About

Libreboot is a coreboot distribution, not a fork. Its own analogy is that Libreboot is to coreboot what Debian is to Linux. The same underlying code, packaged so you can build and install it without becoming a firmware developer.

Our three machines carry two payloads — the boot menus the firmware hands over to — GRUB and SeaBIOS. You choose between them at power-on. The project ships two stable releases a year, in June and December, and supports hardware going back to 2006. The current release is 26.01, “Magnanimous Max”, published on 30 January 2026; before it came 25.06. Its build system, lbmk, is on Codeberg, so you can build the same image we ship.

Libreboot was founded in December 2013 by Leah Rowe, who also runs Minifree Ltd. Since 8 September 2025 it has been an Associated Project of Software in the Public Interest.

The project keeps an IRC channel and a mailing list at lists.sr.ht/~libreboot/libreboot. There is no forum and no Discord, and any Matrix rooms you find are unofficial. Those channels are the project’s community, not our support desk. Questions about a machine you bought from us come to us.

We buy the machines, pick Intel-graphics units, and flash Libreboot 26.01 before anything ships. The two ThinkPads need an external programmer for the first flash, because the factory firmware will not write itself out of the way. The OptiPlex is flashed internally over a service jumper.

We neutralise the Intel Management Engine, a separate processor inside the chipset, using me_cleaner. Intel Boot Guard, the factory lock that accepts only firmware Intel’s key signed, is undone with deguard. The machine will then accept firmware you built yourself.

We are not the Libreboot project and we do not speak for it. We read its documentation, ship what it releases, and where its notes contradict a specification sheet we say so on the page.

The boot firmware is replaced with code you can read. A small amount of vendor code remains — hardware initialisation, processor microcode, a neutralised Intel ME, and the embedded controller. We are not going to pretend otherwise.