[RFC PATCH 3/3] efidebug: add multiple device path instances on Boot####

[Heinrich Schuchardt]

On 14.01.21 10:55, Ilias Apalodimas wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 14, 2021 at 02:11:33PM +0900, AKASHI Takahiro wrote:
>> Ilias,
>>
>> On Wed, Jan 13, 2021 at 01:11:49PM +0200, Ilias Apalodimas wrote:
>>> The UEFI spec allow a packed array of UEFI device paths in the
>>> FilePathList[] of an EFI_LOAD_OPTION. The first file path must
>>> describe the laoded image but the rest are OS specific.
>>> Previous patches parse the device path and try to use the second
>>> member of the array as an initrd. So let's modify efidebug slightly
>>> and install the second file described in the command line as the
>>> initrd device path.
>>
>> I have a concern about your proposed command line syntax.
>> It takes a lot of parameters as a whole which makes it
>> hard to understand it at a glance, easily overflowing
>> the width of terminal window.
>>
>> It will even get worse if we want to take dtb as a third
>> device path, and what if we want to specify dtb, but not initrd?
>>
>> Moreover, if we want to add support for non-linux executabes which
>> utilize extra device paths (neither initrd nor dtb) in a boot
>> load option, the syntax will be problematic.
>>
>
> Maybe we should add explicit commands in efidebug then?
> Something like:
> efidebug initrd add 0002 virtio 1 initrd_file
> efidebug dtb add 0002 virtio 1 dtb

Why "add"? If no file is provided, we could empty the device path.

All other boot related subcommands start with efidebug boot. So how about:

efidebug boot add 00B1 'Linux' mmc 0:1 vmlinux-5.99 UUID=1234
efidebug boot initrd 00B1 mmc 0:1 initrd-5.99
efidebug boot dtb mmc 00B1 0:1 /dtbs/5.99/vendor/board.dtb
efidebug boot order 00B1

What will happen if you pass the following command next:

efidebug boot add 00B1 'Linux' mmc 0:1 vmlinux-5.99.1 UUID=1234

Will initrd and and dtb be kept?

What will happen if you start with dtb or with initrd and not with add?

A device path with kernel.efi, no initrd, and dtb would have an initrd
device path with only an end node. Should we install a LOAD FILE2
protocol in this case to disallow initrd on the command line?

The boot options are relevant for all users, while the rest of efidebug
is more developers oriented. Should we separate the boot related
commands from the rest of efidebug and build with the new command by
default?

bootopt add 00B1 'Linux' mmc 0:1 vmlinux-5.99 UUID=1234
bootopt initrd 00B1 mmc 0:1 initrd-5.99
bootopt dtb mmc 00B1 0:1 /dtbs/5.99/vendor/board.dtb
bootopt order 00B1

Best regards

Heinrich

>
> That would untangle the do_efi_boot_add() function, make our lives easier on
> adding things like 'kernel <no initrd> valid dtb' and should be much easier
> to use. The user will just have to make sure the boot order numbers match when
> adding files
>
> [...]
>
> Cheers
> /Ilias
>