Hi, Is there any information available on porting Syslinux to 64bit ARM? Specifically, I have a Cavium ThunderX board (Gigabyte R120-T30) which boots using UEFI - b2b.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5864#ov I'd be very interested in getting this to work, as currently the only option for booting on this platform is Grub 2 or EFI Stub. If anyone can point me in the right direction it would be much appreciated. I'm keen to contribute to work on this port myself as well, but I want to hear if any other work on Aarch64 / arm64 has been done. Regards, Michael
On 08.08.2016 07:05, Michael Davies via Syslinux wrote:> Hi, > > Is there any information available on porting Syslinux to 64bit ARM? > > Specifically, I have a Cavium ThunderX board (Gigabyte R120-T30) which > boots using UEFI - b2b.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5864#ov > > > I'd be very interested in getting this to work, as currently the only > option for booting on this platform is Grub 2 or EFI Stub. If anyone can > point me in the right direction it would be much appreciated. > > I'm keen to contribute to work on this port myself as well, but I want > to hear if any other work on Aarch64 / arm64 has been done. > > > Regards, > > Michael >[Upstream] For now "syslinux.cfg" is only benefit toward Syslinux on AARCH64 aka ARMv8 aka ARM64 https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/u-boot_syslinux#Summary "Default u-boot to using syslinux config files for booting. pxelinux for network and extlinux for local booting." [syslinux] build for ARM (rpi) http://www.syslinux.org/archives/2013-August/020683.html "For the boot loader, there's (historically) too much dependency on x86 BIOS. With porting to EFI32/EFI64, it's becoming more of a possibility but not there." G.C. Add. https://wiki.linaro.org/ARM/UEFI $ rpm -qi edk2-aarch64 ... URL : http://www.tianocore.org/edk2/ Summary : AARCH64 Virtual Machine Firmware Description : EFI Development Kit II AARCH64 UEFI Firmware
On 08/07/16 22:05, Michael Davies via Syslinux wrote:> Hi, > > Is there any information available on porting Syslinux to 64bit ARM? > > Specifically, I have a Cavium ThunderX board (Gigabyte R120-T30) which > boots using UEFI - b2b.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5864#ov > > > I'd be very interested in getting this to work, as currently the only > option for booting on this platform is Grub 2 or EFI Stub. If anyone can > point me in the right direction it would be much appreciated. > > I'm keen to contribute to work on this port myself as well, but I want > to hear if any other work on Aarch64 / arm64 has been done. >It would be great to have someone look at this. Right now there is a bunch of x86-specific code in there, but with EFI and x86-64 support there is at least a modicum of abstraction. -hpa
Michael Davies wrote:>Is there any information available on porting Syslinux to 64bit ARM? > >Specifically, I have a Cavium ThunderX board (Gigabyte R120-T30) which >boots using UEFI - b2b.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5864#ov > >I'd be very interested in getting this to work, as currently the only >option for booting on this platform is Grub 2 or EFI Stub. If anyone can >point me in the right direction it would be much appreciated. > >I'm keen to contribute to work on this port myself as well, but I want >to hear if any other work on Aarch64 / arm64 has been done.I'm very curious - what do you expect to gain from porting an x86-only bootloader to a new platform when there are already functional portable alternatives? -- Steve McIntyre, Cambridge, UK. steve at einval.com Armed with "Valor": "Centurion" represents quality of Discipline, Honor, Integrity and Loyalty. Now you don't have to be a Caesar to concord the digital world while feeling safe and proud.
Hi Steve, I don't know if syslinux is x86-only by design, or just by circumstance. Simply put, I like syslinux because it's simple and it works. I know that once I get it working, I can just edit a config file and put kernels/initrds in the right place. Grub2 is trash[1], and UEFI is awkward and uncomfortable to actually use - in that I have to currently have my kernel and initrd on the EFI ESP partition to boot. And then efibootmgr gives me such readable output like: Boot0002* Arch STUB HD(1,GPT,f364d451-fa80-44d5-93f2-299dcadf67a5,0x800,0x100000)/File(\VMLINUZ-LINUX)r.o.o.t.=./.d.e.v./.n.v.m.e.0.n.1.p.3. .r.w. .d.e.b.u.g. .n.o.s.p.l.a.s.h. .i.n.i.t.r.d.=./.i.n.i.t.r.a.m.f.s.-.l.i.n.u.x...i.m.g. [1] try editing grub.cfg vs a typical syslinux.cfg - yes I know it's not meant to be edited manually, no that doesn't help me when I don't yet have a bootable system to run grub-install from. Grub2 is needlessly over-complicated. I honestly cannot see why someone would *not* want syslinux to be portable? It's nice to have options. Regards, Michael On 10/08/2016 10:49 PM, Steve McIntyre wrote:> Michael Davies wrote: > >> Is there any information available on porting Syslinux to 64bit ARM? >> >> Specifically, I have a Cavium ThunderX board (Gigabyte R120-T30) which >> boots using UEFI - b2b.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5864#ov >> >> I'd be very interested in getting this to work, as currently the only >> option for booting on this platform is Grub 2 or EFI Stub. If anyone can >> point me in the right direction it would be much appreciated. >> >> I'm keen to contribute to work on this port myself as well, but I want >> to hear if any other work on Aarch64 / arm64 has been done. > I'm very curious - what do you expect to gain from porting an x86-only > bootloader to a new platform when there are already functional > portable alternatives? >