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  1. <!DOCTYPE html>
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  7. @import url('css/main.css');
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  9. <title>Libreboot project documentation</title>
  10. </head>
  11. <body>
  12. <div class="section">
  13. <h1 id="pagetop">Libreboot project documentation</h1>
  14. <p>
  15. Information about this release can be found at <a href="release.html">release.html</a>.
  16. Always check <a href="http://libreboot.org">libreboot.org</a> for updates.
  17. </p>
  18. <p>
  19. <a href="#why">What is libreboot?</a>
  20. </p>
  21. <p>
  22. <a href="#version">How do I know what version I'm running?</a>
  23. </p>
  24. </div>
  25. <div class="section">
  26. <h1>Table of contents</h1>
  27. <ul>
  28. <li><a href="hcl/index.html">Hardware compatibility list</a> - <a href="https://www.gnu.org/distros/">GNU/Linux</a> is expected to be running on your device.</li>
  29. <li><a href="install/index.html">How to install libreboot</a></li>
  30. <li><a href="gnulinux/index.html">How to install GNU/Linux on a libreboot system</a></li>
  31. <li>
  32. <a href="git/index.html">How to use the git repository and build libreboot from source</a>
  33. <ul>
  34. <li><a href="maintain/index.html">Maintaining libreboot</a></li>
  35. </ul>
  36. </li>
  37. <li><a href="security/index.html">Hardware security</a></li>
  38. <li><a href="hardware/index.html">Hardware maintenance</a></li>
  39. <li><a href="grub/index.html">GRUB payload</a></li>
  40. <li><a href="misc/index.html">Miscellaneous</a></li>
  41. </ul>
  42. </div>
  43. <div class="section" id="why">
  44. <h1>About the libreboot project</h1>
  45. <p>
  46. Libreboot originally began during December 2013, as a commercial effort
  47. by <a href="http://gluglug.org.uk/">Gluglug</a> to achieve
  48. <a href="https://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/endorsement/respects-your-freedom">RYF</a> endorsement for a modified ThinkPad X60
  49. (the first system to ever be added to libreboot).
  50. </p>
  51. <p>
  52. Back then, the name <i>libreboot</i> didn't exist; the project was nameless,
  53. referring to itself as a <i>deblobbed version of coreboot</i>. The project named
  54. itself libreboot at some point during early 2014, and has since rapidly expanded
  55. to support more hardware and become more user-friendly.
  56. </p>
  57. <p>
  58. Libreboot is a <a href="http://coreboot.org/">coreboot</a> distribution (distro) with proprietary software removed,
  59. intended to be a <a href="https://www.fsf.org/about/what-is-free-software">free</a>
  60. (libre) 'BIOS' replacement for your computer. The project is aimed at users, attempting to make
  61. coreboot as easy to use as possible.
  62. Read the full <a href="https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html">Free Software definition</a>.
  63. </p>
  64. <p>
  65. Libreboot has many practical advantages over <a href="https://gnu.org/philosophy/proprietary/">proprietary</a> boot firmware,
  66. such as faster boot speeds and better security. You can
  67. <a href="gnulinux/index.html">install GNU/Linux with encrypted /boot/</a>,
  68. <a href="http://www.coreboot.org/GRUB2#signed_kernels">verify GPG signatures on your kernel</a>,
  69. run a <a href="http://proteanos.com/">full operating system</a> directly
  70. from the flash chip (planned for a future release), and more.
  71. </p>
  72. <h2>
  73. The libreboot project has three main goals:
  74. </h2>
  75. <ul>
  76. <li>
  77. <i><u><b>Recommend and distribute only free software</b></u></i>.
  78. Coreboot distributes certain pieces of proprietary software which is needed on some systems.
  79. Examples can include things like CPU microcode updates, memory initialization blobs and so on.
  80. The coreboot project sometimes recommends adding more blobs which it does not distribute, such
  81. as the Video BIOS or Intel's <i>Management Engine</i>. However, a lot of dedicated and talented
  82. individuals in coreboot work hard to replace these blobs whenever possible.
  83. </li>
  84. <li>
  85. <i><u><b>Support as much hardware as possible!</b></u></i>
  86. Libreboot supports less hardware than coreboot, because most systems from coreboot still require
  87. certain proprietary software to work properly. Libreboot is an attempt to support as much
  88. hardware as possible, without any proprietary software.
  89. </li>
  90. <li>
  91. <i><u><b>Make coreboot easy to use</b></u></i>.
  92. Coreboot is notoriously difficult to install, due to an overall lack of user-focussed
  93. documentation and support. Most people will simply give up before attempting to install coreboot.<br/><br/>
  94. Libreboot attempts to bridge this divide, making sure that everything from building
  95. to installing coreboot is automated, as much as is feasibly possible. Secondly, the project
  96. produces documentation aimed at non-technical users. Thirdly, the project attempts
  97. to provide excellent user support via mailing lists and IRC.<br/><br/>
  98. Libreboot already comes with a payload (GRUB), flashrom and other needed parts. Everything
  99. is fully integrated, in a way where most of the complicated steps that are otherwise required,
  100. are instead done for the user in advance.<br/><br/>
  101. You can download ROM images for your libreboot system and install them, without having
  102. to build anything from source. The build system is also fully automated, so building
  103. from source is easy if you wanted to do that (for whatever reason).
  104. </li>
  105. </ul>
  106. <h2>
  107. Libreboot is a coreboot distribution, not a coreboot fork
  108. </h2>
  109. <p>
  110. Libreboot is not a fork of coreboot. Every so often, the project re-bases on the latest
  111. version of coreboot, with the number of custom patches in use minimized.
  112. </p>
  113. <p>
  114. All new coreboot development should be done in coreboot (upstream), not libreboot!
  115. Libreboot is about deblobbing and packaging coreboot in a user-friendly way, where most work
  116. is already done for the user.
  117. </p>
  118. <p>
  119. For example, if you wanted to add a new board to libreboot, you should add it to coreboot first.
  120. Libreboot will automatically receive your code at a later date, when it updates itself.
  121. </p>
  122. <p>
  123. The deblobbed coreboot tree used in libreboot is referred to as <i>coreboot-libre</i>,
  124. to distinguish it as a component of <i>libreboot</i>.
  125. </p>
  126. <h2>
  127. Libreboot is a 'stable' version of coreboot
  128. </h2>
  129. <ul>
  130. <li>
  131. Coreboot uses the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_release">rolling release</a> model,
  132. which means that it is not guaranteed to be stable, or to even work at all on a given day.
  133. Coreboot does have a strict code review process, but being such a large project with so many contributors, regressions
  134. are always possible.
  135. </li>
  136. <li>
  137. Libreboot freezes on a particular revision of coreboot, making sure that everything works properly,
  138. making fixes on top of that and repeating this during each subsequent update to a later version
  139. of coreboot. By doing this, it provides a stronger guarantee to the user that the firmware
  140. will be reliable, and not break their system.
  141. </li>
  142. </ul>
  143. <p><a href="#pagetop">Back to top of page.</a></p>
  144. </div>
  145. <div class="section" id="version">
  146. <h1>How do I know what version I'm running?</h1>
  147. <p>
  148. If you are at least 127 commits after release 20150518
  149. (commit message <i>build/roms/helper: add version information to CBFS</i>)
  150. (or you have any <b>upstream</b> stable release of libreboot after 20150518), then you can
  151. press C at the GRUB console, and use this command to find out what version of libreboot you have:<br/>
  152. <b>cat (cbfsdisk)/lbversion</b><br/>
  153. This will also work on non-release images (the version string is automatically generated,
  154. using <i>git describe --tags HEAD</i>), built from the git repository.
  155. A file named <i>version</i> will also be included in the archives that you downloaded (if you are
  156. using release archives).
  157. </p>
  158. <p>
  159. If it exists, you can also extract this <i>lbversion</i> file by using the <i>cbfstool</i> utility
  160. which libreboot includes, from a ROM image that you either dumped or haven't flashed yet.
  161. In GNU/Linux, run cbfstool on your ROM image (<i>libreboot.rom</i>, in this example):<br/>
  162. $ <b>./cbfstool libreboot.rom extract -n lbversion -f lbversion</b><br/>
  163. You will now have a file, named <i>lbversion</i>, which you can read in whatever program
  164. it is that you use for reading/writing text files.
  165. </p>
  166. <p>
  167. For git, it's easy. Just check the git log.
  168. </p>
  169. <p>
  170. For releases on or below 20150518, or snapshots generated from the git repository below 127 commits
  171. after 20150518, you can find a file named <i>commitid</i> inside the archives. If you are using
  172. pre-built ROM images from the libreboot project, you can press C in GRUB for access to the terminal,
  173. and then run this command:<br/>
  174. <b>lscoreboot</b><br/>
  175. You may find a date in here, detailing when that ROM image was built. For pre-built images distributed
  176. by the libreboot project, this is a rough approximation of what version you have, because the version
  177. numbers are dated, and the release archives are typically built on the same day as the release; you can
  178. correlate that with the release information in <a href="release.html">release.html</a>.
  179. </p>
  180. <p>
  181. You can also check the documentation that came with your archives, and in <i>docs/release.html</i> will be
  182. the information about the version of libreboot that you are using.
  183. </p>
  184. <p>
  185. Generally speaking, it is advisable to use the latest version of libreboot.
  186. </p>
  187. </div>
  188. <div class="section">
  189. <p>
  190. Copyright &copy; 2014, 2015 Francis Rowe &lt;info@gluglug.org.uk&gt;<br/>
  191. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
  192. under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3
  193. or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
  194. with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.
  195. A copy of the license can be found at <a href="gfdl-1.3.txt">gfdl-1.3.txt</a>
  196. </p>
  197. <p>
  198. Updated versions of the license (when available) can be found at
  199. <a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/licenses.html">https://www.gnu.org/licenses/licenses.html</a>
  200. </p>
  201. <p>
  202. UNLESS OTHERWISE SEPARATELY UNDERTAKEN BY THE LICENSOR, TO THE
  203. EXTENT POSSIBLE, THE LICENSOR OFFERS THE LICENSED MATERIAL AS-IS
  204. AND AS-AVAILABLE, AND MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF
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  210. KNOWN OR DISCOVERABLE. WHERE DISCLAIMERS OF WARRANTIES ARE NOT
  211. ALLOWED IN FULL OR IN PART, THIS DISCLAIMER MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.
  212. </p>
  213. <p>
  214. TO THE EXTENT POSSIBLE, IN NO EVENT WILL THE LICENSOR BE LIABLE
  215. TO YOU ON ANY LEGAL THEORY (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION,
  216. NEGLIGENCE) OR OTHERWISE FOR ANY DIRECT, SPECIAL, INDIRECT,
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  225. The disclaimer of warranties and limitation of liability provided
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