GNU Libreboot Adds Support For Another (Outdated) Intel Motherboard

[phoronix]

Phoronix: GNU Libreboot Adds Support For Another (Outdated) Intel Motherboard

A mini-ITX board running the GNU Libreboot downstream of Coreboot sounds interesting for a fully free software HTPC/media center PC, right? Too bad this new motherboard port is for an i945 board released back in 2008 and has integrated a painfully slow original, single-core Atom chip...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Libreboot-D945GCLF2

[JonathanM]

Support for the d945gclf is added, d945gclf2 has a dual-core atom and isn't yet tested according to the linked site:

The d945gclf2 is an upgraded version of this board. The differences are: 1 more USB header, 10/100/1000 ethernet and a dual core cpu (also hyperthreaded). Since the board is almost identical (and coreboot code seem to indicate that it works, since MAX_CPU=4 is set), it is believed that it should also work but this is untested.

[Stunts]

I have a D945GCLF2 which I am currently using as my home router. I feel tempted to try libreboot on it. I bought it in early 2009 for about 60€, and it's been doing it's job quite well ever since.
This model is mentioned in the web page, but I also found this:

Without coreboot/libreboot this board is utery useless, since the vendor bios is very bad. It cannot boot from any HDD wether it is connected to the SATA port or USB. With libreboot it works just fine.

This is not true for my model as it's been booting from the HDD ever since I bought it.
Besides the open software stack, are there any other reasons to risk bricking the board to try libreboot on it? I do get frequent ACPI issues listed in dmesg with the latest proprietary BIOS (from 2010 IIRC), maybe this could solve them?

[avph]

The d945gclf2 is not tested so ymmv. On my d945gclf with the vendor bios everything with a hdd did not work, it only booted from usb flash drives. Since this board can only be flashed externally you need some hardware. You cannot permanently brick it. If libreboot does not work for you, you can always flash the original firmware back with the hardware you used in the first place.
Another advantage of libreboot would be that it boots much faster than the vendor bios. Not sure if ACPI would be fixed since the coreboot implementation is not perfect either.
Feel free to ask any questions on freenode on #libreboot.

[boltronics]

Such a negative article. Regardless of how old the hardware is, getting more devices supported is a good thing!

[CrystalGamma]

If you want to complain about only old hardware getting supported by Libreboot, complain to Intel about them including a non-disableable (is this a word?) ME in all their chips since.
If they didn't, I'm sure Libreboot developers would be happy to add support for post-2008 boards and chipsets.

[Stunts]

The d945gclf2 is not tested so ymmv. On my d945gclf with the vendor bios everything with a hdd did not work, it only booted from usb flash drives. Since this board can only be flashed externally you need some hardware. You cannot permanently brick it. If libreboot does not work for you, you can always flash the original firmware back with the hardware you used in the first place.
Another advantage of libreboot would be that it boots much faster than the vendor bios. Not sure if ACPI would be fixed since the coreboot implementation is not perfect either.
Feel free to ask any questions on freenode on #libreboot.

Thanks avph. I'll be sure to drop by on #libreboot once I ahve the chance to play around with my box. I'm especially interested in knowing (for starters) what kind of external hardware I'll need to reflash the device.