Re: EDK2 on RPi3 was: Re: u-boot debug, was: Re: U-boot on RPI3, sees disk but won't boot it

On 2022-Oct-21, at 12:53, Mark Millard <marklmi@yahoo.com> wrote:

> On 2022-Oct-21, at 10:51, bob prohaska <fbsd@www.zefox.net> wrote:
> 
>> Mixed success has been obtained using EDK2 on a pair of Pi3
>> systems, one running 13-stable and one running -current. 
>> 
>> The 13-stable machine is at stable/13-ef2aa7753
>> The -current machine is at main-n258665-e03b7883e97c
>> 
>> The 13-stable machine boots reliably with an EDK2 microSD card
>> and will boot almost as reliably with no microSD card at all.
>> This seems true with both JMS561 and JMS578 usb-serial bridges.
>> 
>> The -current machine uses an ASMT bridge and is unresponsive
>> with either the EDK2 microSD or no microSD at all. It does boot
>> reliably using the "special bootcode.bin" file from the Pi foundation.
>> It appears to be the newer of the two Pi3's, having a non-latching
>> microSD receptacle. 
> 
> Which context does the "need bootcode.bin" problem follow?
> 
> A) Where the ASMT bridge is used vs. not?
> B) Which RPi3B is used vs. not?
> C) Which OS version is used vs. not?
> D) It gets messier to specify if combinations of 2 or more
>   those need to be specified. I'll not list all the
>   possibilities.
> 
> Does the newer RPi3B indicate that its USB booting has
> been enabled? (You may need to use the likes of a
> RaspiOS variant to check this.)
> 
> I'm confused about the "special bootcode.bin": bootcoce.bin
> is a normal part of the RPi* firmware, just ignored by
> RPi4B related RPi*'s that have an alternate means of doing
> things. Is this the bootcode.bin in the standard RPi*
> firmware releases? Some other version?
> 
> bootcode.bin always has more recent, bugfixed USB boot code
> than a RPi3B has built in, as far as I know. The RPi3B's
> do not have a supported means of updating what is built-in
> for such functionality. bootcode.bin is used instead.
> 
> 
>> On balance EDK2 appears to be useful, or at least having some
>> promise.
> 
> I'm glad it seems to have helped. But there are things to
> know.
> 
> Point #0: EDK2 versions and testedness
> 
> The only tested RPi3B EDK2 versions are the ones that the
> developers release. They do not test EDK2 updates after
> they make an EDK2 release, at least until they again work
> on making a new RPi3B EDK2 release.
> 
> Similarly, they do not test using newer RPi* firmware than
> they bundle. Only a small subset of the overall RPi*
> firmware is in their RPI3B release. For example, a lack of
> most of the overlays. They do have references to at least
> using one overlay that they do not include, as I remember.
> But use of any other overlays is untested/not-supported as
> far as I can tell.
> 
> The same goes for the RPi4B related EDK2 releases vs. later
> EDK2 updates vs. overlays and such.
> 
> The RPi3B vs. RPi4B EDK2 releases are not based on the same
> vintage of EDK2 materials --or on the same vintage of RPi*
> materials.
> 
> This means that using the FreeBSD port will not pick out
> the release-matching EDK2 materials as are in the RPi3B
> or RPI4B EDK2 releases. Also, the RPi* firmware has to be
> separately supplied. Overall: an untested combination
> results, a combination that is unsupported by the RPi3B EDK2
> developers and the RPi4B EDK2 developers.
> 
> I've no clue if or how well the the port's builds might work.
> 
> Another issue is that some software that is upstream of
> EDK2 tends to have problems staying inside the C language
> definition and when this happens, EDK2 builds fail, despite
> it not being EDK2's own code that needs the fix.
> 
> Point #1: RPi3B microsd slot use is messed up
> 
> In my RPi3B EDK2 related testing, trying to use a microsd
> card in the RPi3B slot for such can corrupt the contents.
> It does not even reliably lead to even correct file name
> displays in ls output.
> 
> By contrast, using a USB reader/writer continued to work
> just fine.
> 
> So just leave a RPi3B EDK2 microsd card in the slot
> after booting.
> 
> I've no clue of the status for things like sound and such.
> 
> Point #2: RPi4B does not even start to use the microsd card
> 
> In my RPi4B EDK2 use, microsd card in the slot are not
> supported --by being ignored as I remember.
> 
> By contrast, using a USB reader/writer continued to work
> just fine.
> 
> So just leave a RPi4B EDK2 microsd card in the slot
> after booting.
> 
> I've no clue of the status for things like sound and such.
> 
> 
>> Bugzilla traffic suggests work is stalled, can it be
>> unstuck?
>> 
> 
> I expect that at some point that some variation on my
> patches to allow the builds to at least complete will
> be committed so the likes of aarch64 FreeBSD builds
> become possible. (So long as EDK2+its-upstream stays
> inside the language definition.)
> 
> But I do not know how useful builds are now when built
> on amd64 or the like --that will also be true for the
> aarch64 built ones. See the above "Point #0: EDK2
> versions and testedness" notes.
> 
> It may end up being more effective to stick to
> downloading and using releases made by the RPi3B EDK2
> and RPi4B EDK2 folks if EDK2 is to be used for these
> RPi* families.

Side note on what type of video interfaces are in use
for EDK2, at least for RPi4B EDK2 . . .

From https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2022-1c6a1ca835

QUOTE of jlinton
It looks fine on my RPI4+PFTF UEFI as well, although it
should be noted that it's running on the EFI framebuffer
in both DT and ACPI mode with that firmware.. This
shouldn't be unexpected. At some point, I will update
the DT with one that has the vc4 bindings.
END QUOTE

I do not know if RPi3B EDK2 also uses the EFI framebuffer
for its Device Tree vs. ACPI vs. both modes. EFI
framebuffer mode would likely be less performant.

I'll note that if RPi4+PFTF UEFI is updated for Device
Treee, that would not change RPi3+PFTF UEFI for
Device Tree.

(Fedora 37 was delayed by a failure to have RPi4B
HDMI output displayed past a given point in the boot
sequence. There was some question if some RPi3B
bugfix(es) had caused the RPi4B issue. Looks like
kernel-5.19.16-301.fc37 may end up being the
basis for the first Fedora release with official
RPi4B support, as its initial testing reports are
that video is working on both RPi4 and RPi3.)

===
Mark Millard
marklmi at yahoo.com