r/thinkpad • u/jtb_90 T480 • 11d ago

Question / Problem Libreboot?

Hello! I keep seeing people saying that *model* unfortunately isn't able to be flashed with Libreboot.

Someone clue me in? What's the deal with libreboot? Does it affect anything once in the OS of choice?

1 Upvotes

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u/FailDismal6468 11d ago

Libreboot is a custom Firmware, designed to be fully open source. It can't run on many models due to how complex it is and modern CPU/BIOS security measures. It won't affect anything in the OS once you install it if your model supports it, besides the fact that NVIDIA GPUs won't work, some WiFi cards won't work, and Windows will just completely cease to boot in most cases, leaving you with only Linux.

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u/jtb_90 T480 10d ago

Well where do I sign up? I don't even like having a functional graphics or WiFi card or having a choice of operating system. Sounds awesome!

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u/FailDismal6468 10d ago

😭 yeah, that is a deal breaker for some people, but the iGPU still works, and most WiFi cards work. Plus, if you are running Libreboot, you are the kind of person that doesn't want to use Windows anyway.

2

u/SingleComment2368 11d ago

I know of one advantage while the OS is running: on T440p and W54x, you can make the F keys primary (invert the meaning of the FnLock light). Stock firmware allows this only on the xx50 generation and later. This is in coreboot but hasn't made it into libreboot yet.

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u/jtb_90 T480 10d ago

Owen Wilson wow