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https://github.com/system76/coreboot

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README 

        
coreboot README

===============



coreboot is a Free Software project aimed at replacing the proprietary

firmware (BIOS/UEFI) found in most computers. coreboot performs the

required hardware initialization to configure the system, then passes

control to a different executable, referred to in coreboot as the

payload. Most often, the primary function of the payload is to boot the

operating system (OS).



With the separation of hardware initialization and later boot logic,

coreboot is perfect for a wide variety of situations. It can be used

for specialized applications that run directly in the firmware, running

operating systems from flash, loading custom bootloaders, or

implementing firmware standards, like PC BIOS services or UEFI. This

flexibility allows coreboot systems to include only the features

necessary in the target application, reducing the amount of code and

flash space required.



Source code

-----------



All source code for coreboot is stored in git. It is downloaded with

the command:



`git clone https://review.coreboot.org/coreboot.git`.



Code reviews are done in [the project's Gerrit

instance](https://review.coreboot.org/).



The code may be browsed via [coreboot's Gitiles

instance](https://review.coreboot.org/plugins/gitiles/coreboot/+/HEAD).



The coreboot project also maintains a

[mirror](https://github.com/coreboot/coreboot) of the project on github.

This is read-only, as coreboot does not accept github pull requests,

but allows browsing and downloading the coreboot source.



Payloads

--------



After the basic initialization of the hardware has been performed, any

desired "payload" can be started by coreboot.



See  for a list of some of

coreboot's supported payloads.



Supported Hardware

------------------



The coreboot project supports a wide range of architectures, chipsets,

devices, and mainboards. While not all of these are documented, you can

find some information in the [Architecture-specific

documentation](https://doc.coreboot.org/arch/index.html) or the

[SOC-specific documentation](https://doc.coreboot.org/soc/index.html).



For details about the specific mainboard devices that coreboot supports,

please consult the [Mainboard-specific

documentation](https://doc.coreboot.org/mainboard/index.html) or the

[Board Status](https://coreboot.org/status/board-status.html) pages.



Releases

--------



Releases are currently done by coreboot every quarter. The

release archives contain the entire coreboot codebase from the time of

the release, along with any external submodules. The submodules

containing binaries are separated from the general release archives. All

of the packages required to build the coreboot toolchains are also kept

at coreboot.org in case the websites change, or those specific packages

become unavailable in the future.



All releases are available on the [coreboot

download](https://coreboot.org/downloads.html) page.



Please note that the coreboot releases are best considered as snapshots

of the codebase, and do not currently guarantee any sort of extra

stability.



Build Requirements and building coreboot

----------------------------------------



The coreboot build, associated utilities and payloads require many

additional tools and packages to build. The actual coreboot binary is

typically built using a coreboot-controlled toolchain to provide

reproducibility across various platforms. It is also possible, though

not recommended, to make it directly with your system toolchain.

Operating systems and distributions come with an unknown variety of

system tools and utilities installed. Because of this, it isn't

reasonable to list all the required packages to do a build, but the

documentation lists the requirements for a few different Linux

distributions.



To see the list of tools and libraries, along with a list of

instructions to get started building coreboot, go to the [Starting from

scratch](https://doc.coreboot.org/tutorial/part1.html) tutorial page.



That same page goes through how to use QEMU to boot the build and see

the output.



Website and Mailing List

------------------------



Further details on the project, as well as links to documentation and

more can be found on the coreboot website:



  



You can contact us directly on the coreboot mailing list:



  



Copyrights and Licenses

---------------------



### Uncopyrightable files



There are many files in the coreboot tree that we feel are not

copyrightable due to a lack of creative content.



"In order to qualify for copyright protection in the United States, a

work must satisfy the originality requirement, which has two parts. The

work must have “at least a modicum” of creativity, and it must be the

independent creation of its author."



  



Similar terms apply to other locations.



These uncopyrightable files include:



- Empty files or files with only a comment explaining their existence.

  These may be required to exist as part of the build process but are

  not needed for the particular project.

- Configuration files either in binary or text form. Examples would be

  files such as .vbt files describing graphics configuration, .apcb

  files containing configuration parameters for AMD firmware binaries,

  and spd files as binary .spd or text \*spd\*.hex representing memory

  chip configuration.

- Machine-generated files containing version numbers, dates, hash

  values or other "non-creative" content.



As non-creative content, these files are in the public domain by

default.  As such, the coreboot project excludes them from the project's

general license even though they may be included in a final binary.



If there are questions or concerns about this policy, please get in

touch with the coreboot project via the mailing list.



### Copyrights



The copyright on coreboot is owned by quite a large number of individual

developers and companies. A list of companies and individuals with known

copyright claims is present at the top level of the coreboot source tree

in the 'AUTHORS' file. Please check the git history of each of the

source files for details.



### Licenses



Because of the way coreboot began, using a significant amount of source

code from the Linux kernel, it's licensed the same way as the Linux

Kernel, with GNU General Public License (GPL) Version 2. Individual

files are licensed under various licenses, though all are compatible

with GPLv2. The resulting coreboot image is licensed under the GPL,

version 2. All source files should have an SPDX license identifier at

the top for clarification.



Files under coreboot/Documentation/ are licensed under CC-BY 4.0 terms.

As an exception, files under Documentation/ with a history older than

2017-05-24 might be under different licenses.



Files in the coreboot/src/commonlib/bsd directory are all licensed with

the BSD-3-clause license.  Many are also dual-licensed GPL-2.0-only or

GPL-2.0-or-later.  These files are intended to be shared with libpayload

or other BSD licensed projects.



The libpayload project contained in coreboot/payloads/libpayload may be

licensed as BSD or GPL, depending on the code pulled in during the build

process. All GPL source code should be excluded unless the Kconfig

option to include it is set.



The Software Freedom Conservancy

--------------------------------



Since 2017, coreboot has been a member of [The Software Freedom

Conservancy](https://sfconservancy.org/), a nonprofit organization

devoted to ethical technology and driving initiatives to make technology

more inclusive. The conservancy acts as coreboot's fiscal sponsor and

legal advisor.