Coreboot vs libreboot vs osboot vs Heads

I have re-read Libreboot – Binary Blob Reduction Policy

This basically is the state of coreboot configuration possibility, which if no binary blob is required to boot the platform, it should not be used. Heads is doing the same.

So the platform configuration defines what blobs are required as my prior answer. So if you want to have a w530 and enable its dGPU and iGPU, then you will need the dGPU blobs. And by choosing to use such platform, and having read the blobs directory documentation, you should be aware of it, just by understanding the board name there, while reading its associated coreboot configuration, be aware of what blobs you are accepting: heads/config/coreboot-w530-dgpu-K2000m-maximized.config at master · linuxboot/heads · GitHub

But as also stated elsewhere, there is some “dark magic” at play there to try to simplify things everywhere. Therefore, if you look at Librem5v4 coreboot config heads/config/coreboot-librem_15v4.config at master · linuxboot/heads · GitHub you might be misled into thinking there are no FSP blobs required. Unfortunately, those are now taken care into coreboot build system, which was not the case before, and looking at the outcome of the build will show you that they were included into the ROM.

This is why, again, I would advocate everyone in this thread who are interested into the increased binary blob needed to be included into coreboot to push developers into stating them clearly. There would be a really practical places to do so:

You can take action on this, and should.

2 Likes