RFC: Handling of multiple EFI System Partitions

[Heinrich Schuchardt]

Am 18. Dezember 2022 15:21:06 MEZ schrieb Mark Kettenis <mark.kettenis at xs4all.nl>:
>The Asahi installer, which is what most people use to get their Apple
>Silicon Mac into a state where it is possible to install another OS on
>the machine, offers the posibility to create multiple OS installs.
>For each of these it creates a separate APFS partition (which holds
>among other things, some essential system firmware) and separate EFI
>System Partitions.  This has a few benefits:
>
>* It allows control over which version of the system firmware is used
>  by the OS.  This is especially important for things like the GPU and
>  DCP (display controller) firmware, where the firmware interface
>  isn't exactly what we'd call "stable".  This way system firmware is
>  paired with the OS install (similar to what macOS does for itself)
>  which prevents breaking other OS installs on the same disk.
>
>* It allows us to store a 2nd stage bootloader (m1n1+u-boot+dtb) on
>  the EFI System Partition (ESP) such that it can be easily upgraded
>  from within Linux without affecting other OS installs on the same
>  disk.
>
>* It allows the use of the "native" boot picker to switch between
>  OSes.
>
>The approach the Asahi team has taken is to pair the APFS partition
>with the ESP by adding a proprty that contains the partition UUID to
>the device tree.  The installer ships u-boot with a patched distro
>boot script that looks at this device tree property, figures out what
>the right ESP is and loads the EFI bootloader
>(efi/boot/bootaarch64.efi) from that partition.
>
>This approach has some drawbacks:
>
>1. U-Boot will still consider the first ESP as *the* ESP, which means
>   that the ubootefi.var file is still read from and written from the
>   first ESP.
>
>2. The distro boot script modifications don't work if U-Boot's
>   built-in efibootmgr is used.  This probably also affects Simon's
>   bootstd stuff.
>
>So my idea is to have U-Boot recognize the device tree property and
>use it when it determines what partition is *the* ESP.  A proof of
>concept diff is attached below.  This probably needs a bit of
>massaging as reading the device tree property in generic EFI code like
>this is probably not acceptable.  A better approach might be to have a
>function that can be called from board-specific code that sets the UUID.
>
>Thoughts?  Would such a feature be useful on other hardware platforms?

efi/boot/bootaarch64.efi is only a fallback if load options are not set up. Once the operating system has generated a load option it is not used anymore.

The MacBooks only have one drive. Why would you want two ESPs on one drive?

Why can't the Asahi team use the current UEFI bootflow? We should avoid unneeded deviations. Can the current deviations be removed in Asahi Linux?

Best regards

Heinrich 

>
>commit 088f5626d4347cef76ad5a54477944886efb005a
>Author: Mark Kettenis <kettenis at openbsd.org>
>Date:   Sun Sep 25 01:57:24 2022 +0200
>
>    HACK: Use designated ESP
>    
>    Signed-off-by: Mark Kettenis <kettenis at openbsd.org>
>
>diff --git a/lib/efi_loader/efi_disk.c b/lib/efi_loader/efi_disk.c
>index 7ea0334083..86b867d319 100644
>--- a/lib/efi_loader/efi_disk.c
>+++ b/lib/efi_loader/efi_disk.c
>@@ -523,6 +523,27 @@ static efi_status_t efi_disk_add_dev(
> 				  desc->devnum, part);
> 		}
> 	}
>+
>+	ofnode chosen_node;
>+	const char *uuid = NULL;
>+	chosen_node = ofnode_path("/chosen");
>+	if (ofnode_valid(chosen_node)) {
>+		uuid = ofnode_read_string(chosen_node,
>+					  "asahi,efi-system-partition");
>+	}
>+
>+	/* Store designated EFI system partition */
>+	if (part && uuid && strcmp(uuid, part_info->uuid) == 0) {
>+		if (part_info->bootable & PART_EFI_SYSTEM_PARTITION) {
>+			efi_system_partition.uclass_id = desc->uclass_id;
>+			efi_system_partition.devnum = desc->devnum;
>+			efi_system_partition.part = part;
>+			EFI_PRINT("EFI system partition: %s %x:%x\n",
>+				  blk_get_uclass_name(desc->uclass_id),
>+				  desc->devnum, part);
>+		}
>+	}
>+
> 	return EFI_SUCCESS;
> error:
> 	efi_delete_handle(&diskobj->header);