107 lines
4.9 KiB
Markdown
107 lines
4.9 KiB
Markdown
GNU Boot
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========
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This software is part of the GNU Project.
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To load an operating system, computers need to be able to access storage
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devices (like an HDD or SSD) where the operating system is installed.
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They need RAM to work to load part of the operating system in RAM. Users
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also expect the display and keyboard to work before the operating system
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is loaded.
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But on most computers, software is needed to initialize the RAM, the storage
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devices, the graphic card, to load the operating system, and give some
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information to the operating system on what hardware it is running on.
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Because of that computers usually require boot software that is bundled in the
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computer. It is usually found on a very small storage chip that is inside the
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mainboard. That software is specific to a given computer.
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Unfortunately that software is usually nonfree and GNU boot aims to replace
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that with 100% free software.
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Like with other type of software, the fact that is nonfree has real impacts.
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For instance this software often continues to run once the operating system
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is loaded and as it loads the operating system it can also modify it.
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So having a nonfree boot software make it impossible for users to really
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trust their computers. Another common issue is that some BIOS/UEFI add
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restrictions to prevent users from replacing the WiFi card for instance.
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There are many more issues but listing them all here would make this
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description too long.
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To replace nonfree boot software, GNU boot reuses various software projects
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(like Coreboot, U-boot, GRUB, SeaBIOS, etc), configure and build them to
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produce an image that can be installed to replace the nonfree boot software
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for specific computers.
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Users can also do all that without GNU Boot but that tend to be complicated.
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Having a free software project that does all that enable people to collaborate
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on making sure that computers boot fine regardless of the upstream project
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status, for instance by making binary releases and collaborating to test them.
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In addition GNU boot also comes with extensive documentation to make it as easy
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as possible to install GNU Boot and to empower users to modify the way their
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computer boot.
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Since not all the project it reuses are 100% free software it also removes all
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the nonfree software found in them along the way and will also make the scripts
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and/or data that does that reusable for distributions or users that want to
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build their own free boot software without reusing the GNU Boot configuration
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or build system.
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Not a coreboot fork!
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--------------------
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GNU Boot is not a fork of coreboot, but more a boot firmware distribution
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including a modified version of coreboot, and other software like SeaBIOS,
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GRUB or u-boot.
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Coreboot is not entirely free software as it includes binary blobs in it for
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some platforms. What GNU Boot does is download several revisions of coreboot,
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for different boards, and *de-blob* those coreboot revisions. This is done
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using the *linux-libre* deblob scripts, to find binary blobs in coreboot.
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All new coreboot development should be done in coreboot (upstream), not
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GNU Boot. For example, if you wanted to add a new board to GNU Boot, you
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should add it to coreboot first. GNU Boot would then receive your code at
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a later date, when it updates itself.
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The deblobbed coreboot tree used in GNU Boot is referred to as
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*coreboot-libre*, to distinguish it as a component of *GNU Boot*.
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How this project came to exist
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------------------------------
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We believe computer users deserve to control all the software they run. This
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belief is the key principle of the Free Software Movement, and was the motive
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for developing the GNU operating system and starting the Free Software
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Foundation. We believe computer user freedom is a crucial human rights.
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Unfortunately, such a muddle happened last year with a boot program that was
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free software and was called Libreboot: the development team added nonfree code
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to it, but continued to refer to it misleadingly as “Libreboot”.
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Libreboot was first released in 2013. It has been widely recommended in the free
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software community for the last nine years. In November 2022, “Libreboot” began
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to include non-libre code. We have made repeated efforts to continue
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collaboration with those developers to help their version of Libreboot remain
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libre, but that was not successful.
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Now we’ve stepped forward to stand up for freedom, ours and that of the wider
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community, by maintaining our own version – a genuinely libre boot
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distribution: GNU Boot.
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LICENSE FOR THIS README:
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GNU Free Documentation License 1.3 as published by the Free Software Foundation,
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with no invariant sections, no front cover texts and no back cover texts. If
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you wish it, you may use a later version of the GNU Free Documentation License
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as published by the Free Software Foundation.
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Copy of the GNU Free Documentation License v1.3 here:
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<https://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl-1.3.en.html>
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Info about Free Software Foundation:
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<https://www.fsf.org/>
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