Porting Coreboot to a Mini PC

[Mason Corkern]

Greetings,

I recently purchased a Mini PC from mini forums, a company based in Hong Kong [1]. I want to replace their custom BIOS with Coreboot since it's FOSS. Prisim and Nitro has been able to install Coreboot, but they said they did a custom port for the motherboard/cpu and they overcharge by $400 and justify it due to the R&D spent on porting Coreboot to the minipc [2]. Has anyone tried porting Coreboot for similar boars and/or made a tutorial? I couldn't find it when I googled around and looked in docs.

1.
Minisforum NAB6/NPB7 Intel i7-12650H/Intel i7-13700Hhttps://store.minisforum.com/products/minisforum-nab6?variant=44164535288053
  2.
Purism– Librem Minihttps://puri.sm/products/librem-mini/ and NitroPC 1 | shop.nitrokey.comhttps://shop.nitrokey.com/shop/nitropc-1-132.
  3.

Thanks,
Mason Corkern

[Matt DeVillier]

The minisforum MiniPC you have linked is a completely different device from
the one offered by Purism/Nitrokey; the only thing similar is the form
factor.

coreboot support has to be added on a per-mainboard basis, so the
Minisforum device you linked would need to be ported by someone who
understands coreboot and x86 firmware (or who has a lot of free time to
learn). And the mainboard on the device would need to be unencumbered by
things like Intel Bootguard (which fortunately IME most devices like that
are, but it's not a guarantee).

If you want not just a coreboot port, but ongoing support, it's going to
cost you a heck of a lot more than the $400 you think Purism/Nitrokey are
"overcharging" by. And I say that as the developer who did the initial port
on the Purism Librem Mini/Mini v2 boards.

-Matt
(speaking on behalf of myself, not any present or past employer)

On Wed, Apr 3, 2024 at 5:43 PM Mason Corkern  wrote:
> Greetings,
>
> I recently purchased a Mini PC from mini forums, a company based in Hong
> Kong [1]. I want to replace their custom BIOS with Coreboot since it's
> FOSS. Prisim and Nitro has been able to install Coreboot, but they said
> they did a custom port for the motherboard/cpu and they overcharge by $400
> and justify it due to the R&D spent on porting Coreboot to the minipc [2].
> Has anyone tried porting Coreboot for similar boars and/or made a tutorial?
> I couldn't find it when I googled around and looked in docs.
> Minisforum NAB6/NPB7 Intel i7-12650H/Intel i7-13700H
>
> https://store.minisforum.com/products/minisforum-nab6?variant=44164535288053
>    2. Purism– Librem Mini https://puri.sm/products/librem-mini/ and NitroPC
>    1 | shop.nitrokey.com https://shop.nitrokey.com/shop/nitropc-1-132.
>    3.
>
> Thanks,
> Mason Corkern
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