Translations: English - Português (Brasil)
There are number of open firmware projects, some of which are listed below.
While all the firmware below is open source, some of it uses read-only firmware embedded in ROM chips and some of the read-only firmware does not have freely licensed public source code. Some of the devices in this situation do not have enough RAM that they could completely avoid the read-only firmware in the ROM chips.
The Open-Source Firmware Foundation (OSFF) promotes open firmware and the Open Source Firmware Conference (OSFC) has presentations on open firmware.
Booting
Project |
Debian package |
Description |
Comment |
initialising computers from reset |
only utils are built in Debian |
||
initialising computers from reset, used on ARM a lot |
|||
|
initialising Raspberry Pi devices from reset |
original project on indefinite hold but librepi fork is alive, toolchain not upstreamed |
|
UEFI |
hardware support not packaged in Debian |
Coreboot distros
Coreboot, as listed above, provides free and open source BIOS/UEFI boot firmware on many x86, x86-64, ARM64 and other platforms, but coreboot distros provide coreboot pre-packaged for easier installation. Here are a few, sorted alphabetically:
Project |
Debian package |
Description |
Comment |
|
an easy to use blob-free coreboot distribution based on Libreboot, provides SeaBIOS/U-Boot UEFI coreboot payloads and a heavily modified version of the GNU boot loader payload named GRUB, on supported x86/amd64 and ARM64 mainboards. Canoeboot and Libreboot are both maintained in sync by the same developer. |
||
|
open-source based firmware distribution focusing on clean and simple code, long-term maintenance, transparent validation, privacy-respecting implementation, liberty for the owners, and trustworthiness for all. |
||
|
a coreboot distribution with advanced security features using Linux as a coreboot payload. |
||
|
Source-based automated build system, that can be configured with coreboot and a combination of edk2 and/or linux/u-root, to provide automated building of coreboot images; does not (as of 9 February 2025) provide pre-configured targets or images like the other projects, but it is developed so as to provide a consistent build environment, that can be configured for those porting new boards to coreboot, or testing changes on existing mainboards. For example, it uses a dockerized toolchain environment to build everything. |
||
|
an easy to use free/opensource coreboot distribution with an emphasis on removing binary blobs while supporting much newer hardware than Canoeboot, providing SeaBIOS/U-Boot UEFI coreboot payloads and a heavily modified version of the GNU boot loader payload named GRUB, on supported x86/amd64 and ARM64 mainboards. Libreboot and Canoeboot are both maintained in sync by the same developer. GRUB is provided in flash, heavily patched to provide more advanced security features such as Argon2 KDF support for LUKS2 booting. |
||
|
custom coreboot firmware and utilities for your Chromebook/Chromebox, providing a custom fork of EDK2/Tianocore as a coreboot payload for regular UEFI boot. It lets you boot regular GNU/Linux distros, BSD systems and even Windows, on your Chromebook device. |
||
|
easy to install, easy to use coreboot images for Thinkpad laptops with a SeaBIOS payload. |
||
|
an open source distribution of firmware utilizing coreboot, EDK2, and System76 firmware applications. |
Check each project to see if your particular motherboard is supported, otherwise check coreboot's compatibility list if none of the coreboot distros yet support your board; coreboot release announcements may also provide information.
Embedded controllers
Project |
Debian package |
Description |
Comment |
|
Chromebooks |
|
|
|
Intel Programmable Services Engine ARM Cortex-M7 companion cores |
||
|
System76 Open Source Embedded Controller |
System76 laptops |
|
|
Dasharo fork of System76 Open Source Embedded Controller |
Clevo/NovaCustom laptops |
Keyboards
Network
Project |
Debian package |
Description |
Comment |
|
BCM5719 firmware reimplementation |
Requires LLVM/Clang fork to build |
Radio
Project |
Debian package |
Description |
Comment |
|
|
Broadcom/AirForce chipset based WiFi devices |
|||
Qualcomm Atheros AR7010 and AR9271 USB based WiFi devices |
requires binutils/GCC patches |
|||
Atheros AR9170 based WiFi devices |
not built from source in Debian; needs sh-elf toolchain, no patches needed |
|||
|
Conexant based WiFi devices |
no longer developed, Subversion repository was lost, only a snapshot of the code remains |
||
|
ESP32 WiFi devices |
|
||
|
GSM devices |
not suitable for end users, only researchers |
Audio
Project |
Debian package |
Description |
Comment |
various Intel audio devices |
most devices that can run SOF require Intel signatures on the binaries (1 2 3 4 5) |
Visual
Project |
Debian package |
Description |
Comment |
|
?ColorHug family of open display colorimeter hardware |
Requires a proprietary toolchain to build |
Misc
Project |
Debian package |
Description |
Comment |
misc firmware gathered by Linux developers |
not built from source in Debian |
||
|
Cypress FX/FX2 code library |
|
|
Cypress FX2(LP) based logic analyzers |
embeds copy of fx2lib |