[coreboot] INT 13, real mode, block write commands and coreboot

[Alberto Bursi]

On 08/09/2017 04:42, Taiidan at gmx.com wrote:
> AFAIK the more higher performance beagleboards such as the X15 have 
> native pci-e devices for sata, esata, ethernet etc.
>
> I would suggest a more free device such as a BeagleBoard, the RPI 
> foundation only likes open source when it is convenient with them 
> (side question - how come so many laymen think it is an open source 
> hardware?)
>
> If you get a RPI for a long term project you're eventually going to 
> run in to issues when support ends and the blobs no longer work with 
> new distros/kernels.
>

you probably missed the info that Broadcom there is an open driver for 
VC4 made by Eric Anholt (is also in Mesa mainline), which was hired by 
Broadcom years ago and is now also making VC5 driver (next gen of that GPU).

Currently the only thing needed by Raspi (1, 2, 3) is the firmware blob 
for booting and board initialization (running on bare metal in the GPU 
part of the SoC), that will still work fine in the future.

So Raspi has now upstream support for everything (also its own wifi chip 
is supported, don't know about bluetooth but would be surprising if it 
doesn't).

It took them like 4 years of lying about it being "open source", but now 
it is.

-Alberto