Patrick Georgi has submitted this change and it was merged. ( https://review.coreboot.org/c/coreboot/+/31180 ) Change subject: Documentation: Describe our ecosystem ...................................................................... Documentation: Describe our ecosystem Neither payloads nor distributors are an integral part of the coreboot source tree, but they're very important parts of the coreboot ecosystems, so add some descriptions. Change-Id: Id64744c252b6b78c4811fbded48c441ef486ad94 Signed-off-by: Patrick Georgi <pgeorgi@google.com> Reviewed-on: https://review.coreboot.org/c/31180 Tested-by: build bot (Jenkins) <no-reply@coreboot.org> Reviewed-by: Arthur Heymans <arthur@aheymans.xyz> Reviewed-by: Angel Pons <th3fanbus@gmail.com> --- A Documentation/distributions.md M Documentation/index.md A Documentation/payloads.md 3 files changed, 90 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-) Approvals: build bot (Jenkins): Verified Arthur Heymans: Looks good to me, approved Angel Pons: Looks good to me, approved diff --git a/Documentation/distributions.md b/Documentation/distributions.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..837a744 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/distributions.md @@ -0,0 +1,46 @@ +# Distributions + +coreboot doesn't provide binaries but provides a toolbox that others can use +to build boot firmware for all kinds of purposes. These third-parties can be +broadly separated in two groups: Those shipping coreboot on their hardware, +and those providing after-market firmware to extend the usefulness of devices. + +## Shipping coreboot on hardware + +### Purism + +[Purism](https://www.puri.sm) sells laptops with a focus on privacy and +part of that is their push to remove as much unaccounted code (that is, +binary only) from their devices as possible. + +### Chromebooks + +All Chromebooks (and related devices) that hit the market after 2013 are +using coreboot as their main firmware. And even the Embedded Controller, +a small microcontroller to support various peripherals (like battery +management or the keyboard) is running open source firmware. + + +## After-market firmware + +### Libreboot + +[Libreboot](https://libreboot.org) is a project that provides ready-made +binaries for platforms where those can be built entirely from source +code. Their copy of the coreboot repository is therefore stripped of +all devices that require binary components to boot. + +### Mr. Chromebox + +[Matt Devo](https://mrchromebox.tech/) provides replacement firmware for +various Chromebooks. Why replace coreboot with coreboot? You might want +to do different things than what the Google engineers prepared for the +mass market, that's why. This firmware is "with training wheels off". + +### John Lewis + +[John Lewis](https://johnlewis.ie/custom-chromebook-firmware) also +provides replacements for Chromebook firmware, for the same reasons +as Mr. Chromebox. It's a somewhat different set of devices, and with +different configurations, so check out both if Chromebooks are what +you're dealing with. diff --git a/Documentation/index.md b/Documentation/index.md index af3886e..c5bfa9b 100644 --- a/Documentation/index.md +++ b/Documentation/index.md @@ -13,6 +13,8 @@ * [Code of Conduct](community/code_of_conduct.md) * [Community forums](community/forums.md) * [coreboot at conferences](community/conferences.md) +* [Payloads](payloads.md) +* [Distributions](distributions.md) * [Timestamps](timestamp.md) * [Intel IFD Binary Extraction](Binary_Extraction.md) * [Dealing with Untrusted Input in SMM](technotes/2017-02-dealing-with-untrusted-input-in-smm.md) diff --git a/Documentation/payloads.md b/Documentation/payloads.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b1eae61 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/payloads.md @@ -0,0 +1,42 @@ +# Payloads + +coreboot doesn't try to mandate how the boot process should look, it merely +does hardware init and then passes on control to another piece of software +that we carry along in firmware storage, the _payload_. + +There is various software in that space that is either explicitly written as +payload or can be made to work as one. + +## SeaBIOS + +[SeaBIOS](https://www.seabios.org) is an open source implementation of +the PCBIOS API that exists since the original IBM PC and was extended +since. While originally written for emulators such as QEMU, it can be made +to work as a coreboot payload and all the necessary code is in SeaBIOS' +mainline code. + +## Tianocore + +[Tianocore](https://www.tianocore.org) is the open source reference +implementation of the UEFI Specifications that modern firmware for PCs is +based on. There were various projects in the past to make it suitable as a +coreboot payload, but these days this function is available directly in the +CorebootPayloadPkg part of its source tree. + +## GRUB2 + +GRUB2 was originally written as a bootloader and that's its most popular +purpose, but it can also be compiled as a coreboot payload. + +## Linux + +There are several projects using Linux as a payload (which was the +configuration that gave coreboot its original name, LinuxBIOS). That kernel is +often rather small and serves to load a current kernel from somewhere, e.g. +disk or network, and run that through the kexec mechanism. + +Two aspects emphasized by proponents of Linux-as-a-payload are the +availability of well-tested, battle-hardened drivers (as compared to +firmware project drivers that often reinvent the wheel) and the ability to +define boot policy with familiar tools, no matter if those are shell scripts +or compiled userland programs written in C, Go or other programming languages. -- To view, visit https://review.coreboot.org/c/coreboot/+/31180 To unsubscribe, or for help writing mail filters, visit https://review.coreboot.org/settings Gerrit-Project: coreboot Gerrit-Branch: master Gerrit-Change-Id: Id64744c252b6b78c4811fbded48c441ef486ad94 Gerrit-Change-Number: 31180 Gerrit-PatchSet: 4 Gerrit-Owner: Patrick Georgi <pgeorgi@google.com> Gerrit-Reviewer: Angel Pons <th3fanbus@gmail.com> Gerrit-Reviewer: Arthur Heymans <arthur@aheymans.xyz> Gerrit-Reviewer: Matt DeVillier <matt.devillier@gmail.com> Gerrit-Reviewer: Patrick Georgi <pgeorgi@google.com> Gerrit-Reviewer: build bot (Jenkins) <no-reply@coreboot.org> Gerrit-MessageType: merged