Today, Leah Rowe launched a fresh version (20240225) of Libreboot, a free and open-source alternative to BIOS/UEFI firmware. This version introduces support for additional hardware and incorporates various enhancements.
The current release, Libreboot 20240225, follows approximately one month after its preceding version. This is another “testing” release and is recommended for adventurous users willing to replace their proprietary BIOS/UEFI firmware with an Open Source alternative. The next stable version of Libreboot is projected for release in June or July 2024.
The update introduces support for new mainboards such as HP EliteBook 8560w (integrating MXM handling in SeaBIOS), Dell Latitude E5520, E5530, E6520, E6420, Dell OptiPlex 9020/7020 SFF (as well as XE2 SFF), in addition to Dell OptiPlex 9020/7020 MT (and XE2 MT). The latter was tested with both Haswell and Broadwell MRCs.
Another significant alteration in Libreboot 20240225 that will expand hardware compatibility moving forward is the adaptation of the flashprog software in place of flashrom for identifying, reading, writing, verifying, and erasing flash chips. Libreboot utilizes flashprog to flash BIOS/UEFI firmware images onto mainboards.
“This is the first Libreboot release to include flashprog sources, instead of flashrom. Moving forward, we will not be providing support for flashrom. Only flashprog. Libreboot’s distribution of flashprog also includes the macronix workaround (useful when externally flashing the ThinkPad X200),” said Leah Rowe.
This release also updates the pico-serprog utility to support controlling multiple chip-selects, allowing you to set unused chip-selects high, which might come in handy when flashing externally on an Intel IFD-based system where the two flashes are connected, but without resistors between the shared data lines.
Last but not least, the developers have updated the U-Boot release script to support generating standalone U-Boot source archives (e.g. ./update release -m u-boot). Various issues were addressed as well, so check out the release notes for more details. Libreboot 20240225 is available for download from the official website.
Last updated 6 mins ago