoviev	Intel I945	Free software GPU intialization in Coreboot 4.21, probably in C since there is no ada source code in the mainboard directory. Looks fine otherwise	Coreboot 4.21
Asus	KCMA-D8	?	AMD Family 10H	Removed from upstream Coreboot, maintained in the Coreboot 4.11 branch
Asus	KFSN4-DRE	?	AMD Family 10H	Removed from upstream Coreboot, maintained in the Coreboot 4.11 branch
Asus	KGPE-D16	?	AMD Family 15H	Removed from upstream Coreboot, maintained in the Coreboot 4.11 branch
Dell	Latitude E6400	Nicholas Chin	Intel GM45	From the commits addinc the E6400: Working: USB EHCI debug (lower USB port on right side) Keyboard Touchpad/trackpoint VGA Displayport ExpressCard Audio Ethernet mPCIe WiFi mPCIe Bluetooth (uses USB) SD card Not working: Brightness hotkeys Physical Wireless switch Untested: Dock Smartcard (slot and contactless) Firewire eSATA TPM Battery	Coreboot 24.08
Gigabyte	D945GCLF2D	Not mentioned upstream, Similar to the Intel D945GCLF, "reported working by a user" on the Libreboot website
Gigabyte	GA-G41M-ES2L	Unmaintained	Intel I945	Seem fine. Also has native GPU initialization.	Coreboot 4.21
Google	Veyron_Jaq (Haier Chromebook 11) Veyron_Jerry (Hisense Chromebook 11) Veyron_Mighty (Haier Chromebook 11(edu)) Veyron_Minnie (ASUS Chromebook Flip C100) Veyron_Speedy (ASUS C201 Chromebook)	Unmaintained		Still in Coreboot 4.21	Coreboot 4.21
Intel	D410PT D510MO	Unmaintained	Intel Tiger Point (Atom chipset)	Free software GPU intialization in Coreboot 4.21, probably in C since there is no ada source code in the mainboard directory. Looks fine otherwise	Coreboot 4.21
Intel	D945GCLF	Unmaintained	Intel I945	Seem fine. Also has native GPU initialization.	Coreboot 4.21
Lenovo	Thinkpad R60 (with Intel GPU only) Thinkpad T60 (with Intel GPU only) Thinkpad T60p Thinkpad Z61t	Alexander Couzens	Intel I945	Free software GPU intialization in Coreboot 4.21, probably in C since there is no ada source code in the mainboard directory. Looks fine otherwise	Coreboot 4.21
Lenovo	Thinkpad R400 Thinkpad R500 Thinkpad T400 Thinkpad T500 Thinkpad W500	Alexander Couzens	Intel GM45	Seem fine If UART is enabled in the Coreboot 4.18 build configuration, the computer needs the dock to boot. It works fine without UART.	Coreboot 4.21
Lenovo	Thinkpad T400s	Not mentioned upstream, might be similar to the T400. DRIVERS_LENOVO_WACOM is not in src/mainboard/lenovo/t400/Kconfig though.
Lenovo	Thinkpad X60 Thinkpad X60s Thinkpad X60 Tablet	Alexander Couzens	Intel I945	Free software GPU intialization in Coreboot 4.21, probably in C since there is no ada source code in the mainboard directory. Looks fine otherwise	Coreboot 4.21
Lenovo	Thinkpad X200 Thinkpad X200s Thinkpad X200 Tablet ThinkPad X301	Stefan Ott	Intel GM45	Seem fine	Coreboot 4.21

Computers not merged (yet) in Coreboot

This section is for listing computers that work with patches that are not yet in Coreboot. Finishing the patches, getting them reviewed and accepted would make it easier to support such computers in 100% free boot software distributions.

Original vendors	Model(s)	Chipset family	Patch status	Patch link	Comments
Dell	Optiplex 780 (MT + USFF variants)		Work in progress	https://review.coreboot.org/c/coreboot/+/84880	Normally it should work without nonfree software Already supported by Canoeboot with the "Work in progress" patch.
Dell	Probably based on the E6400 code: Latitude E4300 Latitude E6400 XFR ? Latitude E6400 ATG ?				Normally it should work without nonfree software Already supported by Canoeboot, probably with out of tree patches. Some patches were sent on the GNU Boot mailing list as well so it might be easier to understand what needs to be upstreamed with these ones as they may also requires patches in GRUB for instance. The E6400 is also supported by Coreboot and its status is mentioned in the commits. Lots of things don't work yet or were untested.

Adding newer computers in Coreboot, GNU Boot or Canoboot

This section is for listing computers that were never supported by Coreboot or by GNU Boot or Canoboot, but that may be added relatively easily.

The goal here is to list computers that are similar enough to already supported computers and that could be added without having to add new drivers for specific hardware (like adding support for ATI or Nvidia GPUs) and without getting rid of some existing nonfree software (like the SMU for AMD computers).

Original vendors	Model(s)	Chipset family	Comments
Lenovo	ThinkPad SL300 (with Intel GPU only) ThinkPad SL400 (with Intel GPU only) ThinkPad SL400c ThinkPad SL410 ThinkPad SL500 (with Intel GPU only) ThinkPad SL500c ThinkPad SL510	Intel GM45	According to ThinkWiki these laptops have an Intel GM45. According to ThinkWiki these laptops have an "IdeaPad firmware", which means that "as such some of the ThinkPad specific drivers and features are not supported.". I've made some tests on one of these (Maybe it was the SL410) and thinkpad_acpi was loaded. Though I cound't do dangerous tests on the EC (embedded controller), so I don't know the differences.

GNU Boot patches

The GNU Boot project tries to use the least amount of patching on top of upstream projects, so it's a good start as we start with less patches to look at, even if some of them are not strictly necessary (and could be simply removed by sending a patch to GNU Boot).

Patch	Type
0001-apple-macbook21-Set-default-VRAM-to-64MiB-instead-of.patch	Configuration
0002-add-c3-and-clockgen-to-apple-macbook21.patch	Needs upstreaming
0003-lenovo-x60-64MiB-Video-RAM-changed-to-default-previo.patch	Configuration
0004-lenovo-t60-make-64MiB-VRAM-the-default-in-cmos.defau.patch	Configuration
0005-lenovo-t400-set-VRAM-to-352MiB-VRAM-by-default.patch	Configuration
0006-lenovo-x200-set-VRAM-to-352MiB-by-default.patch	Configuration
0007-gigabyte-ga-g41m-es2l-set-VRAM-to-352MiB-by-default.patch	Configuration
0008-acer-g43t-am3-set-VRAM-to-352MiB-by-default.patch	Configuration
0009-Revert-cpu-intel-Configure-IA32_FEATURE_CONTROL-for-.patch	Revert: can we upstream it, or do we need to maintain it?
0010-Fix-missing-include.patch	Build system related, needs upstreaming
0011-lenovo-t400-Enable-all-SATA-ports.patch	Needs upstreaming
0012-fix-speedstep-on-x200-t400-Revert-cpu-intel-model_10.patch	Revert: can we upstream it, or do we need to maintain it?
0015-python-patch.patch	Build system related, needs upstreaming

In addition there are two patch for flashrom to enable installing GNU Boot or Canoeboot on GM45 Thinkpads without disassembling the laptop. They are needed otherwise the flash chip are not detected. Since the flash chip have different IDs it's not possible to remove the need of the patches by trying to not read/write the whole flash.

Page License

In addition to the Libreplanet license:

Content is available under GNU Free Documentation License 1.3. By contributing to any page on this wiki, you agree to assign copyright for your contribution to the Free Software Foundation (see LibrePlanet:Copyrights for details). The Free Software Foundation promises to always use either a verbatim copying license or a free documentation license when publishing your contribution. We grant you back all your rights under copyright, including the rights to copy, modify, and redistribute your contributions. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource. DO NOT SUBMIT COPYRIGHTED WORK WITHOUT PERMISSION!

This page is also licensed under the following license:

This page is released under the GNU Free Documentation License,
either version 1.3 or (at your option) any
newer version as published by the Free Software Foundation, with no
Invariant Sections, no Front Cover Texts and no Back Cover Texts.

This way it can be reused as-is in GNU Boot or Canoeboot without having to care about the absence of "or later" clause or invariant sections, cover texts, etc.