Libreboot/coreboot Installation Service (and Chromebooks)

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This service provides professional Libreboot installation on hardware supplied by the customer, sent to Minifree. Libreboot provides many security benefits over standard, proprietary firmware; Libreboot replaces proprietary BIOS/UEFI firmware. It’s more flexible, and the argument for using it is the same as using, say, Linux, instead of Windows; Libreboot simply gives you more choices and freedom.

Other coreboot distros are also available, e.g. MrChromebox coreboot distro for Chromebooks. One other benefit to coreboot firmware on laptops, for example ThinkPads, is that certain restrictions are also removed; e.g. you can now use much better WiFi cards.

Chromebook send-in service also available, using the MrChromebox coreboot distribution.

A lot of customers want to use Libreboot, and may already have supported hardware; they may otherwise have hardware that coreboot supports more generally. Minifree offers this send-in service, if you want professional installation to be performed on your device.

Send your Libreboot-compatible computer to Minifree, for installation. Even if Libreboot doesn’t support your hardware, coreboot itself supports a much wider range of hardware.

Check the coreboot compatibility list: https://doc.coreboot.org/mainboard/index.html

Libreboot’s own hardware compatibility is lower than coreboot, because Libreboot curates the number of mainboards that it supports. However, anything from coreboot can be added to Libreboot; if you send your board to Minifree, support can be added to Libreboot as part of the service, so long as coreboot already supports it.

In addition to Libreboot, there are several other coreboot distros such as Heads. Minifree is also happy to provide installation of these firmwares, if you wish. Here are compatibility lists from various coreboot distros:

• Heads: https://osresearch.net/Prerequisites#supported-devices - currently supported boards can be cleaned from: https://github.com/linuxboot/heads/tree/master/boards
• MrChromebox (Chromebooks): https://docs.mrchromebox.tech/ - nearly all Chromebooks are supported by this firmware, which uses edk2/tianocore (UEFI) as a coreboot payload. This can boot normal Linux/BSD systems quite easily.
• Dasharo coreboot distro: https://docs.dasharo.com/dasharo-tools-suite/documentation/supported-hardware/

You can send your Chromebook for installation, but it will use MrChromebox coreboot distro, instead of the Libreboot coreboot distro. Libreboot intends to add support for these, based on MrChromebox, at some point in the future; for now, MrChromebox itself will be used. It’s a highly competent project, specialising in support for all models of Chromebook; nearly all models are supported!

A full list of compatible Chromebooks (and non-laptop ChromeOS devices) can be found here: https://docs.mrchromebox.tech/docs/supported-devices.html

Intel/AMD-based Chromebooks can be sent in, but you should still check first before sending/paying. Libreboot itself does not support Intel/AMD Chromebooks yet, but the MrChromebox coreboot distribution does. See:

https://docs.mrchromebox.tech/

Minifree is happy to provide send-in service on Chromebooks, using MrChromebox. The MrChromebox firmware will be installed.

This is quite powerful, as it replaces Google’s default depthcharge bootloader with standard edk2 (tianocore), which MrChromebox maintains as a coreboot payload. This provides a full UEFI implementation, which can boot any Linux distro or BSD system quite easily, in the standard way that most users are familiar with.

As part of this, Minifree is also happy to replace ChromeOS with a Linux distro or BSD system of your choice.

Libreboot-specific send-in service

Libreboot itself supports a smaller number of mainboards, from the coreboot project.

The Libreboot installation service is available for these Libreboot computers, correct as of 23 July 2026 (it will be expanded as more hardware is added):

• Acer G43T-AM3
• Apple MacBook2,1 (2006/2007 model)
• ASUS KCMA-D8 motherboard
• ASUS KGPE-D16 motherboard
• Dell Latitude laptop models: E6400, E6400 XFR, E6400 ATG (Intel GPU models)
• Dell Latitude laptop models with Intel GPU: E5420, E5520, E5530, E6420, E6430, E6520, E6530, E6230, E6330, E6220, E7240
• Dell OptiPlex 3050 Micro
• Dell OptiPlex 7010/9010 SFF/MT
• Dell OptiPlex 780 (all variants)
• Dell OptiPlex 9020 SFF/MT, 7020 SFF/MT
• Dell Precision T1650
• HP Elite 8200 SFF/MT
• HP Elite 8300 USDT
• HP EliteBook 2170p
• HP EliteBook 2560p
• HP EliteBook 2570p
• HP EliteBook 820 G2
• HP EliteBook 8460p
• HP EliteBook 8470p
• Lenovo ThinkPad R400
• Lenovo ThinkPad R500
• Lenovo ThinkPad T400 / T400s
• Lenovo ThinkPad T420 / T420s
• Lenovo ThinkPad T430
• Lenovo ThinkPad T440p
• Lenovo ThinkPad T480/T480s
• Lenovo ThinkPad T500 / W500
• Lenovo ThinkPad T520
• Lenovo ThinkPad T530
• Lenovo ThinkPad T580
• Lenovo ThinkPad W541/W540
• Lenovo ThinkPad X200 / X200s / X200 Tablet
• Lenovo ThinkPad X220 / X220i / X220 Tablet
• Lenovo ThinkPad X230 / X230i / X230 Tablet
• Topton X2E N150 aka BKHD H30W-N150 desktop

Minifree charges for return shipping and handles all return shipping.

The customer is, however, expected to make their own separate arrangement when shipping a computer to Minifree. Minifree only handles shipping of the computer back to each customer, when each computer is made ready.

Shipping fees vary per country, as per: https://minifree.org/shipping.html

Markdown file for this page: https://minifree.org/product/installation-service.md

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