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@libreleah@mas.to

2026-10-15 19:29 UTC

This is today's Libreboot 26.10 release booting on a Chromebook (Intel) with EDK2 UEFI payload from MrChromebox. Libreboot modifies MrChromebox EDK2 to provide GRUB EFI and SeaBIOS CSM builds in-flash, spliced into PE32 section on EDK2. This is ostensibly for backward compatibility with older Libreboot setup. Consider that since this is an EFI build of GRUB, we can chainload any EFI app from GRUB - it was already possible before to boot GRUB EFI from ESP, but having it in flash like this enables to boot Linux with UEFI features, while *completely bypassing* the need for an ESP (EFI System Partition). No more inferior FAT32 file system for you, and you can have fully encrypted /boot partition for instance. This offers a much more flexible way to do EFI. Consider also that the MrChromebox EDK2 fork has added support for file systems besides FAT32 in ESP; not standard, of course. GRUB EFI in flash is a Libreboot innovation, and I intend to heavily expand use of it in coming releases.

Replies (1)

  • @libreleah@mas.to 2026-10-15 19:34

    and GRUB has some really nice features e.g. GPG suppport (can check kernel signatures), LUKS (can unlock encrypted /boot). https://libreboot.org/docs/linux/grub_hardening.html look at this for example. this setup is also nice on systems with lower amounts of flash - another argument for encrypted boot is to use linuxboot, as articulated by a fan on one of my other fedi threads. yes, i plan to have a lot more fun with the new libreboot. having EFI just makes everything much more flexible.

    Open ##5051325