Panda UEFI is not ready for real deployment

[John Rigby]

From PandaBoardPkg/readme.txt of uefi-next
http://git.linaro.org/gitweb?p=arm/uefi/uefi-next.git;a=blob;f=PandaBoardPkg/readme.txt;h=eaec60b5a2534a446a1dabdfb7825bc19e94f33c;hb=3f25fcbf577721b44b96865e942b3fddb45c6a9e
....

2. In edk2/PandaBoardPkg.dsc, update the boot device path with the one matching your SD card:
        gArmPlatformTokenSpaceGuid.PcdDefaultBootDevicePath|L"VenHw(100C2CFA-B586-4198-9B4C-1683D195B1DA)/HD(1,MBR,0x00000000,0x3F,0x2348A)/zImage"

Note: this device path changes any time your swap/change SD card. If ever you need to boot up same build or another SD card, you need to re-build with updated device path.

If I understand this correctly then the current state of uefi for panda is more a technology demo than a usable boot methond.

[Ryan Harkin (ryanharkin)]

Panda building is currently broken with the latest (2013.06) UEFI tree.

Before that, Panda's UEFI port needed some in-tree patches applying before it would successfully boot a linux kernel.

uefi-next.git/PandaBoardPkg/patches:
    0001-Add-call-to-early-prepi-init-in-ModuleEntryPoint.patch
    0001-fixes-sd-card-identification-on-panda.patch
    0001-remove-ASSERT-because-serial-not-yet-initialized.patch

These patches will not longer work either.

The first patch has now been fixed "properly" due to the addition of a Pre-PEI init function in the latest code:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
commit b5a572238d3c45ec8d3d0ec2c6ee3e6930458b96
Author: oliviermartin <oliviermartin@6f19259b-4bc3-4df7-8a09-765794883524>
Date: Fri May 10 12:49:10 2013 +0000

    ArmPlatform/ArmPlatformLib: Introduced ArmPlatformPeiBootAction()

    This function allows platform to do any specific actions prior to
    the start the PEI phase.
    For instance, this function could be used by some platforms to initialize clocks that
    are required at the early stage of the PEI phase.

    Contributed-under: TianoCore Contribution Agreement 1.0
    Signed-off-by: Olivier Martin <email address hidden>
    Acked-by: Ryan Harkin <email address hidden>
    Reviewed-by: Leif Lindholm <email address hidden>

    git-svn-id: https://edk2.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/edk2/trunk/edk2@14347 6f19259b-4bc3-4df7-8a09-765794883524
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The second patch is already applied.

The last patch may not be needed, or a different patch may be required due to another commit:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
commit fb47559347a32fc84213f1f172cf34ac8ff33dff
Author: oliviermartin <oliviermartin@6f19259b-4bc3-4df7-8a09-765794883524>
Date: Fri Sep 28 09:54:13 2012 +0000

    ArmPlatformPkg/PrePi: Moved Exception Vector Table to ArmPkg/DebugAgentBaseLib

    In case a DebugAgent library is supported for a specific debugger, we would
    expect the exception be caught by DebugAgentLib.
    The DebugAgentBaseLib exposes the cause of the exception to the user in the
    Serial Terminal.

    Signed-off-by: Olivier Martin <email address hidden>

    git-svn-id: https://edk2.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/edk2/trunk/edk2@13766 6f19259b-4bc3-4df7-8a09-765794883524
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

However, all of these changes mean that Panda will require, at the very least, a lot of minor tweaks before it can be resurrected.

[Leif Lindholm (leif-lindholm)]

The Pandaboard port is not actively maintained, so this will not be addressed.