1coreboot README 2=============== 3 4coreboot is a Free Software project aimed at replacing the proprietary BIOS 5(firmware) found in most computers. coreboot performs a little bit of 6hardware initialization and then executes additional boot logic, called a 7payload. 8 9With the separation of hardware initialization and later boot logic, 10coreboot can scale from specialized applications that run directly 11firmware, run operating systems in flash, load custom 12bootloaders, or implement firmware standards, like PC BIOS services or 13UEFI. This allows for systems to only include the features necessary 14in the target application, reducing the amount of code and flash space 15required. 16 17coreboot was formerly known as LinuxBIOS. 18 19 20Payloads 21-------- 22 23After the basic initialization of the hardware has been performed, any 24desired "payload" can be started by coreboot. 25 26See <https://www.coreboot.org/Payloads> for a list of supported payloads. 27 28 29Supported Hardware 30------------------ 31 32coreboot supports a wide range of chipsets, devices, and mainboards. 33 34For details please consult: 35 36 * <https://www.coreboot.org/Supported_Motherboards> 37 38 39Build Requirements 40------------------ 41 42 * make 43 * gcc / g++ 44 Because Linux distribution compilers tend to use lots of patches. coreboot 45 does lots of "unusual" things in its build system, some of which break due 46 to those patches, sometimes by gcc aborting, sometimes - and that's worse - 47 by generating broken object code. 48 Two options: use our toolchain (eg. make crosstools-i386) or enable the 49 `ANY_TOOLCHAIN` Kconfig option if you're feeling lucky (no support in this 50 case). 51 * iasl (for targets with ACPI support) 52 * pkg-config 53 * libssl-dev (openssl) 54 55Optional: 56 57 * doxygen (for generating/viewing documentation) 58 * gdb (for better debugging facilities on some targets) 59 * ncurses (for `make menuconfig` and `make nconfig`) 60 * flex and bison (for regenerating parsers) 61 62 63Building coreboot 64----------------- 65 66Please consult <https://www.coreboot.org/Build_HOWTO> for details. 67 68 69Testing coreboot Without Modifying Your Hardware 70------------------------------------------------ 71 72If you want to test coreboot without any risks before you really decide 73to use it on your hardware, you can use the QEMU system emulator to run 74coreboot virtually in QEMU. 75 76Please see <https://www.coreboot.org/QEMU> for details. 77 78 79Website and Mailing List 80------------------------ 81 82Further details on the project, a FAQ, many HOWTOs, news, development 83guidelines and more can be found on the coreboot website: 84 85 <https://www.coreboot.org> 86 87You can contact us directly on the coreboot mailing list: 88 89 <https://www.coreboot.org/Mailinglist> 90 91 92Copyright and License 93--------------------- 94 95The copyright on coreboot is owned by quite a large number of individual 96developers and companies. Please check the individual source files for details. 97 98coreboot is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL). 99Some files are licensed under the "GPL (version 2, or any later version)", 100and some files are licensed under the "GPL, version 2". For some parts, which 101were derived from other projects, other (GPL-compatible) licenses may apply. 102Please check the individual source files for details. 103 104This makes the resulting coreboot images licensed under the GPL, version 2. 105