Advanced users • Get rid of modern BootROM

The Raspis modern "BootROM" is one step forward, many steps back - change my mind.

I used hundreds of Raspis for fun and profit.

But BootROM is no fun nor profit for me.

• It is not a ROM anymore, but can just be written by OS. This implies:
• No two RaspberryPis on your shelf are expected to be the same anymore. Any trouble you may encounter now does not only can mean software or hardware defect, but also wrong or defect BootROM content.
• ROM Updates are not always compatible. I had scenarios like this: Boot one SD card just fine. Inset another OS card, it also bootet fine. Insert fist card later - it crashed on boot. The second OS decided to update the boot ROM, rendering it incompatible to older kernel on the first card, it turns out. I have quite some collection of imaged OS cards to have "just works" systems ready - most of them got broken on some BootROM revision update.
• For security purposes it offers another attack vector - modifying the ROM.

So after years of struggle I learned to not love and hate the BootROM - and I propose to give the option for disabling it in new devices. If booting from USB or network means to add a cheap SD-card - be it so.

Statistics: Posted by dronus — Sun Apr 20, 2025 5:18 pm

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