After seven months of development, Libreboot boot firmware release 20220710 has been released, in which it is observed that the main attention in the preparation of the new version focused on fixing the problems seen in the previous version. No significant changes or support for new boards are proposed in version 20220710, but some improvements are noted.
For those who are not familiar with Libreboot, they should know that this is a project that develops a completely free fork of the CoreBoot project, which provides a binary-free replacement for the proprietary UEFI and BIOS firmware responsible for initializing the CPU, memory, peripherals, and other hardware components.
libreboot aims to create a system environment that completely dispenses with proprietary software, not only at the operating system level, but also at the boot firmware level. Libreboot not only cleans CoreBoot of non-free components, but also adds tools to make it easier for end users to use, creating a distribution that can be used by any user without special skills.
Main news of Libreboot 20220710
This is the fourth version of the GNU Project and is touted as the first stable release (Old versions have been marked as test versions as they require additional testing and stabilization.)
For example in grub.cfg added many performance improvements, improving boot speeds when using the GNU GRUB payload (courtesy Ferass 'Vitali64' EL HAFIDI with additional improvements by Leah Rowe)
Also documentation improvements are highlighted, as previous 2021 test builds didn't include documentation snapshots (which are actually the Markdown source files for the website), but this build now includes a snapshot of the current Libreboot documentation, depending on the time of release .
In addition to this, it is also highlighted that performance optimizations have been made to speed up loading when using a GNU GRUB-based payload environment.
They were generated 16 MB extended builds for Macbook2 and Macbook1, plus the build system has been enhanced to include scripts to automatically modify coreboot config files and serial output is disabled for all boards by default, which has resolved issues with boot slowdowns.
On GM45/ICH9M chipset laptops have PECI disabled in coreboot to avoid microcode error.
We can also find that preliminary support for integration with u-boot loader has been implemented, which is not yet used in builds for boards, but in the future it will allow to start generating builds for ARM platforms.
On the other hand, it is mentioned that on GM45/ICH9M laptops PECI was disabled in coreboot, to fix a microcode bug that causes SpeedStep (and possibly other CPU features) to fail.
Of the other changes that stand out from this new version:
- Do not treat the warnings as errors when compiling flashrom (fixes that are based on newer versions of GCC).
- Build system improvement: Automated scripts to modify coreboot configurations.
- Disabled (by default) serial output on all boards to avoid boot speed issues.
- grub.cfg - actually enables USB keyboards, explicitly (fixes bug seen on some laptops, when using GRUB payload).
- Coreboot settings: do not enable wifi during early boot (security responsibility)
- scripts: Process git versions when lbmk is a working tree or submodule.
- Updated to newer flashrom, on build system
- cc1: fatal error: cannot open 'out/src/asm-offsets.s' for writing: No such file or directory
- Fix in lbmk: specifically call python3, when python3 is to be used instead of 2.
- lbmk - Preliminary fix for git credential verification. Set a placeholder name/email if one has not been set.
Finally, if you are interested in knowing more about this new version, you can consult the details in the following link