Re: Raspbery Pi support (release notes/wiki page) update?

From: Mark Millard <marklmi_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 09 Jan 2025 16:21:43 UTC
Hello Ronald,

I'm away from all FreeBSD system access for a couple of weeks,
doing things that need to take priority on my time.

I do know that https://github.com/worproject/rpi5-uefi is not
being actively updated by anyone, including its original author.
It (in ACPI mode) is the only way I know how to FreeBSD-boot the
only RPi5 that I (usually) have access to. Relative to the
author's notes about the status, see:

https://github.com/worproject/rpi5-uefi/issues/18#issuecomment-2080098959

It says, in part: "I'm not actively working on it, but this
doesn't mean it's dead - contributions are welcome." No
contributions have been made. The last commit was on 2024-Mar-15.

It also reports, relative to the (failed/incomplete) upstreaming:

QUOTE (2024-Apr-26 material):
• The TF-A port is upstreamed, minus one PCI patch that's waiting
on review.
• I've also submitted the patches in my EDK2 base fork back in
January, but I haven't heard anything since. The EDK2 review
process is slow in general, at times non-existent (understandably,
not many maintainers), so I just gave up on that idea.
END QUOTE

I also know that https://github.com/worproject/rpi5-uefi will
not recognize the 16 GiByte of memory: The board revision code
was used to assign the memory size. There is no use of anything
that would track total_mem from config.txt . (That, in turn,
controls what the live-dtb indicates for memory size and layout
issues as I understand.) See:
https://github.com/worproject/rpi5-uefi/issues/12 .

Sorry for the news,
Mark


On Jan 9, 2025, at 02:42, Ronald Klop <ronald-lists@klop.ws> wrote:

Hi Mark,

I just noticed an RPI5 with 16GB RAM became available [1]. Which triggers my interest in an upgrade of my current RPI4/8GB used to build aarch64 ports.

I see that you have quite some experience in setting up the RPI5 with knowledge expressed in several emails.
Would you mind to setup a https://wiki.freebsd.org/arm/RPI5 page and collect your knowledge/experience there?

When RPI5 works well in the future we can then merge the information into https://wiki.freebsd.org/arm/Raspberry%20Pi.

Regards,
Ronald.

[1] https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/16gb-raspberry-pi-5-on-sale-now-at-120/
Van: Mark Millard <marklmi@yahoo.com>
Datum: maandag, 2 december 2024 22:43
Aan: "Bjoern A. Zeeb" <bzeeb-lists@lists.zabbadoz.net>
CC: freebsd-arm@freebsd.org
Onderwerp: Re: Raspbery Pi support (release notes/wiki page) update?
On Dec 2, 2024, at 12:43, Bjoern A. Zeeb <bzeeb-lists@lists.zabbadoz.net> wrote:

> On Wed, 27 Nov 2024, Mark Millard wrote:
>
> I assume that all also means there's no way on FreeBSD to update the
> eeprom contents on the RPi4/5[1] (contents replaced the bootcode.bin on
> older PIs.)

I update the EEPROM's via booting a standard RaspiOS64 (my abbreviation).
That includes updating some defaults/definitions that can be stored in
the EEPROM. (For example, I enable more debug output than is the
default. That includes enabling BOOT_UART .)

There are commands like: sudo -E rpi-eeprom-config --edit

I'm  not aware of FreeBSD having any such software, even via the ports
tree.

However, the description of the command is:

QUOTE
Editing the current bootloader configuration
The following command loads the current bootloader configuration into a text editor. When the editor is closed, rpi-eeprom-configapplies the updated configuration to latest available bootloader release and uses rpi-eeprom-update to schedule an update when the system is rebooted:
END QUOTE

In essence doing a (after the edit): sudo rpi-eeprom-update -a

I do not have the references handy, but as I remember, this puts a
file in the msdosfs that, if found at (re)boot, is automatically
used to do the EEPROM update, well before U-boot is involved.

So: putting a correctly formed file in the right place with the
right name for a reboot to pick up is basic to the EEPROM update
operation.

The EEPROM contains the bootloader. The RPi5B has less that goes
in the msdosfs (on the microsd card I use to boot the RPi5 via
a separate USB3 drive):

# find /RPi5-edk2/ -print
/RPi5-edk2/
/RPi5-edk2/RPI_EFI.fd
/RPi5-edk2/config.txt
/RPi5-edk2/bcm2712-rpi-5-b.dtb

Nothing analogous to start4*.elf or fixup4*.dat is involved.

# more /RPi5-edk2/config.txt
armstub=RPI_EFI.fd
device_tree_address=0x1f0000
device_tree_end=0x210000

# Force 32 bpp framebuffer allocation.
framebuffer_depth=32

# Disable compensation for displays with overscan.
disable_overscan=1

# Force maximum USB power regardless of the power supply.
usb_max_current_enable=1

# Force maximum CPU speed.
force_turbo=1

#
# Local additions:
enable_uart=1
uart_2ndstage=1
dtdebug=1
disable_commandline_tags=1
#
[pi5]
over_voltage_delta=100000
arm_freq=2600
[all]

> /bz
>
>
> [1] https://github.com/raspberrypi/rpi-eeprom/tree/master/

Releases: https://github.com/raspberrypi/rpi-eeprom/releases

Tagged: https://github.com/raspberrypi/rpi-eeprom/tags

(More is tagged than is eventually declared to also be a
release.)

===
Mark Millard
marklmi at yahoo.com

  
 
===
Mark Millard
marklmi at yahoo.com