Canoeboot 26.01 release (100% free software BIOS/UEFI replacement / coreboot distro)
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Hi everyone!
A new Canoeboot release came out a few days ago:
https://canoeboot.org/news/canoeboot2601.html
This is the free coreboot distro that I maintain, which provides fully free boot firmware on supported laptops, desktop and server mainboards. It starts a bootloader for your operating system, e.g. Trisquel GNU/Linux-libre. It offers lots of security features that you can't easily find anywhere else, and it boots really fast. I have worked on coreboot distros since 2013 (first Libreboot, now I do both Libreboot and Canoeboot).
These new mainboards were added:
* HP Pro 3500 Series (board port by Vesek)
* Dell Latitude E7240 support (board added by Iru Cai)
That E7240 is attractive because it’s Haswell generation (Intel 4th gen), which is still quite useful to a lot of people, and internal flashing is possible via use of dell-flash-unlock.
Several bug fixes in the build system. All up to date revisions at the time of release (from January 2026), including coreboot.
There's quite a lot. Read the changelog on the release page.
I am Leah Rowe, the founder and lead developer of Canoeboot. Feel free to ask me any questions you have.
>"* Dell Latitude E7240 support (board added by Iru Cai) ... That E7240 is attractive because it’s Haswell generation (Intel 4th gen), which is still quite useful to a lot of people, and internal flashing is possible via use of dell-flash-unlock."
Oh, nice! Another machine that's capable of taking up to 16GB of ram. We are getting better options from canoeboot recently. Looks like E7240's can be had for between $25-$80 on eBay.
>"HP Pro 3500 Series (board port by Vesek)"
Is that every board in the HP Pro 3500 lineup? Looks like you could potentially get up to 32GB ram with one of these mini-towers, with an Ivy Bridge CPU.
Also affordable on eBay, from about $25 to $80 for a mini-tower.
Welcome Leah, and lots of respect to your project! Unfortunately, and similarly to gnuboot, I do not think my hardware is compatible with a fully free BIOS ywt, but I am wishing for the day this becomes possible!
What is your hardware?
Also Leah, you said in the release announcement that the following change has been held back for a couple of months:
>"Integration of Intel x86-64 chromebooks via integration script provided by Canoeboot, that converts and adapts configurations from the MrChromebox build system"
Is there a way to know which x86-64 chromebooks will be working due to this integration script?
Will it be all the devices listed here? https://docs.mrchromebox.tech/docs/supported-devices.html
That would be an enormous number of new systems to add to canoeboot support, 340 new systems by my count, but it could be that I'm counting wrong.
Yes. The Chromebooks support every gen, up to even the very latest. On Libreboot, all of them (anything MrChromebox supports) will be added.
On *Canoeboot*, everything up to Intel Haswell series will be added, once complete. This has the free raminit and is suitable for Canoeboot.
Another nice thing about the Chromebooks is *free EC firmware*, which also goes in the flash. There's a Read-Only version (which can actually be reprogrammed, despite the name), that you normally wouldn't touch. At boot time, you can opt to use a Read-Write version instead, and that is what Canoeboot will provide.
I aim to have these in Canoeboot by the time of the Summer 2026 release, likely June 2026.
We're talking about hundreds of boards, potentially. Those older Chromebooks (including Haswell) are also internally flashable, and really, really cheap, so I think this will basically satisfy the Libre community for at least the next decade.
>"On *Canoeboot*, everything up to Intel Haswell series will be added, once complete. This has the free raminit and is suitable for Canoeboot."
Looks like the Dell Chromebox 3010 with Haswell Core i7-4600U and up to 16GB ram could be a serious system if a person could get their hands on one.
I am a translator!
For laptops whose non-free BIOS from the vendor has a wifi card whitelist, after canoeboot is installed, is it possible to install any wifi card (whitelist removed)?
My guess is yes, but I'd like some confirmation.