Leah Rowe
ad333ae248
This code was introduced to provide fault tolerance, so that if I forgot to manually update the configs myself, builds would still succeed, e.g. coreboot builds. However, there have been cases in the past where this introduces settings we don't want, and in general we do want to know when there is an error in the configs. The policy should always be: fail early, fail hard. This also mitigates bugs in U-Boot's build system; for example, when I last attempted to update the U-Boot tree for x86, make-oldconfig introduced a lot of junk settings unrelated, which then introduced code that would brick the board if you tried it on one, e.g. it broke booting most Linux kernels via bootflow. With this change, U-Boot will be easier to handle, which normally requires manual configuration; the automated make-oldconfig reconfiguration feature breaks U-Boot. This will no longer occur, since we no longer run it manually. On the other hand, this feature has also prevented other disastrous bugs in the past, such as when I forgot to properly set the SPD size on T480; it was set to 256 bytes, not 512 as is correct. Therefore, this new design change means I must also be more vigilant about config changes in project trees. Signed-off-by: Leah Rowe <leah@libreboot.org>
Libreboot
Documentation: libreboot.org
Support: #libreboot on
Libera IRC
Libreboot provides libre boot firmware on supported motherboards. It replaces proprietary vendor BIOS/UEFI implementations, by
- Using coreboot to initialize the hardware (e.g. memory controller, CPU, etc.) while minimizing unwanted functionality (e.g. backdoors such as the Intel Management Engine)
- ... which runs a payload such as SeaBIOS, GRUB, or U-Boot
- ... which loads your operating system's boot loader (BSD and Linux-based systems are supported).
Why use Libreboot, and what is coreboot?
A lot of users who use libre operating systems still use proprietary boot firmware, which often contain backdoors and bugs, hampering user freedom and right to repair.
coreboot provides libre boot firmware by initializing the hardware then running a payload. However, coreboot is notoriously difficult to configure and install for most non-technical users, requiring detailed technical knowledge of hardware.
Libreboot solves this by being a coreboot distribution (in the same way that Alpine Linux is a Linux distribution). It provides a fully automated build system that downloads and compiles pre-configured ROM images for supported motherboards, so end-users could easily fetch images to flash onto their devices.
Libreboot also produces documentation aimed at non-technical users and excellent user support via IRC.
Contribute
You can check bugs listed on the bug tracker.
You may use Codeberg pull requests to send patches with bug fixes or other improvements. This repository hosts the code for the main build system. The website lives in a separate repository.
Development is also done on the IRC channel.
License for this README
It's just a README file. It is released under Creative Commons Zero, version 1.0.