We have open-source UEFI and openfirmware implementations already; is it really any more complicated then porting one and populating what I understand to be fairly standard interfaces for exposing device information to the operating system? Like... I'm sure it's not actually that easy, but what's the hard part once you've got working code execution from anyting resembling a normal compile chain?
Quite possibly; I only intended to comment on booting/firmware issues. It depends on your goal, too; I'd be quite happy to see RISC-V servers (headless) and desktops (separate video card). Basically, give me a 100% libre SoC/CPU+motherboard and I'm personally happy to worry about the rest later. Also depending on your specific goals and ideology, there's no reason you couldn't make a RISC-PI that just licensed a proprietary video core; that'd still make you more open-source than today's Pi, which has a proprietary CPU and GPU.
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We have open-source UEFI and openfirmware implementations already; is it really any more complicated then porting one and populating what I understand to be fairly standard interfaces for exposing device information to the operating system? Like... I'm sure it's not actually that easy, but what's the hard part once you've got working code execution from anyting resembling a normal compile chain?
I suspect GPU / display controller and associated licensing and patents are an even bigger obstacle.
Quite possibly; I only intended to comment on booting/firmware issues. It depends on your goal, too; I'd be quite happy to see RISC-V servers (headless) and desktops (separate video card). Basically, give me a 100% libre SoC/CPU+motherboard and I'm personally happy to worry about the rest later. Also depending on your specific goals and ideology, there's no reason you couldn't make a RISC-PI that just licensed a proprietary video core; that'd still make you more open-source than today's Pi, which has a proprietary CPU and GPU.