Adding a new efi-update-loader script: need help understanding Makefile.inc1 for "make installworld"

[Rodney W. Grimes]

> On Mon, Mar 25, 2019, 9:48 PM Rodney W. Grimes <
> freebsd-rwg at gndrsh.dnsmgr.net> wrote:
> 
> > > On 3/25/19 8:05 AM, Warner Losh wrote:
> > > > We started installing /boot/loader with install world in FreeBSD -3.x
> > and
> > > > it has affected the boot ability that whole time... in the early days
> > of
> > > > loader, the kernel loader handoff protocol was immature enough to need
> > a
> > > > matched kernel. But that period lasted only a few months...  loader has
> > > > also been weird in other ways as well, since some embedded systems
> > used the
> > > > one in its, while others needed an extra step. As UEFI support has
> > matured
> > > > we're finding there are several issues around it as well where
> > updating the
> > > > ESP needs to be tied to updating /boot for the system to work
> > sometimes. It
> > > > has grown more complex over time, so we should separate. It's been a
> > little
> > > > weird on all the non x86 platforms to different degrees, but now that
> > our
> > > > main platform is affected it's become clear we may need to change.
> > > >
> > > > But we need to do so carefully as this violates POLA in a huge way, as
> > well
> > > > as needing doc changes in a bajillion places.
> > >
> > > I think we should treat files on the ESP the same way we treat other boot
> > > blocks.  installworld should continue to install the latest version into
> > > /boot (e.g. /boot/boot that holds UFS boot1 + boot2), but then some other
> > > tool is used by the user to copy the updated loader.efi into the ESP.
> > >
> > > I think the main difference here is that traditionally other boot blocks
> > > didn't change very often, so no one really needed to update it them
> > > post-install.  loader.efi changes often enough we probably need to
> > document
> > > updating the ESP as an optional step in the upgrade process.  I think
> > > having an automagical script will probably go sideways, but standardizing
> > > where to mounting the ESP (or ESPs when doing RAID mirroring, etc.) means
> > > we can provide a script with defaults (or instructions) that work with
> > > the standardized approach.
> >
> > Is there anyway to stash an easy to extract "version" in
> > loader.* so that a Makefile/.sh script could easily check
> > to see that your boot code is == `uname -KU` and just emit
> > a warning at the end of installworld?
> >
> 
> No. There is no simple version we can check to make sure things are a
> matched set..

Then I would call that a pretty fatal flaw in design.  There needs
to be a way to find out what version of "loader" /boot/loader.efi
is there.

I was also not asking if we have a way now, I was asking if there
was a way to implement, and I doubt the answer to that question is
no.

> Warner
> > John Baldwin
> > Rod Grimes rgrimes at freebsd.org

012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789
Why does your mail client wrap my <70 column signature?

-- 
Rod Grimes                                                 rgrimes at freebsd.org