Enabling coreboot for Open System Firmware on Arm servers
Main Track,
Arm and 9elements share their progress towards developing a coreboot firmware stack for Arm servers. Showcasing proof of concepts, and discuss the challenges faced when developing a new firmware stack to fit existing software expectations.
The Arm Base Boot Requirements (BBR) Specification defines standard firmware requirements for Arm systems. It outlines the firmware interfaces needed for system software interoperability. Arm servers commonly rely on the SBBR recipe, which is typically built using TianoCore EDK2 open source firmware or derived commercial UEFI solutions. Recently, there is increased interest in Coreboot + LinuxBoot firmware from cloud operators as an alternative open-source firmware. Arm created the LBBR recipe to outline the interfaces needed for LinuxBoot on Arm systems. In this session, Arm and 9elements will share our progress towards developing a coreboot firmware stack for Arm servers. We will showcase proof of concepts, and discuss the challenges faced when developing a new firmware stack to fit existing software expectations. Finally, we will share how this work influenced the evolution of the LBBR specification, and the work ahead to give partners more open firmware options for deploying Arm servers.