[coreboot] coreboot certified hardware

[Warren Turkal]

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 at 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