there’s been a lot of concern that Snapdragon X-based PCs might be locked down to Windows, and while it remains unclear just how easy it will be to install a GNU/Linux distribution on a Snapdragon X PC that ships with Windows, it’s nice to know that at least one company is looking to release a model that will come with Linux pre-installed.
What does that mean? Are they not using UEFI?
I just hope they use Coreboot.
Btw are there any FOSS Coreboot compatible ARM Chromebooks worth looking at?
Not true. For example Libreboot currently supports 2 ARM laptops. The way I understand it is that Libreboot uses U-boot as an extra bootloader, kinda like you would run GRUB after UEFI. U-boot can also just work on it’s own and Coreboot ARM devices are rather the exception.
I’d argue chain loading coreboot/libreboot from u-boot isn’t really “supporting it” as much as it’s just extending it, but fair enough. In the end it’s still using u-boot with extra steps.
I never understood why booting arm is such a pain. I mean I get that the current situation is that it is a pain but I don’t get why this is the situation.
Mobile devices usually run iOS or Android which have their own dedicated boot loader. Embedded devices usually just boot directly into the main storage.
Especially with android I don’t get it. Every vendor has to maintain their own boot loader and modify the aosp code just to get it to boot on their devices. Is it just to avoid people slapping their own os on their phones?
I think UEFI was something that took a while to be standardized and mostly because of Intel’s influence over it, while ARM seems more diverse both in manufacturers and types of devices. When things are decentralized it becomes much more difficult to get everyone on board of something.
I guess but bios was a thing way before uefi and while it apparently also was a pain because people implemented it differently it did work.
Afaik the mein problem with arm is the discoverability of the hardware on the bus. For x86 it’s pretty dynamic but arm needs something called a device tree.
What does that mean? Are they not using UEFI?
I just hope they use Coreboot.
Btw are there any FOSS Coreboot compatible ARM Chromebooks worth looking at?
Coreboot is for x86-64. ARM usually uses U-Boot.
Not true. For example Libreboot currently supports 2 ARM laptops. The way I understand it is that Libreboot uses U-boot as an extra bootloader, kinda like you would run GRUB after UEFI. U-boot can also just work on it’s own and Coreboot ARM devices are rather the exception.
I’d argue chain loading coreboot/libreboot from u-boot isn’t really “supporting it” as much as it’s just extending it, but fair enough. In the end it’s still using u-boot with extra steps.
Coreboot uses U-boot as payload meaning it’s the other way around. (at least that’s how I understand it) I worded poorly what I meant.
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I never understood why booting arm is such a pain. I mean I get that the current situation is that it is a pain but I don’t get why this is the situation.
Mobile devices usually run iOS or Android which have their own dedicated boot loader. Embedded devices usually just boot directly into the main storage.
Especially with android I don’t get it. Every vendor has to maintain their own boot loader and modify the aosp code just to get it to boot on their devices. Is it just to avoid people slapping their own os on their phones?
Second one. Can’t have user choice now can we
I think UEFI was something that took a while to be standardized and mostly because of Intel’s influence over it, while ARM seems more diverse both in manufacturers and types of devices. When things are decentralized it becomes much more difficult to get everyone on board of something.
I guess but bios was a thing way before uefi and while it apparently also was a pain because people implemented it differently it did work.
Afaik the mein problem with arm is the discoverability of the hardware on the bus. For x86 it’s pretty dynamic but arm needs something called a device tree.