Re: RPI4 install trip report

[Greg Troxel <gdt%lexort.com@localhost>]

adr <adr%sdf.org@localhost> writes:

>> in which case: is that really still true?  (I have just booted a RPI4
>> with only arm64.img written to uSD.)
>
> I couldn't boot the RPI4 without edk2 uefi in the past. The wiki
> still states that you need that. If this is not true any more,
> please delete it. But first, do you have all the hardware working
> ok?

In order to make progress editing the HOWTO, I would appreciate clear
statements from a place of understanding.

While netbsd-9 is technically in scope, my view is that (for evbarm)
netbsd-8 is now irrevelant, and netbsd-10 is the standard approach,
especially for RPI4.

> The uefi firmware is not included with the sd card image. This is
> a third party project (builds from tianocore ready to use). I always
> use the last release.

I am still having trouble following because "uefi firmware" does not
clearly map to "a file with this name in this image".  On the RPI4 I
just installed with netbsd-10 RC3, I see:

  # ls -l /boot/EFI/BOOT/bootaa64.efi
  -r-xr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  196056 Jan 18 23:49 /boot/EFI/BOOT/bootaa64.efi

but I don't know if that is a "bootloader that uses EFI and is loaded by
UEFI firmware" or something else.  The system also has:

  # ls -l /boot/
  total 46284
  drwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel      1024 Jan 18 23:49 EFI
  -rwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel      1594 Jan 18 23:49 LICENCE.broadcom
  -rwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel     52476 Jan 18 23:49 bootcode.bin
  -rwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel        33 Jan 18 23:49 cmdline.txt
  -rwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel       155 Jan 18 23:49 config.txt
  drwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel      1024 Jan 18 23:49 dtb
  -rwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel      7269 Jan 18 23:49 fixup.dat
  -rwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel      5412 Jan 18 23:49 fixup4.dat
  -rwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel      3180 Jan 18 23:49 fixup4cd.dat
  -rwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel      3180 Jan 18 23:49 fixup_cd.dat
  -rwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  16761184 Jan 18 23:49 netbsd.img
  -rwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel   2979264 Jan 18 23:49 start.elf
  -rwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel   2254944 Jan 18 23:49 start4.elf
  -rwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel    808060 Jan 18 23:49 start4cd.elf
  -rwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel    808060 Jan 18 23:49 start_cd.elf


>>  - Does 'uefi screen' imply that one needs a kbd/display for this step?
>
> Yes, it uses the framebuffer that is going to be presented to
> netbsd.

OK, but as I have posted, I see nothing on my HDMI monitor.

> Don't you need a monitor to change your bios|uefi settings
> in a common PC?

yes, but that's broken :-) On my PC Engines apu2 with coreboot, it's all
changeable on the serial port.  But there is
"raspberrypi-userland-20170109nb3".

>>    . Are there really no tools to set these from NetBSD?
>
> Are there tools to modify the bios settings in netbsd?

Lack of them is a bug.  I don't 100% expect PC bugs in arm land.  So a
useful answer would answer the question, not ask another question that
isn't actually logically related.

>>  - Is there really a 3 GB memory limit on an 8G RPI4?  My system shows
>>      total memory = 8034 MB
>>      avail memory = 7744 MB
>>    which looks more or less as expected.
>
> The limit was added to the firmware to make operating systems that
> don't deal with a bug in the hardware (dma access, iirc), work ok.
> You are not booting from uefi, so you don't see that limit (netbsd
> knows how to deal with that).

I'm not so sure at this point.

> I think that you are a little confused about the operating system's
> uefi bootloader, and the uefi system (like the bios) in the machine's
> firmware. The EDK2 project makes the raspberry pi "offer" a uefi
> environment (interface) to the operating system.

I may well be, but the path to unconfusion is to be clear about what is
in netbsd-10 and separating these things.

> If I'm the one confused and the netbsd team wrote a replacement of
> the edk2 firmware wich is include in the sd images, please let me
> know.

Have you looked at recent netbsd-10 arm64.img?

> At least I know now that the aarch64 kernel can be booted directly
> by the rpi4 firmware. Jun Ebihara is also still using uefi. Could
> the rpi4 users in the list that don't use uefi share their experience?

Indeed, more explanations would be great.

> It's all the hardware working ok?. (I mean at least as with uefi
> of course.)

Booting arm64.img, things seem to work, except HDMI.  I can "scan list"
on the wifi, and the ethernet and usd card work fine.  I have not really
dug into more hw.