[U-Boot] [PATCH 5/5] ls2080ardb: Convert to distro boot

[Peter Newton]

> From: Alexander Graf [mailto:agraf at suse.de]
> Sent: Monday, May 16, 2016 7:21 AM
> To: Bhupesh Sharma <bhupesh.sharma at nxp.com>; Amit Tomer <amittomer25 at gmail.com>
> Cc: york sun <york.sun at nxp.com>; u-boot at lists.denx.de; Peter Newton <peter.newton at nxp.com>
> Subject: Re: [U-Boot] [PATCH 5/5] ls2080ardb: Convert to distro boot
> 
> 
> 
> On 16.05.16 14:04, Bhupesh Sharma wrote:
> >
> >
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: Alexander Graf [mailto:agraf at suse.de]
> >> Sent: Monday, May 16, 2016 1:09 PM
> >> To: Amit Tomer <amittomer25 at gmail.com>
> >> Cc: Bhupesh Sharma <bhupesh.sharma at nxp.com>; york sun
> >> <york.sun at nxp.com>; u-boot at lists.denx.de; Peter Newton
> >> <peter.newton at nxp.com>
> >> Subject: Re: [U-Boot] [PATCH 5/5] ls2080ardb: Convert to distro boot
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>> Am 16.05.2016 um 08:58 schrieb Amit Tomer <amittomer25 at gmail.com>:
> >>>
> >>>> On Sun, May 15, 2016 at 2:51 AM, Bhupesh Sharma
> >> <bhupesh.sharma at nxp.com> wrote:
> >>>> Note that UEFI firmware support is already available on LS2080A-RDB
> >>>> and allows Booting distributions like CentOS on the same.
> >>>
> >>> Sorry to intervene here but it's about having the EFI support inside
> >>> u-boot itself that may *not* required to have separate UEFI firmware
> >>> to boot various distributions.
> >>>
> >>> Please correct, if it's not right ?
> >>
> >> It's correct. The idea is to allow everyone to boot using the uEFI
> >> entry point in Linux (or any other OS), regardless of whether they
> >> want to run U-Boot or a TianoCore based formware.
> >>
> >> This might seem useless today for embedded use cases, but some
> >> features are only available via an EFI entry, such as kASLR. You can
> >> also invoke Linux directly using the "bootefi" command, as Linux is
> >> an EFI binary itself. That way the boot path doesn't become much
> >> longer than with booti today.
> >>
> >
> > The default firmware being offered by NXP to boot distros on LS2080A and variants is UEFI.
> >
> > EFI application support in u-boot doesn't present a solution to things
> > like run-time variable/service support that is required by distros to
> > update firmware components on the go. And there are several other
> > services being offered by UEFI to help distro boot e.g. secure uefi boot through x.509 certifications compliant to UEFI specifications.
> 
> Don't get me wrong - I think it's great if there is a TianoCore based firmware for LS2080A. But I didn't get the impression that there is a
> TianoCore based firmware for every NXP SoC out there, so enabling all of them to use the U-Boot provided uEFI implementation is still
> a win.
> 
> That said, there's nothing that keeps us from implementing the bits you mentioned in U-Boot either. There is support for RTS in U-
> Boot, we just didn't convert any drivers (RTC comes to mind first) yet.
> 
> There's also no support for uEFI environment variables, but mostly because most systems I've used this code on so far just didn't have
> any storage to put them.
> 
> Certification checks also shouldn't be an issue if someone cared enough about them.
> 
> But I don't think we need a discussion of TianoCore vs U-Boot. What everyone really wants is to have things "just work". And some
> customers just prefer U-Boot for various reasons that are outside of my control.
> If they can run the same boot path as everyone else, it makes life for me as distribution vendor easier. And unlike other people in the
> community, I don't think being a TianoCore+ACPI messiah is any helpful for that goal.

Agreed, this should not become a U-Boot vs UEFI thread.  And just to be sure it is clear to everyone, NXP currently offers both U-Boot and is starting to have UEFI firmware releases also.  We are not dropping U-Boot just because we begin to have UEFI.