Libreboot project documentation

Information about this release can be found at release.html. Always check libreboot.org for updates.

What is libreboot?

Table of contents

About the libreboot project

Libreboot is a coreboot distribution (distro) with proprietary software removed, intended to be a free (libre) 'BIOS' replacement for your computer. The project is aimed at users, attempting to make coreboot as easy to use as possible. Read the full Free Software definition.

Libreboot also has many practical advantages over proprietary boot firmware, such as faster boot speeds and better security. You can install GNU/Linux with encrypted /boot/, verify GPG signatures on your kernel, run a full operating system directly from the flash chip (planned for a future release), and more.

The libreboot project has three main goals:

Libreboot is not a fork of coreboot, despite misconceptions of this fact. Libreboot (downstream supplier) is a parallel effort which works closely with and re-bases on the latest coreboot (upstream supplier) every so often.

As such, all new coreboot development should be done in coreboot, not libreboot! Libreboot is about deblobbing, and packaging coreboot in a user-friendly way, where most work is already done for the user! If, for example you wanted to attempt porting a new motherboard then you should do that in coreboot. Libreboot will (as a downstream supplier) receive your change at some point in the future, in a future release.

Libreboot as a whole is the distribution consisting of everything surrounding coreboot. However, the main component is coreboot; libreboot's deblobbed coreboot tree is sometimes referred to as coreboot-libre to distinguish it as a component of libreboot.

Libreboot is a 'stable' coreboot

On the other hand, coreboot is also strict about what it accepts (merges) into the main git repository: most of the time, a lot of changes are under review at review.coreboot.org (as a way of encouraging as much further development as possible before accepting the patch).

Meanwhile, libreboot is a lot less strict in this area and freely merges specific patches that are desirable, sometimes before they are merged into coreboot's main repository.

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Copyright © 2014, 2015 Francis Rowe <info@gluglug.org.uk>
This document is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Public License and all future versions. A copy of the license can be found at license.txt.

This document is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See license.txt for more information.