From coreboot

The wiki is being retired! Documentation is now handled by the same processes we use for code: Add something to the Documentation/ directory in the coreboot repo, and it will be rendered to https://doc.coreboot.org/. Contributions welcome!

coreboot is applying for Google Summer of Code 2017 as a mentoring organization. It is not assumed that we are accepted yet. We will announce this on the mailing list, chat.coreboot.org and update this page when we are informed on 27 February.

coreboot has many Project Ideas for various ability levels. The coreboot project also acts as an umbrella organization for other open-source firmware related projects.

Official student application period in 2017 is from March 20 to April 3, with results announced on April 4. For the complete timeline, please see the GSoC 2017 timeline.





If you are interested in participating in GSoC as a student student, please visit chat.coreboot.org. Working closely with the community is highly encouraged, as we've seen that our most successful students are generally very involved.

Patrick Georgi and Martin Roth are the coreboot GSoC admins for 2017. Please feel free to reach out to them directly if you have any questions.

Why work on coreboot for GSoC 2017?

coreboot offers you the opportunity to work with various architectures right on the iron. coreboot supports both current and older silicon for a wide variety of chips and technologies.

coreboot has a worldwide developer and user base.

We are a very passionate team, so you will interact directly with the project initiators and project leaders.

We have a large, helpful community. coreboot has some extremely talented and helpful experts in firmware involved in the project. They are ready to assist and mentor students participating in GSoC.

One of the last areas where open source software is not common is firmware. Running proprietary firmware can have severe effects on user's freedom and security. coreboot changes that by providing a common framework for initial hardware initialization and you can help us succeed.

GSoC Student requirements

What will be required of you to be a coreboot GSoC student?

Google Summer of Code is a full-time job. This means we expect you to work roughly 40 hours per week on your project, during the three months of coding. Obviously we have flexibility, but if your schedule (exams, courses, other obligations) does not give you this amount of time, then you should not apply. We expect to be able to see this level of effort in student output.

Before applying

Prior to project acceptance, you have demonstrated that you can work with the coreboot codebase.

By the time you have submitted your application, you should have downloaded, built and booted coreboot in QEMU, SimNow, or on real hardware. Please email your serial output results to the mailing list.

Look over some of the development processes guidelines: git, Gerrit Etiquette and Guidelines, Development Guidelines, and Developer Manual

Get signed up for gerrit and push at least one patch to Gerrit for review. Check Easy projects or ask for simple tasks on the mailing list or on chat.coreboot.org if you need ideas.

Look through some patches on gerrit to get an understanding of the review process and common issues

Before applying, you should also join the mailing list and chat.coreboot.org. Introduce yourself and mention that you are a prospective GSoC student. Ask questions and discuss the project that you are considering. Community involvement is a key component of coreboot development.

During the program

To pass and to be paid by Google requires that you meet certain milestones.

First, you must be in good standing with the community before the official start of the program. We expect you to post some design emails to the mailing list, and get feedback on them, both before applying, and during the "community bonding period" between acceptance and official start.

You must have made progress and committed significant code before the mid-term point and by the final.

We require that accepted students to maintain a blog, where you are expected to write about your project *WEEKLY*. This is a way to measure progress and for the community at large to be able to help you. GSoC is *NOT* a private contract between your mentor and you. blogs.coreboot.org

Student must be active in the community on chat.coreboot.org and the mailing list.

Students are expected to work on development publicly, and to push commits to the project on a regular basis. Depending on the project and what your mentor agrees to, these can be published directly to the project or to a public repository such as gitlab or github. If you are not publishing directly to the project codebase, be aware that we do not want large dumps of code that need to be rushed to meet the mid-term and final goals.

We don't expect our students to be experts in our problem domain, but we don't want you to fail because some basic misunderstanding was in your way of completing the task.

Projects

There are many development tasks available in coreboot. Please visit the following pages for some ideas or come up with your own idea.

We keep a list of previous GSoC Projects which might be of interest to you to see what others have accomplished. Similarly the blog posts related to previous GSoC projects might give some insights to what it is like to be a coreboot GSoC student.

Your own Project Ideas

We have come up with some ideas for cool Summer of Code projects. These are projects that we think can be managed in the short period of GSoC, and they cover areas where coreboot is trying to reach new users and new use cases.

Of course your application does not need to be based on any of the ideas listed. The opposite: Maybe you have a great idea that we just didn't think of yet. Please let us know!

coreboot Summer of Code Application

coreboot welcomes students from all backgrounds and levels of experience.

Your application should include a complete project proposal. You should document that you have the knowledge and the ability to complete your proposed project. This may require a little research and understanding of coreboot prior to sending your application. The community and coreboot project mentors are your best resource in fleshing out your project ideas and helping with a project timeline. We recommend that you get feedback and recommendations on your proposal before the application deadline.

Please complete the standard Google SoC application and project proposal. Prospective coreboot GSoC student should provide the following information as part of their application. If you are applying for a flashrom or SerialICE project use common sense when using the template below, this is part of the test. ;)

Personal Information

Name: Email: Phone number: chat/IM/IRC/Skype/other contact: Country/Timezone: Normal working hours(UTC): School: Degree Program: Expected graduation date: Short bio / overview of your background: What are your other time commitments? Do you have a job, classes, vacations? When and how long?

Software experience

Github / Web Page / Blog / Microblog / Portfolio: Links to one or more patches submitted to the project you're applying for: Links to posts on the mailing list with the serial output of your build: Mailing List Archives Please comment on your software and firmware experience. Have you contributed to an open source project? Which one? What was your experience? Did you build and run coreboot? Did you have problems?

Your project

Please provide an overview of your project (in your own words). Provide break down of your project in small specific weekly goals. Think about the potential timeline. How will you accomplish this goal? What is your working style? Explain what risks or potential problems your project might experience. What would you expect as a minimum level of success? Do you have a stretch goal?

Other

Resume (optional):

Advice on how to apply

The Drupal project has a great page on how to write an SOC application.

GSoC Student Guide: [1]

Secrets for GSoC success: [2]

Mentors

Each accepted project will have a lead mentor and a backup mentor. We will match mentors and students based on the project, experience level, and geographic location (native language, culture and time zone).

Summer of Code primary mentors, are expected to stay in frequent contact with the student and provide guidance such as code reviews, pointers to useful documentation, etc. This should generally be a time commitment of one to two hours a week.

Backup mentors are expected to coordinate with the primary mentor and student on a regular basis, and keep track of the student process. They should be work with the primary mentor and be available to take over mentoring duty if the primary mentor is unavailable (vacations, sickness, emergencies).

Volunteering to be a mentor

If you'd like to volunteer to be a mentor, please read the GSoC Mentor Manual. This will give you a better idea of expectations, and where to go for help. After that, contact Martin or Patrick and let them know that you're interested.

The following coreboot developers have volunteered to be GSoC 2017 mentors. Please stop by chat.coreboot.org and say hi to them and ask them questions.