[PATCH v2 4/4] doc: qemu: arm: Add a section on booting Linux distros

[Ilias Apalodimas]

On Thu, 31 Aug 2023 at 12:25, Alper Nebi Yasak <alpernebiyasak at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> On 2023-08-30 10:33 +03:00, Ilias Apalodimas wrote:
> > Hi Alper,
> >
> > On Sun, 27 Aug 2023 at 18:49, Alper Nebi Yasak <alpernebiyasak at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> On 2023-08-15 01:43 +03:00, Simon Glass wrote:
> >>> Hi Alper,
> >>>
> >>> On Mon, 14 Aug 2023 at 11:40, Alper Nebi Yasak <alpernebiyasak at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>> I actually want to put the root.img device first so that the VM can boot
> >>>> into the installed system when it reboots, but U-Boot can't find the
> >>>> bootflow on the second drive. I tried e.g. `bootdev list -p; bootflow
> >>>> scan -lab`, but it seems to only ever search the first virtio-blk.
> >>>> However, `eficonfig; bootefi bootmgr` makes it boot somehow.
> >
> > eficonfig, apart from displaying the boot options on a menu scans all
> > media that have a simple filesystem protocol installed and configures
> > the efi boot options.  That's why bootefi bootmgr boots properly
> > afterwards.  You can probably boot even without eficonfig, but only
> > bootXXX.efi files will be accounted for and no boot options will be
> > added.
> >
> > The EFI spec describes the bootmgr functionality in detail.  Back when
> > the bootmeth patches were added, I suggested we shouldn't deal with
> > EFI at all simply because it all already works and is backed by a
> > spec.  Instead, we should just have a boot option in the methods that
> > spells "EFI" and let the bootmanager deal with the details. But
> > honestly, I've lost track of those patches.
>
> I think bootflow and EFI should be different views on top of a single
> "what can we do now that we are in U-Boot" model. IIUIC it's possible
> for e.g. UEFI Shell to be built-in boot entries, so we could expose
> bootflow entries (and more) similar to those?

I am not sure I am following you here.  The EfiShell is an
application. You can use 'eficonfig' to add/delete boot entries for
EFI, which will appear on a menu.

> And EFI-based secondary
> bootloaders like rEFInd could let us choose them in a graphical menu,
> efibootmgr could change their order or reboot into a non-EFI flow...

I'll have to check rEFInd, but I think it looks for PE/COFF binaries?

Thanks
/Ilias