After five years of development is presented Release of the distribution libreboot 20210522 . This is the second issue of the GNU project and it is still attributed to the category “Testing”, as it requires additional stabilization and testing. Libreboot develops fully free branch from the project Coreboot , providing a replacement of UEFI and BIOS proprietary firmware, which is responsible for initializing CPU, memory, peripherals devices and other components of the equipment.
libreboot aimed at the formation of a systemic environment that allows you to completely do without proprietary software, not only at the level of the operating system, but also firmware that provide loading. Libreboot does not just deduct the CoreBoot from non-free components, but also complements it tools to simplify use by end users, forming a distribution to which any user who does not have special skills can be used.
Of the already well-tested devices, which can be used without any problems, there are laptops based on Intel GM45 chips (ThinkPad X200, T400), X4X platforms (Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L), ASUS KCMA-D8, ASUS KGPE- D16 and Intel i945 (ThinkPad X60 / T60, MacBook 1/2). Additional testing requires ASUS KFSN4-DRE cards, Intel D510MO, Intel D945GCLF and Acer G43T-AM3.
In a new release:
- Added support for PCs and laptops: Intel G43T-AM3, Acer G43T-AM3, Lenovo ThinkPad R500, Lenovo ThinkPad X301.
- Supported motherboards for desktops:
- Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L
- intel d510mo and d410pt
- intel d945gclf
- Apple Imac 5/2
- acer g43t-am3
- supported motherboards for servers and workstations (AMD)
- asus kcma-d8
- asus kgpe-d16
- asus kfsn4-dre
- Supported Laptops (Intel):
- Lenovo ThinkPad X200
- Lenovo ThinkPad R400
- Lenovo ThinkPad T400
- Lenovo ThinkPad T500
- Lenovo ThinkPad W500
- Lenovo ThinkPad R500
- Lenovo ThinkPad X301
- Apple MacBook1 and MacBook2
- Support for ASUS Chromebook C201.
- Improved LBMK assembly system. After the past release, an attempt was made to completely rewrite the assembly system, but it was not crowned with success and led to a long stop in the formation of new issues. Last year, the rewriting plan was canceled and work began on improving the old assembly system and solving the main architectural problems. The results were embodied in a separate project Osboot , which is used as the basis of LBMK. The new version is solved by old flaws, significantly more customizable and more modular. The process of adding new Coreboot cards is significantly simplified. Working with PAYLOAD handlers Grub and Seabios is submitted to a separate command. For UEFI added support for Tianocore.