FSF Sponsors 'GNU Boot', a Libre, Ethical Replacement for Nonfree BIOS Or UEFI (fsf.org) 25
"Free your BIOS today!" urges the web page for GNU Boot, calling it "a 100% free software project aimed at replacing the nonfree boot software (like BIOS or UEFI) of computers with free boot software.
GNU Boot is only a distribution: it reuses existing software projects like Coreboot, GRUB, SeaBIOS, etc. So it's not very different from 100% free GNU/Linux distributions like Trisquel or Guix.
Last month the Free Software Foundation announced they'd fiscally sponsor the project: "The BIOS is a delicate but essential part of software freedom for computing today," said Zoë Kooyman, executive director of the FSF. "GNU Boot aims to make sure that we can continue using our computers in freedom. With the way it builds on the work of others to replace UEFI, we know it can remain firm in the free software philosophy and stay vital to digital autonomy and user freedom." Free boot firmware, such as GNU Boot, is responsible for loading the computer's operating system.
The work done by GNU Boot contributors has similarities to work done by GNU/Linux distributions: they package software like Coreboot or GNU GRUB, contribute to the upstream repositories of these projects, and assist them with documentation, among other tasks... When asked about their project joining the FSF's fiscal sponsorship program, co-maintainer Adrien Bourmault stated: "Making this decision with the FSF allows us to focus more on what we do best: writing and debugging code that keeps our machines fully free." Projects whose scope and purpose align with the FSF's mission and further mission-related activities can become fiscally sponsored by joining the FSF's Working Together for Free Software Fund.
Last month the Free Software Foundation announced they'd fiscally sponsor the project: "The BIOS is a delicate but essential part of software freedom for computing today," said Zoë Kooyman, executive director of the FSF. "GNU Boot aims to make sure that we can continue using our computers in freedom. With the way it builds on the work of others to replace UEFI, we know it can remain firm in the free software philosophy and stay vital to digital autonomy and user freedom." Free boot firmware, such as GNU Boot, is responsible for loading the computer's operating system.
The work done by GNU Boot contributors has similarities to work done by GNU/Linux distributions: they package software like Coreboot or GNU GRUB, contribute to the upstream repositories of these projects, and assist them with documentation, among other tasks... When asked about their project joining the FSF's fiscal sponsorship program, co-maintainer Adrien Bourmault stated: "Making this decision with the FSF allows us to focus more on what we do best: writing and debugging code that keeps our machines fully free." Projects whose scope and purpose align with the FSF's mission and further mission-related activities can become fiscally sponsored by joining the FSF's Working Together for Free Software Fund.
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Hey, I use 15 year old hardware and it works just fine for 99% of what I need it for. Then again, the existing bios on that hardware is adequate..
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My Xeon E5-2650 v2 from 2013 is still chugging along. Although I bought it in 2019 as a NOS/server-pull so it's only 7 years old for me.
Great idea! (Score:2)
...in theory.
In practice, supporting the full range of modern hardware will be a colossal challenge, especially if it's undocumented
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That depends. For example, a Linux kernel basically clears everything out and does everything itself. Hence the drivers for most hardware can be taken from that. Also note that for booting you only need a small part of the "full range of modern hardware" to work and there are quite a few standardized interfaces for storage.
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It's not just NDA. In some cases it's not actually possible to do it at all without the aid of completely inaccessible binary blob software. Memory timing on current gen AMD systems isn't done by UEFI, it's handled by the Platform Security Processor which runs an AGESA binary blob which then hands the result back to the UEFI, meaning it's literally not possible to boot up AMD's current gen chip without relying on some closed source proprietary blob at some point.
AMD has promised to address this going forwar
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Actually you need a large part of the "full range of modern hardware", you just don't need a lot of I/O. Unless you want to network boot, of course.
All of the processor, all of the memory, all of anything to do with memory, PCI, possibly USB. It would be easier to enumerate what wouldn't be needed. And most is this is supported in "BIOS" while not documented publicly.
Yes, OSes generally "resupport" this hardware, but the OS needs to be loaded, "standardized interfaces for storage" are only the last step.
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I think you have a problem counting there. No, most hardware is NOT involved in booting.
Hasn't This Already Been Done? (Score:5, Interesting)
Hasn't this already been done, ages ago? What's non-free about OVMF EUFI, which is itself based on TianoCore EDK II.
Is TianoCore EDK II, a BSD licensed EUFI implementation, non-free?
Even Microsoft released Project Mu, an open source EUFI boot loader based on a TianoCore EDK II fork.
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Not to mention LinuxBIOS/CoreBoot, which has existed for years.
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Oh good, the software is done. No need for any further funds to continue development. Close up shop boys we're going home /s.
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Don't think anyone was saying it should be finished. Just that this isn't as novel as the headline makes it sound.
Re:Hasn't This Already Been Done? (Score:4, Informative)
EDK is the EFI Developer Kit. There was one released by Intel which wasn't open-source, but there have been several EDKs that are open-source. But they are for developing UEFI applications that run in the UEFI environment. You don't use the EDK as a replacement for UEFI.
LIbreBoot/CoreBoot and now GNU Boot are a BIOS/UEFI replacement. And they're actually all derived from from CoreBoot (which started as LinuxBoot). It basically is a BIOS/UEFI replacement that booted into Linux and served as the boot environment.
CoreBoot evolved from it but it has binary blobs, which is why the GNU folks created LibreBoot. Not surprisingly the compatibility list of LibreBoot is far smaller than CoreBoot, and CoreBoot is pretty small already. Remember this has to initialize the hardware the provide the tables so the OS can perform certain operations like sleep and suspend by telling the OS what registers it needs to access.
LibreBoot has a sordid history because earlier this year or last year, the developer of CoreBoot got fed up with LibreBoot being years out of date, so the CoreBoot dev basically pushed an updated version of LibreBoot (minus the binary blobs). Apparently the LibreBoot dev didn't like that, which is why it's GNU Boot. It was a pretty messy thing because the CoreBoot devs wanted to update what was a completely outdated fork.
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Thanks for explaining.
Sordid seems to be the key word to all this.
ethical? (Score:1, Troll)
If using hardware is ethical, then using the BIOS that is included with and is part of the hardware is also ethical. Cannot be otherwise.
You would think people would tire of RMS's silly lies. There is no end to RMS's desire to take your work for free.
Re:ethical? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: ethical? (Score:2)
Free software isn't about killing kittens, it's about the users of the kitten killing software.
Linus' pragmatism about licenses is misplaced because Linux would not have succeeded under a different license.
indeed tiresome ... (Score:4, Informative)
If using hardware is ethical, then using the BIOS that is included with and is part of the hardware is also ethical.
a false premise fallacy, a composition fallacy, an equivocation, a false equivalence and a non-sequitur all in one sentence. nicely done! what a pity it isn't a haiku.
There is no end to RMS's desire to take your work for free.
ridiculous and outlandish slander and false accusation had absolutely to be included, i guess. btw, afaik stallman doesn't seem involved in the gnu boot project at all, nor has he made any claims about it besides stating that he does use it.
You would think people would tire of ...
... reading jerks yelling at imaginary monsters and villains? nah, keep going, you doing good. but learn to haiku.
Crowbar! (Score:3)
I still use a 2011 core-i7 Thinkpad T420 running Debian Stable. It's fine. This article set me wondering about installing libreboot or gnu boot or coreboot. Hadn't looked for years. Maybe it's no longer a risky enterprise? Checked the libreboot docs for the T420:
"necessary tools (flat-nose pliers or sleeve tool, screwdriver, small crowbar)"
A fucking crowbar!
Fuck that, and yes, I do have a crowbar.
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The crowbar is to rest across the two pins to reset the BIOS chip EPROM.