Question: How to boot FreeBSD head on a MACCHIATOBin (double shot)?

[Mark Millard]

On 2018-Oct-8, at 11:37 AM, Greg V <greg at unrelenting.technology> wrote:

> On Mon, Oct 8, 2018 at 1:05 AM, Mark Millard via freebsd-arm <freebsd-arm at freebsd.org> wrote:
>> Anyone willing to provide notes or instructions
>> for setting up a MACCHIATOBin (double shot) to boot
>> FreeBSD head from a SATA SSD? (Failing that: a USB
>> storage device?) (Failing that: microsd card?)
>> This could well include notes/instructions about
>> what needs to be on the media that may be unique
>> to the MACCHIATOBin. I realize that various things
>> will not work yet. I'd just explore some of what
>> does work.
> 
> From what I remember on this mailing list, PCIe and Ethernet won't work.
> 
> (BTW, OpenBSD does have a PCIe driver for it already... and for the Rockchip RK3399 too... dang)
> 
>> Needing to have the kernel and earlier stages
>> and a preliminary /etc/fstab and /boot/loader.conf
>> on an microsd card but getting the UFS file system
>> (/) from the SATA SSD is likely a workable combination,
>> similar to what I've sometimes done on smaller
>> single board computers. For such, it is the kernel
>> and earlier stages where I'm unclear on the details
>> for the MACCHIATOBin double shot.
> 
> According to their wiki, SATA is supported in U-Boot:
> http://wiki.macchiatobin.net/tiki-index.php?page=Use+SATA+drives+in+U-Boot

Various details do not seem to match, such as the 1, 8, 9
device numbering for SATA (scsi) vs.:

Marvell>> scsi scan
scanning bus for devices...
SATA link 0 timeout.
SATA link 1 timeout.
AHCI 0001.0000 32 slots 2 ports 6 Gbps 0x3 impl SATA mode
flags: 64bit ncq led only pmp fbss pio slum part sxs 
Target spinup took 0 ms.
SATA link 1 timeout.
AHCI 0001.0000 32 slots 2 ports 6 Gbps 0x3 impl SATA mode
flags: 64bit ncq led only pmp fbss pio slum part sxs 
  Device 0: (0:0) Vendor: ATA Prod.: Samsung SSD 850 Rev: EXM0
            Type: Hard Disk
            Capacity: 976762.3 MB = 953.8 GB (2000409264 x 512)

The text seem to be for some older version of the board
and/or firmware: the picture and description of the
SATA connector position numbering is for an older board.

> You should be able to just load and run loader.efi from the drive's EFI System Partition.

The help at the Marvell>> prompt mentioned EFI once:

bootefi - Boots an EFI payload from memory

with the longer description being:

bootefi <image address> [fdt address]
  - boot EFI payload stored at address <image address>.
    If specified, the device tree located at <fdt address> gets
    exposed as EFI configuration table.

I interpreted this as a lack of direct use of on-media EFI
material being supported.

> (And USB is supported too, so you can load from a USB stick to install onto the SATA drive.)

I was not successful at referencing USB media,
despite:

Marvell>> usb info
1: Hub,  USB Revision 3.0
 - U-Boot XHCI Host Controller 
 - Class: Hub
 - PacketSize: 9  Configurations: 1
 - Vendor: 0x0000  Product 0x0000 Version 1.0
   Configuration: 1
   - Interfaces: 1 Self Powered 0mA
     Interface: 0
     - Alternate Setting 0, Endpoints: 1
     - Class Hub
     - Endpoint 1 In Interrupt MaxPacket 8 Interval 255ms

2: Mass Storage,  USB Revision 3.0
 - SanDisk Extreme <REPLACED>
 - Class: (from Interface) Mass Storage
 - PacketSize: 9  Configurations: 1
 - Vendor: 0x0781  Product 0x5580 Version 0.16
   Configuration: 1
   - Interfaces: 1 Bus Powered 100mA
     Interface: 0
     - Alternate Setting 0, Endpoints: 2
     - Class Mass Storage, Transp. SCSI, Bulk only
     - Endpoint 1 In Bulk MaxPacket 1024
     - Endpoint 2 Out Bulk MaxPacket 1024

I just got "** Bad device usb 2 **" when trying
have it do something with "2:" above --and things
like:

Marvell>> usb storage
Card did not respond to voltage select!
mmc_init: -95, time 26
No storage devices, perhaps not 'usb start'ed..?


> If the built-in U-Boot doesn't support EFI, you can chainload a custom build of U-Boot with the EFI option enabled.

I'm not familiar with setting up and doing such (yet?).

> According to https://linux.debian.ports.arm.narkive.com/Co7jtx9F/debian-installer-on-arm64#post2
> you can even load an EDK II (TianoCore) build from U-Boot (without directly flashing it).
> 

I'm not familiar with setting up doing such (yet?).


Based on my (lack of) background in the area, no
direction seemed to have clear steps to take. It
seemed more like an error-prone exploration for
me.

===
Mark Millard
marklmi at yahoo.com
( dsl-only.net went
away in early 2018-Mar)