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Open-source Firmware
Open-source firmware is firmware that is published under an open-source license. It can be contrasted with proprietary firmware, which is published under a proprietary license or EULA. Examples * OpenWrt * DD-WRT * coreboot * SeaBIOS * LinuxBoot * Libreboot * Marlin (firmware), Arduino-based firmware for 3D printers * PinePhone LTE modem * Rockbox, a replacement firmware for various digital audio players * QMK * U-Boot See also * Open-source software Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. Ope ... References Further reading * Firmware Open-source firmware {{Free-software-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Firmware
In computing, firmware is a specific class of computer software that provides the low-level control for a device's specific hardware. Firmware, such as the BIOS of a personal computer, may contain basic functions of a device, and may provide hardware abstraction services to higher-level software such as operating systems. For less complex devices, firmware may act as the device's complete operating system, performing all control, monitoring and data manipulation functions. Typical examples of devices containing firmware are embedded systems (running embedded software), home and personal-use appliances, computers, and computer peripherals. Firmware is held in non-volatile memory devices such as ROM, EPROM, EEPROM, and flash memory. Updating firmware requires ROM integrated circuits to be physically replaced, or EPROM or flash memory to be reprogrammed through a special procedure. Some firmware memory devices are permanently installed and cannot be changed after manufact ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
LinuxBoot
LinuxBoot is a free software project aimed at replacing most of the Driver Execution Environment (DXE) modules in Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) firmware with the Linux kernel. LinuxBoot must run on top of hardware initialisation software in order to start. This can be the Pre- EFI Initialization (PEI) part of UEFI, coreboot, or U-Boot. It can boot Linux through the kexec syscall, but is also able to boot Windows with a different method. History Originally, the project was started as NERF by Google. NERF was a stripped-down version of EFI which contains a Linux kernel and userland applications. This project has been split up into LinuxBoot (which contains the bootblock and kernel) and u-root, which contains the userland application. LinuxBoot became an official Linux Foundation project in 2018. Hardware support Currently, the EFI support of LinuxBoot is limited to a few servers: * Dell R630 * Open Compute Project Winterfell, Leopard, Monolake and Tioga Pass ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Open-source Software
Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. Open-source software may be developed in a collaborative public manner. Open-source software is a prominent example of open collaboration, meaning any capable user is able to participate online in development, making the number of possible contributors indefinite. The ability to examine the code facilitates public trust in the software. Open-source software development can bring in diverse perspectives beyond those of a single company. A 2008 report by the Standish Group stated that adoption of open-source software models has resulted in savings of about $60 billion per year for consumers. Open source code can be used for studying and allows capable end users to adapt software to their personal needs in a similar way user scripts ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Das U-Boot
Das U-Boot (subtitled "the Universal Boot Loader" and often shortened to U-Boot; see ''#History, History'' for more about the name) is an open-source software, open-source, primary Bootloader, boot loader used in Embedded system, embedded devices to package the instructions to boot the device's operating system kernel. It is available for a number of computer architectures, including 68k, ARM architecture, ARM, Blackfin, MicroBlaze, MIPS architecture, MIPS, Nios embedded processor, Nios, SuperH, PowerPC, PPC, RISC-V and x86 architecture, x86. Functionality U-Boot is both a first-stage and second-stage bootloader. It is loaded by the system's ROM (e.g. onchip ROM of the ARM CPU) from a supported boot device, such as an SD card, SATA drive, NOR flash (e.g. using Serial Peripheral Interface Bus, SPI or I²C), or NAND flash. If there are size constraints, U-Boot may be split into two stages: the platform would load a small SPL (Secondary Program Loader), which is a stripped-down ve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rockbox
Rockbox is a free and open-source software replacement for the OEM firmware in various forms of digital audio players (DAPs) with an original kernel. It offers an alternative to the player's operating system, in many cases without removing the original firmware, which provides a plug-in architecture for adding various enhancements and functions. Enhancements include personal digital assistant (PDA) functions, applications, utilities, and games. Rockbox can also retrofit video playback functions on players first released in mid-2000. Rockbox includes a voice-driven user-interface suitable for operation by visually impaired users. Rockbox runs on a wide variety of devices with very different hardware abilities: from early Archos players with 1-bit character cell-based displays, to modern players with high resolution color displays, digital optical audio hardware and advanced recording abilities. History The Rockbox project began in late 2001 and was first implemented on the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marlin (firmware)
Marlin is open source firmware originally designed for RepRap project FDM (fused deposition modeling) 3D printers using the Arduino platform. Once the firmware has been compiled from C++ source code; it is installed and runs on a mainboard with onboard components and general-purpose I/O pins to control and communicate with other components. For control the firmware receives input from a USB port or attached media in the form of G-code commands instructing the machine what to do. For example, the command G1 X10 tells the machine to perform a smooth linear move of the X axis to position 10. The main loop manages all of the machine's real-time activities like commanding the stepper motors through stepper drivers, controlling heaters, sensors, and lights, managing the display and user interface, etc. Marlin supports many different types of 3D printing robot platforms, including basic Cartesian, Core XY, Delta, and SCARA printers, as well as some other less conventional designs l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Libreboot
Libreboot (briefly known as GNU Libreboot) is a free software project based on coreboot, aimed at replacing the proprietary BIOS firmware contained by most computers. Libreboot is a lightweight system designed to perform only the minimum number of tasks necessary to load and run a modern 32-bit or 64-bit operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ef .... Characteristics Libreboot is established as a distribution of coreboot, but with proprietary binary blobs removed from coreboot. Libreboot makes coreboot easy to use by automating the build and installation processes. Libreboot developers have reverse engineered the firmware from Intel and created a utility to create a free firmware that meets the specifications from Intel. References {{Firmware and boo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
SeaBIOS
SeaBIOS is an open-source implementation of an x86 BIOS, serving as a freely available firmware for x86 systems. Aiming for compatibility, it supports standard BIOS features and calling interfaces that are implemented by a typical proprietary x86 BIOS. SeaBIOS can either run on bare hardware as a coreboot payload, or can be used directly in emulators such as QEMU and Bochs. Initially, SeaBIOS was based on the open-source BIOS implementation included with the Bochs emulator. The project was created with intentions to allow native usage on x86 hardware, and to be based on an improved and more easily extendable internal source code implementation. Features Features supported by SeaBIOS include the following: * Graphical bootsplash screen (JPEG and BMP) * USB keyboard and mouse support * USB Mass Storage boot support * USB Attached SCSI boot support * ATA support * AHCI support * NVMe support * El Torito optical disc drive boot support * BIOS Boot Specification (BBS) * Rebootin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Open-source License
An open-source license is a type of license for computer software and other products that allows the source code, blueprint or design to be used, modified and/or shared under defined terms and conditions. This allows end users and commercial companies to review and modify the source code, blueprint or design for their own customization, curiosity or troubleshooting needs. Open-source licensed software is mostly available free of charge, though this does not necessarily have to be the case. Licenses which only permit non-commercial redistribution or modification of the source code for personal use only are generally not considered as open-source licenses. However, open-source licenses may have some restrictions, particularly regarding the expression of respect to the origin of software, such as a requirement to preserve the name of the authors and a copyright statement within the code, or a requirement to redistribute the licensed software only under the same license (as in a copyl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coreboot
coreboot, formerly known as LinuxBIOS, is a software project aimed at replacing proprietary firmware (BIOS or UEFI) found in most computers with a lightweight firmware designed to perform only the minimum number of tasks necessary to load and run a modern 32-bit or 64-bit operating system. Since coreboot initializes the bare hardware, it must be ported to every chipset and motherboard that it supports. As a result, coreboot is available only for a limited number of hardware platforms and motherboard models. One of the coreboot variants is Libreboot, a software distribution fully free of proprietary blobs, aimed at end users. History The coreboot project began in the winter of 1999 in the Advanced Computing Laboratory at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), with the goal of creating a BIOS that would start fast and handle errors intelligently. It is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 (GPLv2). Main contributors include LANL, SiS, AMD, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
DD-WRT
DD-WRT is Linux-based firmware for wireless routers and Wireless access point, access points. Originally designed for the Linksys WRT54G series, it now runs on a wide variety of models. DD-WRT is one of a handful of List of router firmware projects, third-party firmware projects designed to replace manufacturer's original firmware with custom firmware offering additional features or functionality. Sebastian Gottschall, a.k.a. "BrainSlayer", is the founder and primary maintainer of the DD-WRT project. The letters "DD" in the project name are the Vehicle registration plates of Germany, German license-plate letters for vehicles from Dresden, where the development team lived. The remainder of the name was taken from the Linksys WRT54G model router, a home router popular in 2002–2004. WRT is assumed to be a reference to 'wireless router'. Melco, Buffalo Technology and other companies have shipped routers with factory-installed, customized versions of DD-WRT. In January 2016, Lin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
