Difference between revisions of "Benefits"
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* TPMs... | * TPMs... | ||
| − | All of this is (or can be) fixed in | + | All of this is (or can be) fixed in coreboot, as it's open source. With a proprietary BIOS you're dependant on the good-will of the vendor to fix these issues. |
| − | == | + | == coreboot features proprietary BIOSes usually lack == |
* Boot from NAND Flash (and other nonstandard media), which most proprietary BIOSes don't support | * Boot from NAND Flash (and other nonstandard media), which most proprietary BIOSes don't support | ||
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* ... | * ... | ||
| − | == Some anecdotes where | + | == Some anecdotes where coreboot saved the day == |
* The "Press F1 to continue" error on a cluster (without a single keyboard attached). | * The "Press F1 to continue" error on a cluster (without a single keyboard attached). | ||
| − | * Improved Fan control behaviour: http://www. | + | * Improved Fan control behaviour: http://www.coreboot.org/pipermail/coreboot/2007-May/021128.html |
| − | * On the VIA EPIA MII-6000 and the EPIA-10000 | + | * On the VIA EPIA MII-6000 and the EPIA-10000 coreboot can boot from CompactFlash, whereas the proprietary BIOS is known to not support this. |
* ... | * ... | ||
Latest revision as of 15:01, 15 January 2008
Note: This page is work in progress!
Contents |
[edit] Benefits
- 100% Free Software (GPL), no royalties, no license fees!
- Fast boot times (3 seconds from power-on to Linux console)
- Avoids the need for a slow, buggy, proprietary BIOS
- Runs in 32-Bit protected mode almost from the start
- Written in C, contains virtually no assembly code
- Supports a wide variety of hardware and payloads
- Further features: netboot, serial console, remote flashing, ...
[edit] Possible Advantages
- Some BIOSes don't enable hardware virtualization features (AMD / Intel), thus you cannot use that feature of your hardware (e.g. for XEN, KVM, etc).
- Some BIOSes don't enable HPET (can be used by Linux for enhanced power-saving features, e.g. on laptops), see linuxpowertop.org.
- TPMs...
All of this is (or can be) fixed in coreboot, as it's open source. With a proprietary BIOS you're dependant on the good-will of the vendor to fix these issues.
[edit] coreboot features proprietary BIOSes usually lack
- Boot from NAND Flash (and other nonstandard media), which most proprietary BIOSes don't support
- Debugging output on the serial console
- ...
[edit] Some anecdotes where coreboot saved the day
- The "Press F1 to continue" error on a cluster (without a single keyboard attached).
- Improved Fan control behaviour: http://www.coreboot.org/pipermail/coreboot/2007-May/021128.html
- On the VIA EPIA MII-6000 and the EPIA-10000 coreboot can boot from CompactFlash, whereas the proprietary BIOS is known to not support this.
- ...
