Libreboot 26.10 "Ominous Olive" released with UEFI, Chromebook support
237 points - today at 12:52 PM
SourceComments
https://codeberg.org/libreboot/lbmk/src/branch/master/AGENTS...
I'm now working on the 2nd ChromeOS device in this PR right now: https://github.com/linuxboot/heads/pull/2225 And there is a 3rd port by someone else: https://github.com/linuxboot/heads/pull/2219
I'm surprised Libreboot was able to add all the ChromeOS devices at once, Just adding the 2 ports for Heads hasn't been easy, although I'm not an expert when it comes to Coreboot.
Anyway, I love seeing more support for Chromebooks, they are great devices. Funny enough my Acer Chromebook (Kano) is now more open and more secure than my Framework 13s.
Besides considering frontier LLMs a serious threat to humanity, I find LLM-assisted programming simply...not fun! I tolerate only AI-assisted bug reports, as they are genuinely useful.
Nice. I think I loaded MrChromebox onto my Google Pixel some years ago. I should see if it can get Libreboot now.
This is interesting given Googlebooks actually use the same boot process as Chromebooks, they just chain into aboot.
It just works and that's great.
I am very glad to see people with opinions that flow into what they do, but the question becomes: are you trying to make the best software, or make the most idealistic software? There's a big difference.
I am not at all advocating the use of straight AI slop, but with a policy like that you're opening yourself up for missed bugs, security issues, delayed features, and other things. Especially if you move away from software just because an AI wrote one line of code in it. You can still review the code. If it does the thing right, then use it!
This is great news! Finally an open-source UEFI replacement which can work on nearly every Chromebook, including used/old Chromebooks!
Now, I haven't reviewed the source... it may still contain binary blobs for various drivers; I don't know. If it doesn't, then that's absolutely awesome! But if it does, then remember that having some of the UEFI firmware code open-source is a huge step forward, and it's only a matter of time before those closed-source binary blobs are reverse engineered (possibly by AI) and/or rewritten from scratch entirely, as open-source codebases...
So, a good step forward for open-source, right-to-repair, understandability of the boot chain, the Chromebook hardware ecosystem (used and new), and tranparency in general!