I am using Coreboot on a HP Chromebook that runs Debian 12 + Xfce. So far, I have not run into any issues.
Full disclaimer: My overall needs for this machine are very light/basic.
this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2024
47 points (100.0% liked)
Linux
48067 readers
701 users here now
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
So generally the pro of coreboot is that it is open source, but the con is that it is open source.
What I mean by that, you can fix any issues yourself, however, if you are unable to do it yourself, you have to wait until someone does it for you and often what features are available and stable are a hit and miss.
Compared to proprietary bioses, the company has some kind of standardized process for developing the bios. So you often get want you would expect. However, if the money flow from the pc vendor to the bios vendor drys up, you, or the community of owners. will not be able to fix any issues.
Linux support should be the same, regardless if you choose proprietary or open source bios. But that depends on how well the coreboot was ported to the platform. So officially supported coreboot bioses are likely better than others.
Personally, if all other attributes are equal, would go with coreboot, because I like to support vendors that offer that choice, and IMO a open source solution, that you can review and build yourself is intrinsically more secure than a binary blob, where you have to blindly trust some corporation. But other security minded people might disagree, which is fine.
t430 with coreboot works pretty well, though you can't do some things like flashing the embedded controller and some things like recalibration of the battery doesn't work
the boot speed is actually insane though, if you have grub as the payload and have it directly boot linux without a bios/uefi
I believe System76 laptops come with Coreboot installed, or at least have it available as an option. Seems nice to have the vendor support versus hoping and praying that your hardware will work with it.
T440P + libreboot + gentoo, user here Libre boot works great. i had to flash it to my laptop using a raspi. For almost all linux distros it works great. The only i have had problems with booting is haiku and vanilla OS orchid. The screen res borks and super small and duplicated, So i cant install Vanilla OS. and haiku at the moment doesnt support sea bios.
Other than those 2 use cases, its been perfect. For alot of distro trying/hoping