Re: RPI 4/5 u-boot new port, is there any interest?

On Jun 4, 2025, at 05:33, Klaus Küchemann <maciphone2@googlemail.com> wrote:

> a while ago, I spoke in more detail with bz@ about u-boot for the Pi5. There are ways to create a new port...
> Now I had a longer conversation with Hugo Kirnbichler on Discord. Hugo managed to patch u-boot for the RPI CM4 to make it NVMe bootable (compiled under FreeBSD).
> Details would go beyond the scope here for the first.
> 
> What I would like to know:
> Is FreeBSD still interested in supporting the RPI4/5?
> Goodbye Pi in FreeBSD or Hello Pi , especially now ? :-)
> 
> Then Hugo and I might be willing to create a new port.
> There's no other way to proceed... the u-boot mailing lists are aware of the problems, but nothing is happening because they don't need it for Linux. All the patches we know of are GPL’d from 3rd party companies or OS-projects afaik.
> 
> Because it’s not really fun :-) , I don't want to continue this work if there is no official interest from FreeBSD.

Note: At this point I do not have access to a modern D0 RPi5 to have
tested anything with.

There is:

https://github.com/NumberOneGit/rpi5-uefi/releases

QUOTE
RPI5-D0v1 Pre-release

This is a release of RPI5-UEFI specifically for D0 stepped Raspberry Pi models. That is all 16GB and 2GB models, and can apply to any model released around the end of 2024 and beyond, and all Compute Modules. This is coded for SD card boot, so eMMC will not work. However, the CM5 will run fine as long as you use USB or NVME to boot and have the proper boot order in eeprom. The default is for a Raspberry Pi 5 D0 model, but if you have a different model edit the config.txt file to point to the correct .dtb file.
END QUOTE

https://github.com/NumberOneGit/rpi5-uefi reports:

QUOTE
Thanks to Mario Bălănică for the work enabling UEFI support on the Raspberry Pi 5. This project aims to provide UEFI access for users with D0 models—including the 16 GB, 2 GB, and other recently manufactured variants—as well as all Compute Modules.

This fork remaps pinctrl for the D0 revision of the BCM2712, ensuring newer Pi 5 boards boot correctly with UEFI. There is currently a known framebuffer issue affecting the UEFI menu and some operating systems on these models. I’ve reported this issue to the Raspberry Pi Foundation, and they have confirmed it will be addressed in their next major EEPROM update. Until that update is released, the May 8 EEPROM and all earlier versions will continue to exhibit framebuffer problems.

As a temporary measure, I’ve implemented a fix so the UEFI menu displays an image, but this does not fully resolve the underlying issue. Some operating systems will function without the framebuffer fix, but others require you to set framebuffer_depth=24 in your config.txt. Without this, or until the EEPROM update is available, you may encounter display artifacts or a black screen.

My continued involvement in this project depends on community participation. I’m motivated to improve ACPI compatibility and other features if others contribute, but won’t be able to maintain or add features alone.

Dt-bindings are being released for the RP1 within the coming months so we may be able to get ethernet and some other features working. I have a CM5 and I would eventually like to get eMMC to work properly, but for now CM5 users should boot from NVME or USB.
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===
Mark Millard
marklmi at yahoo.com