The release of the CoreBoot 24.02 project has been published, developing a free alternative to proprietary firmware and BIOS. The project code is distributed under the GPLv2 license. 111 developers took part in creating the new version and prepared 814 changes. Starting with this release, the project switched to a new version naming scheme that uses a date reference (year.month.update), so in February 2024, instead of version 4.23, release 24.02 was formed, and release 24.05 is scheduled for May.
Major changes:
- Added support for three motherboards. One added board is used in the Lenovo ThinkPad X230 eDP Mod (2K/FHD) laptop, and the other two are used on devices running Chrome OS or серверах Google. Support for the Google Primus4ES board has been discontinued.
- The transition from using the “master” branch for development to a new “main” branch has been completed, created since the word “master” has been considered politically incorrect in recent years and has caused indignation among some activists. For about 6 months, the "master" and "main" branches were kept in sync, and now only the "main" branch is left, which may require reworking the scripts that reference the "master" branch.
- The JPEG image decoder has been replaced by an implementation in the Wuffs (Wrangling Untrusted File Formats Safely) language, which is memory-safe, generates C/C++ code, and is optimized for creating file format parsers, encoders, and decoders. Using a secure JPEG decoder eliminates the project's exposure to attacks such as LogoFAIL.
- Improved compatibility with ACPI specifications:
- Added support for the IORT (Input Output Remapping Table) structure, used to determine the input/output topology on ARM systems.
- Added support for the PPTT (Processor Properties Topology Tables) structure, defined in the ACPI 6.4 specification and including information about the processor topology. The creation of PPTT has so far been implemented only for qemu-sbsa and Neoverse N2 boards that require this table.
- Added support for the WDAT (Watchdog Action Table) table, proposed by Microsoft to describe a watchdog timer that automatically reboots the PC if the operating system freezes.
- Added support for SPI Flash chips GD25LQ255E and IS25WP256D.
- The ability to work with several groups of PCI segments at once has been implemented.
- The bus and link_list structures have been renamed to upstream and downstream.
- Descriptions of modern Intel platforms have been added to devicetree files.
- Added buildgcc support for Apple MacBook1 and MacBook2 devices.
- crossgcc has switched from using GCC 11.4.0 to GCC 13.2.0, CMake has been updated from version 3.26.4 to 3.27.7.
- Updated payload components based on GRUB 2.12 and Seabios 1.16.3.
In addition, the release of the Libreboot 20240225 project is presented, which develops a ready-made Coreboot assembly to replace proprietary UEFI and BIOS firmware, which is responsible for initializing the CPU, memory, peripherals and other hardware components. Libreboot aims to create a system environment that allows you to do without proprietary software as much as possible, not only at the level of the operating system, but also the firmware that provides booting. Libreboot complements Coreboot with tools to make it easier for end users to use, creating a ready-made distribution that can be used by any user without special skills.
In the new release:
- Added support for HP EliteBook 8560w and Dell Latitude E5520/E5530/E6520/E6420 laptops.
- Added support for Dell OptiPlex 9020/7020 PCs (SFF, XE2 SFF, MT and XE2 MT series).
- Support for generating a separate archive with U-Boot code has been added to the release update script (./update release -m u-boot).
- To flash Libreboot images into motherboards, instead of the flashrom utility, the flashprog toolkit is used (a flashrom fork aimed at supporting stable releases and implementing support for new chips while maintaining support for old ones).
Hardware supported in Libreboot:
- Server motherboards:
- ASUS KFSN4-DRE
- ASUS KGPE-D16
- Desktop systems:
- Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L;
- Acer G43T-AM3;
- 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 7020 and 9020 SFF, XE2 SFF, MT and XE2 MT series;
- 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;
- 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 Latitute E6400/E6430;
- Dell Latitude E5520/E5530/E6520/E6530/E6420;
- Apple MacBook1 and MacBook2;
- ASUS Chromebook Flip C101 (ARM);
- Samsung Chromebook Plus (ARM).
Source: opennet.ru
