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| 2 | Coreboot README |
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| 3 | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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| 4 | |
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| 5 | Coreboot is a Free Software project aimed at replacing the proprietary |
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| 6 | BIOS you can find in most of today's computers. |
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| 7 | |
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| 8 | It performs just a little bit of hardware initialization and then executes |
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| 9 | one of many possible payloads, e.g. a Linux kernel. |
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| 10 | |
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| 11 | |
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| 12 | Payloads |
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| 13 | -------- |
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| 14 | |
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| 15 | After the basic initialization of the hardware has been performed, any |
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| 16 | desired "payload" can be started by coreboot. Examples include: |
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| 17 | |
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| 18 | * A Linux kernel |
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| 19 | * FILO (a simple bootloader with filesystem support) |
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| 20 | * GRUB2 (a free bootloader; support is in development) |
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| 21 | * OpenBIOS (a free IEEE1275-1994 Open Firmware implementation) |
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| 22 | * Open Firmware (a free IEEE1275-1994 Open Firmware implementation) |
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| 23 | * SmartFirmware (a free IEEE1275-1994 Open Firmware implementation) |
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| 24 | * GNUFI (a free, UEFI-compatible firmware) |
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| 25 | * Etherboot (for network booting and booting from raw IDE or FILO) |
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| 26 | * ADLO (for booting Windows 2000 or OpenBSD) |
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| 27 | * Plan 9 (a distributed operating system) |
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| 28 | * memtest86 (for testing your RAM) |
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| 29 | |
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| 30 | |
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| 31 | Supported Hardware |
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| 32 | ------------------ |
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| 33 | |
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| 34 | Coreboot supports a wide range of chipsets, devices, and mainboards. |
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| 35 | |
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| 36 | For details please consult: |
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| 37 | |
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| 38 | * http://www.coreboot.org/Supported_Motherboards |
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| 39 | * http://www.coreboot.org/Supported_Chipsets_and_Devices |
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| 40 | |
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| 41 | |
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| 42 | Website and Mailing List |
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| 43 | ------------------------ |
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| 44 | |
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| 45 | Further details on the project, a FAQ, many HOWTOs, news, development |
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| 46 | guidelines and more can be found on the coreboot website: |
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| 47 | |
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| 48 | http://www.coreboot.org |
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| 49 | |
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| 50 | You can contact us directly on the coreboot mailing list: |
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| 51 | |
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| 52 | http://www.coreboot.org/Mailinglist |
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| 53 | |
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| 54 | |
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| 55 | Copyright and License |
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| 56 | --------------------- |
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| 57 | |
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| 58 | The copyright on coreboot is owned by quite a large number of individual |
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| 59 | developers and companies. Please check the individual source files for details. |
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| 60 | |
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| 61 | Coreboot is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL). |
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| 62 | Some files are licensed under the "GPL (version 2, or any later version)", |
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| 63 | and some files (mostly those derived from the Linux kernel) are licensed under |
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| 64 | the "GPL, version 2". For some parts, which were derived from other projects, |
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| 65 | other (GPL-compatible) licenses may apply. Please check the individual |
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| 66 | source files for details. |
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| 67 | |
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| 68 | This makes the resulting coreboot images licensed under the GPL, version 2. |
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