[OpenBIOS] Assertion of an OP on the fedora users list

[Tarl Neustaedter]

On 2012-Sep-20 13:01 , JD wrote:
> This is from a thread  "UEFI bootkit" on fedora-users mailing list
>
> -------------------------
> On 09/20/2012 05:09 AM, Alan Cox wrote:
>> The required information for almost all X86 devices is not available.
>> You can't build an open firmware for most x86 platforms from public
>> information.
>>
>> Alan
> -------------------------
> Is the above assertion true? 

Replacing "X86 devices" with "X86 systems", it's pretty close. A lot of 
the initialization of various Intel and AMD CPU chipsets is not publicly 
available, and the BIOS vendors work very closely with the chip vendors 
during initial fabrication stages to get their code right. As I 
understand it from the people down the hall, It's not so much that the 
initialization is secret as much as it's difficult and poorly 
documented. And neither chip vendor is willing to take the effort to 
make the information readily available.

Most cases I've seen of people using openbios on real hardware have 
allowed the standard BIOS to initialize the chipsets and then take over 
before booting (in some cases, they boot openbios as a binary from a 
virtual floppy).