Coreboot preinstalled?

[DPic]

Having coreboot preinstalled on system76 machined would be cool. What would be necessary to make this happen? It would certainly gain a lot of publicity. Maybe push dell to finally do something as well?
http://www.ideastorm.com/article/sho...oprietary_BIOS

[thomasaaron]

Coreboot (previously LinuxBIOS) is something that our R&D department keeps an eye on. At some point in the future we may use it. However, there is a lot of testing that needs to be done before we could adopt it as a BIOS replacement.

Unfortunately, it is still a necessity for some of our customers to dual-boot Windows so they can run various industry-specific applications and play certain games. Motherboard manufacturers send down BIOS updates fairly frequently to patch or enhance various Windows-related functionalities. So, we are leery of hampering our customers freedom to use our machines the way *they* need to use them.

Coreboot is definitely a great idea, though, and we will keep an eye on it.

[DPic]

Coreboot (previously LinuxBIOS) is something that our R&D department keeps an eye on. At some point in the future we may use it. However, there is a lot of testing that needs to be done before we could adopt it as a BIOS replacement.

Unfortunately, it is still a necessity for some of our customers to dual-boot Windows so they can run various industry-specific applications and play certain games. Motherboard manufacturers send down BIOS updates fairly frequently to patch or enhance various Windows-related functionalities. So, we are leery of hampering our customers freedom to use our machines the way *they* need to use them.

Coreboot is definitely a great idea, though, and we will keep an eye on it.

Thanks for the reply! As for dual-booting windows, coreboot supports windows. Is there anything that system76 can do to move progress along with making coreboot on system76 machines a reality? If you did, and made it known, i'm sure a *lot* of people would become very, very loyal customers. I know i would!

[DPic]

I got an email response-- Thanks, and keep us posted!

Hi, Danny.

Thanks for the email. The questions isn't so much whether coreboot supports Windows. The question is: Does coreboot keep up with all of the bios updates that come down for windows-related functionality for all of the motherboards they support. I imagine this would be pretty difficult for them to do, but I could well be wrong.

I've passed your email on to our R&D department. They try to contribute to the work of third-party developers if they can.

Best Regards,
Tom Aaron
System 76 Technical Support
support@system76.com
720-226-9269 x603

[benjo316]

I think this would be an interesting idea, and would be glad to have it on one of my computers(I don't have any computers whose motherboards have been tested or definitely work with coreboot, at the moment).

For future reference, here is the coreboot welcome page on their wiki, and here is a page with a list of some benefits to using coreboot(though, it's not complete).

Of particular interest is the ability to boot from nonstandard media, like flash cards and other storage devices, which are currently not supported by some(many?) proprietary BIOS's. Also note the payloads, which I believe to be what coreboot is able to boot up(may not be a complete list either).

[DeadSuperHero]

I would truly love to have coreboot on one of these. With this, and the possibility of installing Free Drivers, I might just be able to actually have a 100% Free system. I'd be overjoyed if this happened.

[Geremia]

I have the Lemur 2 (Lemu2) laptop from System76. It has a Core i3 chipset, and I don't think CoreBoot supports Core i3 chips. Does it? If so, how would I install CoreBoot on my System76? Thank you

[Ubun2to]

I have the Lemur 2 (Lemu2) laptop from System76. It has a Core i3 chipset, and I don't think CoreBoot supports Core i3 chips. Does it? If so, how would I install CoreBoot on my System76? Thank you

Way to unbury a dead corpse.

[lisati]

Way to unbury a dead corpse.

Reburied

[uid313]

It would be nice if System76 machines worked with coreboot, even if it wasn't pre-installed.
Then those who wanted coreboot could flash with that.