Libreboot aims to create a system environment that completely dispenses with proprietary software
A few days ago, the new version of Libreboot 20231021 was released , a version that highlights added support for new HP and ASUS devices, as well as the fact that GRUB LUKS2 is now compatible, among other things.
For those unfamiliar with Libreboot, it 's a project that develops a completely free fork of the CoreBoot project, providing a binary-free replacement for the proprietary UEFI and BIOS firmware responsible for initializing the CPU, memory, peripherals, and other hardware components.
Libreboot provides bootable firmware for compatible x86/ARM machines , booting a bootloader that then loads your operating system. It replaces the proprietary BIOS/UEFI firmware on x86 machines and provides enhanced configuration on compatible ARM-based Chromebooks (U-Boot bootloader, instead of Google's deep-load bootloader).
Main news of Libreboot 20230625
This new version of Libreboot 20231021 highlights that the U-Boot boot manager used in the Chromebook firmware has been updated to version 2023.10 , and has been synchronized with the Coreboot repository since October 12 and with the SeaBIOS repository since August 24.
Another notable change in the new version is the restructuring of directories. The contents of the " resources/scripts/ " directory have been moved to a separate " script/ " directory, and the " resources/ " directory has been renamed to " config/ ", as only configuration files and patches remain there (patches are intended to be moved to the "patch/" directory).
It is mentioned that the IFD/GbE files have been moved to the " config/ifd/ " directory, while the vendor-specific binaries are separate from the IFD/GbE files and are located in the " vendorfiles/ " directory.
In addition, Libreboot 20231021 also highlights the new support added for the Dell Latitude E6430 (Intel GPU), Lenovo ThinkPad X301, HP EliteBook 2170p and HP EliteBook 8470p laptops .
Furthermore, the commands for the lbmk (Libreboot build system) compilation tool have been simplified; for example, instead of "./build boot roms" you can now specify "./build roms". The number of compilation scripts has been reduced from 50 to 12.
Two audits of the lbmk build system were performed, reducing code size by 50% and increasing productivity.
We will also find that support for encrypted partitions in LUKS2 format was added using a key generation mechanism based on the argon2 algorithm (previously only configurations with PBKDF2 were supported).
Other notable changes include:
- Support for server motherboards has been returned for the ASUS KFSN4-DRE and ASUS KGPE-D16 models and support has been added for PC motherboards for the ASUS KCMA-D8 and Dell Precision T1650 models.
- Transitioned to the currently in-development branch of the GRUB 2.12-rc bootloader.
- Added support for creating serprog firmware for boards based on RP2040 (pico-serprog) and STM32 (stm32-vserprog) microcontrollers.
- The serprog protocol is supported by flashrom and is used for SPI flash firmware.
- Much tighter and more robust error handling;
- Most of the logic has been unified into single scripts that perform one type of task each, rather than multiple scripts that perform the same type of conversation.
- GitHub is no longer used in main Git repository links, but only as a backup
- Backing repositories now defined, for all main repositories in config/git/
- Single tree projects are no longer unnecessarily re-downloaded when they have already been downloaded.
- Better integrity check when downloading files from vendors
- GRUB LUKS2 support now available, with argon2 key derivation
- Very small number of modules in GRUB, keeping only what is necessary.
- Cleaning of vendor files is now done by the injection script, instead of the release script.
- U-Boot can now be compiled independently, without using the ROM build script, because crossgcc handling is now provided for U-Boot in addition to coreboot.
Finally, if you're interested in learning more about this new release, you can find the details at the following link.