Re: How to Boot FreeBSD Using pftf/RPi4 UEFI

On Sep 20, 2023, at 22:45, ykla <yklaxds@gmail.com> wrote:

> HI,

Hello.

> How to Boot FreeBSD Using pftf/RPi4 UEFI?
> 
> I downloaded FreeBSD-14.0-BETA2-arm64-aarch64-disc1.iso and Raspberry Pi 4 UEFI Firmware v1.35 and wrote them to my device. However, when I enable ACPI, my Raspberry Pi 4 automatically restarts after loading. If I disable ACPI and use the device tree, the screen goes black after loading for a while, and nothing is displayed. In both of these cases, there is no output on the serial port. Does anyone know how to configure the serial port for UEFI Firmware? I've used the serial port before with the regular installation method and it worked for output, but with UEFI Firmware, there is no output on the serial port.

As I remember, pftf/RPi4 defaults to graphical, not serial.
There is a place in the EDK2 UI to switch it to graphical.
This status can be saved, which actually updates a data area
inside its RPI_EFI.fd file so that future boots automatically
are serial based for the adjusted RPI_EFI.fd .

I've not tried pftf/RPi4 in some time. It was v1.34
back then.

I've never tried running the installer ( *-disc1.iso ).
I've used older variants of what is now (MBR):

http://ftp3.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/snapshots/ISO-IMAGES/15.0/FreeBSD-15.0-CURRENT-arm64-aarch64-RPI-20230921-febba4622b60-265435.img.xz

or (GPT, again: older variant last I tried):

http://ftp3.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/snapshots/ISO-IMAGES/15.0/FreeBSD-15.0-CURRENT-arm64-aarch64-ROCK64-20230921-febba4622b60-265435.img.xz

and substituted or added the pftf/RPi4 materials inside the
msdosfs involved for the USB3 media that I used, leaving
the FreeBSD UEFI loader materials in place.

Use of the ROCK64 image means there is no RPi* firmware,
armstub8* , or boot.bin materials to replace: I just added
the pftf/RPi4 materials. (So: Simpler.)

May be I could experiment with more modern materials this
weekend.

===
Mark Millard
marklmi at yahoo.com