Star LabTop Mk III Linux Laptop Owners Also Get Coreboot Support

Star Labs Coreboot

UK-based Linux computer manufacturer Star Labs announced today on Twitter that they made the Coreboot open-source firmware available to owners of the Star LabTop Mk III Linux laptop.

If you happen to own the Star LabTop Mk III Linux laptop from Star Labs, today I have some good news for you as you can now install the Coreboot open-source firmware for a faster and more secure boot experience.

Previously only available on the Star Labtop Mk IV Linux laptop, the Coreboot open-source firmware has been engineered as a drop-in replacement for the proprietary firmware that comes with most computers, whether they run a Linux OS or not.

Apart from being Open Source, which puts users in full control over their hardware, Coreboot is known to be very lightweight and fast as it performs only the minimum number of tasks necessary to load and run a modern Linux OS.

Star LabTop Mk III Linux laptop can now install Coreboot via the LVFS (Linux Vendor Firmware Service) portal using the instructions provided by Star Labs here. After installation, users can easily switch between Coreboot and AMI BIOS.

Basically, you only need to run a recent GNU/Linux distribution that ships with the fwupd 1.5.6 firmware updater utility or later. Also, before installing Coreboot you need to make sure the battery of the laptop is charged to at least 30 percent and the charger is connected, and that BIOS Lock is disabled.

According to Star Labs, the GNU/Linux distributions that currently let you install the Coreboot open-source firmware on your Star LabTop Mk III Linux laptop include Ubuntu, Linux Mint, elementaryOS, and Manjaro Linux.

Please keep in mind that after installing Coreboot, the next reboot will take up to 5 minutes to complete, so make sure you DO NOT interrupt the process or disconnect the laptop from its charger. Coreboot will be automatically updated to newer versions in the future.

Last updated 3 years ago

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