The GNU Boot undertaking has been within the works as a Coreboot/Libreboot fork centered on “freedom respecting boot firmware” that’s free from closed-source and proprietary parts. However in working in direction of its inaugural v0.1 launch, they found that they’d inadvertently been transport some non-free software program round AMD CPU microcode updates and a few motherboard ports with non-open-source code.
The GNU Boot undertaking issued their December 2023 information replace and shared that they’ve issued a brand new launch candidate in working in direction of GNU Boot 0.1. In addition they realized they’d included some non-free software program inside the supply launch of GNU Boot. Their month-to-month information replace explains:
“Within the GNU Boot supply launch (gnuboot-0.1-rc1_src.tar.xz) we discovered the three recordsdata (F12MicrocodePatch03000002.c, F12MicrocodePatch0300000e.c, F12MicrocodePatch03000027.c) that include microcode in binary type, with out corresponding supply code. GNU Boot 0.1 RC1 corresponding supply code tarball was remade with out these recordsdata (and renamed). The photographs for the Asus KCMA-D8, KFSN4-DRE and KGPE-D16 had been additionally eliminated as they might include the nonfree code as properly. The remainder of the recordsdata are unaffected.”
The C recordsdata are arrays of ROM knowledge for making use of CPU microcode updates. These microcode patch supply recordsdata are for These microcode C recordsdata eliminated are for AMD Household 12 microcode patches that had been distributed as a part of the open-source AMD AGESA code from a decade in the past. However as it isn’t unique open-source code itself and successfully a binary blob, GNU Boot is dropping these microcode updates within the identify of free software program.
The motherboard ports eliminated ASUS KCMA-D8, ASUS KFSN4-DRE, and ASUS KGPE-D16 are for outdated AMD Opteron server motherboards. A few of these AMD Opteron motherboards stay widespread with open-source fans for the power to simply run Coreboot/Libreboot and previously GNU Boot on them, though by right now’s requirements they’re woefully outdated in options, efficiency, and energy effectivity.
