I think that a base coreboot certification should basically state that all the hardware on the board is usable with a major free OS (e.g. Linux-based OSes like Debian, Ubuntu, and Redhat maybe).
We could maybe have extended certifications for things like non-free OS and driver compatibility.
My comments below are what I would expect minimum coreboot compliance to mean.
On Sat, Oct 2, 2010 at 3:44 PM, Carl-Daniel Hailfinger c-d.hailfinger.devel.2006@gmx.net wrote:
I wonder if we want to establish something like the "Designed for Windows XP" or "Yes it runs with Netware" certificates? It would certainly be a nice marketing aid for vendors, and at the same time it would promote coreboot visibility.
Interesting idea. I think that we'd need participation from board vendors for it to make much sense.
If there is interest in such an idea, we will have to decide which criteria have to be fulfilled to get such a certificate, and if the certificate has an expiry date and/or is bound to a specific svn revision. Off the top of my head, I can think of the following criteria:
- coreboot+SeaBIOS works well enough to boot $ENTERPRISE_LINUX,
$ENDUSER_LINUX and Windows 7 (Vista and XP as well?)
Why should Windows be important criteria? Should we really withhold a coreboot certification on the condition that a non-free OS work?
- Nvidia and ATI graphics drivers (both free and closed) work if booted
with a coreboot+SeaBIOS image?
Frankly, I think that ability to use the free drivers should be good enough. We shouldn't be hold out any kind of coreboot certification on the condition that non-free drivers work.
- Frequency scaling and the various suspend methods work
yes
- Soft poweroff works
yes
- IRQ routing and all PCI/PCIe/AGP/whatever slots work
yes
- Legacy ports (if present) work
How about any ports on the board should work, legacy or not?
- Fans work well enough (temperature-based scaling if present in the
"normal" BIOS)
I don't think that we should compare coreboot to the "normal" bios. We should decide whether this feature is needed or not in a certified system that is capable of it.
- Source for a working coreboot image (including the Kconfig settings
for the board, and possibly NVRAM settings?) is available for free without NDA
Yes.
- Board port merged into coreboot svn
Yes.
- SeaBIOS source code is available
Yes.
- SeaBIOS code is merged into SeaBIOS git
Yes. Doesn't this imply the previous item?
- flashrom works on the board (no lockdown) or there is a way to boot
unlocked and run flashrom for your image of choice
Yes.
- At least some serial output (coreboot version) if a serial port
(header) is present, otherwise... USB Debug? Floppy? LPC bus? POST card on port 82h?
I thought that POST cards showed valued outputed on port 80h. What is 82h?
Basically every coreboot system should output POST codes that a POST card can display if it's possible to insert a POST card.
Any physical ports (including headers for ports) on the board should be supported.
Thanks, wt