Ideas

From coreboot
Revision as of 15:50, 5 September 2010 by Uwe (talk | contribs) (VirtualBox.)
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The wiki is being retired!

Documentation is now handled by the same processes we use for code: Add something to the Documentation/ directory in the coreboot repo, and it will be rendered to https://doc.coreboot.org/. Contributions welcome!

This is a random list of ideas for features which would be nice to have in coreboot (or a payload).

Having an item here does not mean that someone is necessarily already working on it.

Ideas / Wishlist

Hardware Features

  • Bios setup
    • Support for the NX-bit.
    • Config option for enabling/disabling HPET (high precision event timers) on all boards which have them.
    • Config option for enabling/disabling hardware virtualization.
    • Config option for enabling/disabling the TPM chip on boards which have one.
    • Config option for enabling/disabling the processor serial number to be read by the OS.

Payloads

  • Flashrom-like payload to allow reflashing the BIOS without having to load an OS, boot from floppies or similar.
  • Busybox-style mini-payload for recovery purposes (possible already to a certain degree, but should be simplified).
  • GNU fdisk-like payload to allow basic partitioning, file system check and swap enable/disable.
  • Security payload, which allows encryption of the filesystem on any harddisk and USB thumb drive. User authentication before boot with USB dongle, fingerprint sensor or chipcard-terminal with PKCS 15.

Related tools

Misc

  • A graphical tool to configure the parts of coreboot without a need to use a texteditor. You wish to make a BIOS without any graphics adapter, with netboot and minimal boottime, then choose the option "server". You like to change the splashscreen? Then load a 800×600px picture (or a smaller one) from your harddisk and let this tool convert it into a proper splashscreen picture format and build a new BIOS for your mainboard.
  • A nice splashscreen 800×600px for desktop users, from which a selection of different payloads are possible.