The release of the free boot firmware Libreboot 25.04 has been published, which has the status of an experimental release focused on functionality development (stable releases mainly contain fixes and are published approximately once a year, with the last stable release in December). The project develops a ready-made build from the Coreboot project, providing a replacement for proprietary UEFI and BIOS firmware, responsible for initializing the CPU, memory, peripherals, and other hardware components, minimizing binary inserts.
Libreboot aims to create a system environment that can operate without proprietary software as much as possible, not only at the operating system level but also in the firmware that handles booting. Libreboot complements Coreboot with tools that simplify the process for end-users, forming a ready-to-use distribution that any user without special skills can utilize.
In the new release:
- Support for the Acer Q45T-AM motherboard has been added, along with improved support for the similar Acer G43T-AM3 board. Ethernet operation on Acer motherboards has been ensured.
- Version numbering has changed; instead of the format "YYYYMMDD," the new format is "YY.MM" (year.month).
- The build system has been improved. The fresh release of Debian 12.10 has been used in the builds. Building capabilities have been ensured in Fedora 42 and Debian Sid with GCC 15.
- SeaBIOS has been synchronized with the main project's repository as of March 4, flashprog with the repository state from March 1, uefitool — April 26, GRUB2 — April 20 (with vulnerabilities fixed). Synchronization with the fresh CoreBoot codebase has been completed. U-Boot has been updated to version 2025.04, and NASM to version 2.16.03.
Hardware supported by Libreboot:
- Server motherboards:
- ASUS KFSN4-DRE
- ASUS KGPE-D16
- Desktop systems:
- Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L;
- Acer G43T-AM3, Q45T-AM;
- Intel D510MO / D410PT;
- Apple iMac 5,2;
- HP Elite 8200 SFF/MT;
- HP Elite 8300 USDT;
- ASUS KCMA-D8;
- Dell Precision T1650;
- Intel D945GCLF
- Dell OptiPlex 3050 Micro, 7010, 7020, 9010, and 9020 series SFF, XE2 SFF, MT, and XE2 MT, 780 USFF/MT;
- Laptops:
- ThinkPad X60 / X60S / X60 Tablet;
- ThinkPad T60;
- Lenovo ThinkPad X200 / X200S / X200 / X220 / X220 eDP / X230 Tablet;
- Lenovo ThinkPad X301;
- Lenovo ThinkPad R400;
- Lenovo ThinkPad T400 / T400S / T420 / T420S / T430 / T440 / T480 / T480S.
- Lenovo ThinkPad T500 / T530;
- Lenovo ThinkPad W530 / W541;
- Lenovo ThinkPad R500;
- HP EliteBook 2560p / 2570p / 2170p / 8470p / Folio 9470m;
- HP EliteBook 820 G2;
- HP Compaq Elite 8300 CMT;
- HP EliteBook 8460p;
- HP EliteBook 8560w;
- Dell Latitude E6400 / E6430;
- Dell Latitude E5420 / E5520 / E5530 / E6520 / E6530 / E6420 / E6220 / E6320 / E6330 / E6230 / E4300;
- Apple MacBook1 and MacBook2;
- ASUS Chromebook Flip C101 (ARM);
- Samsung Chromebook Plus (ARM).
- Gaming Consoles:
- Sony PlayStation 1.
In addition to Libreboot, a release of the Canoeboot 25.04 project has been formed, which is positioned as a fully free build of Libreboot, in compliance with the Free Software Foundation's requirements for fully free distributions. The Canoeboot release is based on Libreboot 25.04, from which components and changes not meeting the Free Software Foundation's criteria have been removed.
The need to create a separate build of Libreboot arises from the Free Software Foundation's established requirements for free distributions, which do not allow the delivery of binary firmware or any binary driver components. Starting from 2022, the Libreboot project has adopted more pragmatic rules for the usage of binary components, significantly expanding the range of supported hardware. The new goal of the Libreboot project is to support all hardware supported in coreboot, excluding binary components that impact security and reliability (for instance, Libreboot uses me_cleaner to disable Intel ME). With this approach, Libreboot lost its status as a fully free distribution from the perspective of the Free Software Foundation.
Devices supported in Canoeboot:
- Game Consoles:
- Sony Playstation (PS1/PSX)
- Server motherboards:
- ASUS KFSN4-DRE motherboard
- ASUS KGPE-D16 motherboard
- Desktop systems:
- Acer G43T-AM3
- Apple iMac 5,2
- ASUS KCMA-D8
- Dell OptiPlex 780
- Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L
- Intel D510MO and D410PT motherboards
- Intel D945GCLF
- Laptops (x86):
- Apple MacBook1,1 and MacBook2,1
- Dell Latitude E4300, E6400, E6400 XFR, and E6400 ATG
- Lenovo ThinkPad R400
- Lenovo ThinkPad R500
- Lenovo ThinkPad T400/T400S
- Lenovo ThinkPad T500 / W500
- Lenovo ThinkPad T60, X60, X60S, X60 Tablet (Intel GPU)
- Lenovo ThinkPad X200/X200S/X200 Tablet
- Laptops (ARM):
- ASUS Chromebook Flip C101
- Samsung Chromebook Plus (v1)
- Emulators:
- QEMU x86 and arm64
Source: opennet.ru
