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Boot Linux Faster With An Open BIOS

Monday, October 8th, 2007
by knitter

Before reading the post firstly a question? which linux distribution boot faster?if you dont know the answer check it out!!

Linux device designers looking for faster boot/reset times should consider alternative BIOSes, suggests Peter Seebach in a technical introduction to open BIOSes published on IBM’s DeveloperWorks website. Among other benefits, open BIOSes can save the time wasted by proprietary BIOS legacy support for MS-DOS and other unnecessary functions, Seebach notes.

According to Seebach, the proprietary BIOSes typically found in off-the-shelf PCs and boards often account for more than half of total boot time. And, much of this time is spent loading drivers and compiling information useful to legacy OSes such as DOS, but largely useless and redundant when using a modern OS such as Linux, which tends to do its own hardware probing, and load its own hardware drivers.

The solution, according to Seebach, is to replace proprietary BIOSes with open BIOSes. Open implementations can be configured or customized to perform only those initiatialization tasks that really are required, before bootstrapping the OS.

Seebach begins with an overview of Open Firmware, which he says provides a much more hacker-friendly alternative to proprietary BIOSes. Although developed by Sun and Apple for PowerPC, Open Firmware also has a lot to offer other architectures, including x86, writes Seebach.

Another interesting approach involves using Linux itself to initialize the hardware. The LinuxBIOS takes the approach of loading a small Linux kernel directly into the boot ROM. This approach is increasingly practical now that boards have 1-2MB of flash ROM onboard, according to Seebach.

Seebach notes that reflashing a board’s BIOS carries risk, because if the new BIOS fails to bring the board up, there will be no way to further reflash the BIOS without expensive, specialized equipment.

To read more about open alternative BIOS projects, read Seebach’s introductory article, here.

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33 Comments

the oracle

October 8th, 2007
at 6:39am

You, and Seebach, talk about a hacker friendly BIOS - if you look around, that is exactly the opposite of what the big boys want. Apple, MS, Intel, and others, want more ways to protect the system from the time the power switch goes on. (Not my opinion, but theirs) Just look at the EFI and TPM movements.

Maarten Kooiker

October 8th, 2007
at 12:58pm

This is a good point, since it is useless to load DOS/Windows specific stuff if you’re running linux, though there are not (yet) many computers that run exclusively linux (though mine is one!!).
Cheers,
Maarten

Robert

October 8th, 2007
at 3:35pm

I know my PowerBook G4 uses OpenFirmware, but how about new MacBooks and MacBook Pros?

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October 8th, 2007
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October 8th, 2007
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October 8th, 2007
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October 8th, 2007
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bono

October 9th, 2007
at 1:10am

does anyone know if the open firmware or other open bios supports the dell ubuntu labtops and if there is a speed gain too?

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October 9th, 2007
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October 9th, 2007
at 2:12pm

Boot Linux Faster With An Open BIOS…

Good tutorial on how to speed up your boot. Give this a try if you are willing to make sure you also read the comments….

saurabh

October 9th, 2007
at 2:33pm

I feel that more shouting about how dangerous this is is in order. If you fuck this up, your machine will be completely useless. This bears LOUD WARNINGS that are not included in this article - the last two lines is wholly insufficient.

Alex

October 9th, 2007
at 4:32pm

Actually one of my friends first read this article and asked me to visit this page. This article has very useful information, it will be helpful for many. Thank you so much for your help and for your efforts.

Thanks,
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October 11th, 2007
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October 11th, 2007
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October 17th, 2007
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Démarrer Linux plus vite avec un "Open BIOS"…

“Les utilisateurs Linux qui cherche à améliorer leur temps de boot (démarrage) et de reset devraient se pencher sur des BIOS alternatifs”, nous raconte Peter Seebach dans une introduction technique sur les Open Bios (Bios ouverts) publié sur le…..

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October 19th, 2007
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