FreeBSD and Coreboot

[Piotr Kubaj]

I have been running coreboot on many boards with FreeBSD for a few years now.

I've been getting mixed results. E.g. on ASUS F2A85-M there's no fan control in coreboot so the OS must do it itself and FreeBSD doesn't support it. After running it for some time, my CPU eventually burned...

Thinkpads seem to basically work fine, since ACPI takes care of fans.

ASUS KGPE-D16 are great boards and can run completely blobless, but to run them with FreeBSD, I had to upgrade cooling (it overheated). And the only way to control fans on those boards with FreeBSD and coreboot is via BMC (there's OpenBMC port that runs great). If KGPE-D16 is too expensive, you could get ASUS KCMA-D8 which are cheaper and basically a low-end KGPE-D16.

Asrock E350M1 also works pretty well, but it's a really old board with embedded CPU from AMD.

There are also (mentioned before) APU from PCEngines, but beware, only APU1 can run blobless. APU2 and newer need proprietary AGESA (APU1 runs with open-source AGESA) and PSP (ME equivalent).

Finally, FreeBSD runs on Raptor Talos and Blackbird boards. They don't run coreboot but OpenPOWER firmware, which is also 100% FOSS. If you can afford them, it's the best way to run FOSS firmware.

I run both coreboot boards (with FreeBSD and other systems) and Talos II, so feel free to reach to me via email if you have further questions.
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