Welcome to coreboot: Difference between revisions

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'''coreboot''' (formerly known as LinuxBIOS) is a Free Software project aimed at replacing the proprietary BIOS (firmware) you can find in most of today's computers.
'''coreboot''' (formerly known as LinuxBIOS) is a Free Software project aimed at replacing the proprietary BIOS (firmware) you can find in most of today's computers.


It performs just a little bit of hardware initialization and then executes a so-called [[Payloads|payload]], for example a [[Linux]] kernel, [[FILO]], [[GRUB2]], [http://www.openbios.org/ OpenBIOS], [http://www.openbios.org/Open_Firmware Open Firmware], [http://www.openbios.org/SmartFirmware SmartFirmware], [http://www.gnu.org/software/gnufi/ GNUFI] (UEFI), [[Etherboot]], [[ADLO]] (for [[Booting Windows using coreboot|booting Windows]] and [http://openbsd.org/ OpenBSD]), [[Plan 9]], or [[memtest86]].
It performs just a little bit of hardware initialization and then executes a so-called [[Payloads|payload]], for example a [[Linux]] kernel, [[FILO]], [[GRUB2]], [http://www.openbios.org/ OpenBIOS], [http://www.openbios.org/Open_Firmware Open Firmware], [http://www.openbios.org/SmartFirmware SmartFirmware], [http://www.gnu.org/software/gnufi/ GNUFI] (UEFI), [[Etherboot]], [[ADLO]] (for booting [[Booting Windows using coreboot|Windows]], [[Booting FreeBSD using coreboot|FreeBSD]], or [http://openbsd.org/ OpenBSD]), [[Plan 9]], or [[memtest86]].
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Revision as of 22:55, 9 March 2008

coreboot (formerly known as LinuxBIOS) is a Free Software project aimed at replacing the proprietary BIOS (firmware) you can find in most of today's computers.

It performs just a little bit of hardware initialization and then executes a so-called payload, for example a Linux kernel, FILO, GRUB2, OpenBIOS, Open Firmware, SmartFirmware, GNUFI (UEFI), Etherboot, ADLO (for booting Windows, FreeBSD, or OpenBSD), Plan 9, or memtest86.

Benefits — There are many reasons for using coreboot.

  • 100% Free Software (GPL), no royalties, no license fees!
  • Fast boot times (3 seconds from power-on to Linux console)
  • Avoids the need for a slow, buggy, proprietary BIOS
  • Runs in 32-Bit protected mode almost from the start
  • Written in C, contains virtually no assembly code
  • Supports a wide variety of hardware and payloads
  • Further features: netboot, serial console, remote flashing, ...

Use Cases — coreboot can be deployed in a wide range of scenarios.

  • Standard desktop computers and servers
  • Clusters, high-performance computing
  • Embedded solutions, appliances, terminals
  • Small form factor computers, Home-theater PCs (HTPC)
  • No-moving-parts solutions (ROM chip as "hard drive")
  • Various non-standard scenarios (e.g. FPGA in Opteron socket)

 About
Find out more about coreboot.
News | Press | History | Screenshots & Videos | Contributors | Sponsors

Developers
Get involved! Help us make coreboot better.
Development Guidelines | Developer Manual | Reference Library | Doxygen | Browse Source | JTAG | EHCI Debug Port | Testsystem | GSoC | Ideas | Superiotool

Status
Find out whether your hardware is already supported.
Supported Motherboards | Supported Chipsets & Devices | Build Status | Flashrom support | Superiotool support

Vendors & Products
Find out in which products coreboot is used.
Products | Clusters | Laptop | Desktops

Getting Started
Download coreboot and get started.
Downloads | Documentation | Build Tutorials | Payloads | QEMU | AMD SimNow | Confirmed Working SVN Revisions | Buildrom | Flashrom | Misc

Support
Learn how to contact us and find help and support.
FAQ | Mailinglist | IRC | Issue Tracker | Glossary | corebootv2 Options
ASUS A8N-E with glued-on pushpin BIOS chip.


News

Contact


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