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Coreboot reached an Alder Lake desktop motherboard in a 2022 port for the MSI PRO Z690-A WiFi DDR4. The milestone was significant, but it did not mean that every Alder Lake board could run an open-source BIOS—or that this MSI board had a finished, fully supported replacement firmware. The early build could boot an Ubuntu installer, while some devices, including sound, were not yet working.
Which Alder Lake motherboard got Coreboot?
On April 13, 2022, firmware developer 3mdeb announced a Coreboot port for the MSI PRO Z690-A WiFi DDR4, working through its Dasharo distribution. Tom’s Hardware described it as the first publicly available Coreboot port for a mainstream motherboard supporting Alder Lake; PC Gamer also reported the milestone and identified the same model.
That distinction matters: Coreboot support is specific to a board and its firmware configuration. The announcement was not evidence of support for all MSI Z690 boards, all Alder Lake systems, or the DDR5 variant. The reports name the DDR4 model.
Tom’s Hardware’s report and PC Gamer’s coverage describe the 2022 development milestone.
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What are Coreboot and Dasharo?
Coreboot is an open-source firmware project intended to replace a system’s factory BIOS/UEFI. Dasharo is the distribution and platform-integration layer used here: it packages Coreboot with board-specific Intel firmware components required to make a practical system. 3mdeb carried out the port and integration work.
So “open-source BIOS” is a useful shorthand, but it does not mean every component involved is necessarily open source. The reports describe Dasharo integrating Intel firmware components; they do not establish that those proprietary components were eliminated.
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What worked in the 2022 build?
At the time of the reports, the team had reached the point of booting an Ubuntu 20.04 installer. A 3mdeb update quoted by Tom’s Hardware said the first Dasharo binary would add display, USB, and UEFI boot support. PC Gamer reported that some devices, including sound, did not yet work as expected.
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3mdeb CEO Piotr Król characterized the port as an early effort: “We just started porting we’re barely booting Ubuntu for now and not all devices work as expected (e.g. no sound), but we will improve in following weeks and months.” He also noted that the team had less testing capacity than major hardware vendors and welcomed testing support.
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Tom’s Hardware cautioned that the port was unofficial and could contain bugs not present in MSI’s firmware. These reports establish an early development state in April 2022, not the current feature status of any later release.
Does this mean you can safely flash Coreboot on this MSI board now?
Not on the basis of the 2022 announcement alone. Before considering a firmware replacement, verify that a current, board-specific release exists, what hardware and operating systems it supports, and what recovery method is documented. An early port that could boot an installer is not the same thing as a finished daily-use firmware build.
- Check the exact model: confirm the board is the MSI PRO Z690-A WiFi DDR4, not a similarly named model or DDR5 version.
- Check feature completeness: look for explicit confirmation of support for the devices and functions you rely on, such as sound, networking, display, USB, and boot modes.
- Check update and recovery instructions: understand how to restore firmware if flashing fails, and do not assume a recovery feature is guaranteed by the word “unbrickable.”
- Check testing and release status: distinguish a maintained release with documented testing from an experimental build or an announcement about work in progress.
Libreboot’s project site describes it as a Coreboot distribution offering free/open-source BIOS/UEFI replacement on supported Intel, AMD, and ARM systems. However, Libreboot’s 26.01 release notes, dated January 30, 2026, say newer Alder Lake boards were still held back because Intel Management Engine downloading and me_cleaner processing had not been worked out, with the Topton X2E N150 as an exception. Those notes do not establish Libreboot support for the MSI PRO Z690-A WiFi DDR4.
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Libreboot’s installation documentation warns that readers must follow flashing instructions carefully; its 26.01 notes state: “PLEASE READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE INSTALLING, OR YOU MAY BRICK YOUR MACHINE!!” That is a practical reminder for any experimental firmware work: only follow instructions written for the exact supported board and release.
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What benefits were claimed—and what was actually measured?
Coverage of the port discussed potential benefits associated with Coreboot, including a smaller, more flexible firmware base, greater user control, security-oriented design, faster booting, and recovery intended to reduce the risk of bricking. These are potential advantages or design goals, not proof that every benefit was delivered on this particular motherboard.
Tom’s Hardware reported a promised boot-time improvement of up to 70%. That figure was a quoted promise in its 2022 article, not an independently measured result for the MSI board. PC Gamer also summarized broader project goals such as a minimal Trusted Computing Base and booting in under a second; its coverage did not provide a controlled board-specific benchmark demonstrating those outcomes.
Why was Alder Lake support notable?
Coreboot had historically been concentrated on older systems, and modern desktop motherboard support was uncommon. Reaching Intel’s Alder Lake generation therefore showed that open firmware work had begun moving onto a more current desktop platform. The practical value for an individual owner, however, depends on board-specific feature support, operating-system and device compatibility, safe updates and recovery, availability of tested binaries, and the capacity for ongoing testing.
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