[MinnowBoard] 64-bit vs 32-bit UEFI - What you need to know!

Darren Hart dvhart at linux.intel.com
Fri Sep 12 15:26:20 UTC 2014


This was one of the more difficult issues with MinnowBoard 1. It was 32b
EFI, and there were no common distros that supported it out of the box. Is
there a reason you want to use 32b? I confess I can't think of reason to
sacrifice the extra registers and instructions when the system has more than
1GB of memory and gobs of permanent storage.

-- 
Darren Hart Open Source Technology Center
darren.hart at intel.com             Intel Corporation

From:  Ferchu R <chamac2 at gmail.com>
Reply-To:  MinnowBoard Development and Community Discussion
<elinux-minnowboard at lists.elinux.org>
Date:  Friday, September 12, 2014 at 8:16
To:  MinnowBoard Development and Community Discussion
<elinux-minnowboard at lists.elinux.org>
Subject:  Re: [MinnowBoard] 64-bit vs 32-bit UEFI - What you need to know!

> I was wondering if somebody knows what distro has a 32 bit EFI compatible
> image.
> 
> 2014-09-11 20:54 GMT-05:00 Hawley, John <john.hawley at intel.com>:
>> I agree, I¹ve seen it a couple of times.  What happens is:
>>  
>> 1)     Flash happens
>> 
>> 2)     Flash program goes to reboot the board (gives a couple second timeout,
>> then screen goes blank)
>> 
>> 3)     Sometimes it looks like it can¹t call the shutdown cleanly then both
>> D1 and D1 end up staying on
>> 
>>  
>> When I¹m back in the office on Monday (I¹m heading to the Albuquerque Maker
>> Faire right now to show off a bunch of MinnowBoard MAX stuff), I¹ll try the
>> conversion and see what happens.  If I can replicate the issue I¹ll bug the
>> firmware team about it and see if they can root cause, and fix that.
>>  
>> Glad you are back up and running though, I know exactly how iffy upgrading
>> firmware can be, and it¹s always frustrating when you have to reach for the
>> external firmware flasher.  I know CircuitCo has a small board to help deal
>> with external flashing in development, hopefully that will be out soon to
>> help alleviate people¹s fears of playing with the firmware!
>>  
>> - John
>>  
>> 
>> From: elinux-minnowboard-bounces at lists.elinux.org
>> [mailto:elinux-minnowboard-bounces at lists.elinux.org] On Behalf Of Ferchu R
>> Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2014 6:45 PM
>> 
>> 
>> To: MinnowBoard Development and Community Discussion
>> Subject: Re: [MinnowBoard] 64-bit vs 32-bit UEFI - What you need to know!
>>  
>> 
>> Hi John
>> 
>> 
>> Thanks, It worked. I think the firware update should end gracefully. A black
>> screen when flashing firmware makes anyone nervous.
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> 2014-09-11 20:33 GMT-05:00 Hawley, John <john.hawley at intel.com>:
>>> 
>>> Well getting into firmware menu is a good sign J
>>>  
>>> http://elinux.org/Minnowboard:MaxBios#Change_Boot_Order
>>> <http://elinux.org/Minnowboard:MaxBios#Change_Boot_Order>
>>>  
>>>  
>>> You should be able to see ³Boot Maintenance Manager², with the 4th option
>>> being ³Change Boot Order², you should be able to ³<EFI Internal Shell>² (hit
>>> enter, + it to the top, hit enter) and commit the changes back to get back
>>> to the shell, and get your install going.
>>>  
>>> If that doesn¹t work, let me know here and we¹ll see what is going on.
>>>  
>>> - John
>>>  
>>> 
>>> From:elinux-minnowboard-bounces at lists.elinux.org
>>> <mailto:elinux-minnowboard-bounces at lists.elinux.org>
>>> [mailto:elinux-minnowboard-bounces at lists.elinux.org
>>> <mailto:elinux-minnowboard-bounces at lists.elinux.org> ] On Behalf Of Ferchu R
>>> Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2014 6:26 PM
>>> To: MinnowBoard Development and Community Discussion
>>> Subject: Re: [MinnowBoard] 64-bit vs 32-bit UEFI - What you need to know!
>>> 
>>>  
>>> 
>>> So I FOLLOWED the procedure to pass from 64 to 32. I think the system filled
>>> 2 lines of dots, when the screen goes black. I waited about a half hour but
>>> there was no sign of new action, so I tried to reboot. Now the board has not
>>> EUFI Shell. But it does have setup, where the third line says it is
>>> MNW2CRB1.86C.0071.R30.1408131324. I was wondering what coused this, and how
>>> I get the board on work again?.
>>> 
>>> Thanks
>>>  
>>> 
>>> 2014-09-10 13:04 GMT-05:00 Hawley, John <john.hawley at intel.com>:
>>>> I think there's some value in being explicit or otherwise we'll actually
>>>> cause confusion.  I.E. when you download the firmware and people see
>>>> 32-bit vs. 64-bit firmware in the same place will they always flash the
>>>> right one?  Part of the problem is there is no UI to these firmware
>>>> flashers, they are command line utilities.
>>>> 
>>>> - John
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> On Wed, 2014-09-10 at 13:18 -0400, Adam Goode wrote:
>>>>> > I see the zip files already contain both EFI binaries. Assuming the
>>>>> > firmware updaters present some firmware selection UI, the
>>>>> > simplification I can see here is consolidating by putting both
>>>>> > firmware files into the same zip file. You could go further and
>>>>> > combine the release and debug versions as well, but that might be
>>>>> > unnecessary.
>>>>> >
>>>>> >
>>>>> > Thanks,
>>>>> >
>>>>> > Adam
>>>>> >
>>>>> >
>>>>> > On Wed, Sep 10, 2014 at 11:45 AM, Darren Hart <dvhart at linux.intel.com>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>> > > On 9/10/14, 8:22, "Adam Goode" <adam at spicenitz.org> wrote:
>>>>>> > >
>>>>>>> > >>Does this mean that both files can just be put into place? If so,
>>>>>>> > >>could you update the distribution to include both and not worry
>>>>>>> about
>>>>>>> > >>what the current firmware is? It would simplify the process and
>>>>>>> > >>documentation.
>>>>>> > >
>>>>>> > > That strikes me as a pretty good suggestion.
>>>>>> > >
>>>>>> > > --
>>>>>> > > Darren
>>>>>> > >
>>>>>>> > >>
>>>>>>> > >>
>>>>>>> > >>Adam
>>>>>>> > >>
>>>>>>> > >>
>>>>>>> > >>On Wed, Sep 10, 2014 at 11:08 AM, Darren Hart
>>>>>>> <dvhart at linux.intel.com>
>>>>>>> > >>wrote:
>>>>>>>> > >>> On 9/10/14, 1:35, "Roel Jordans" <r.jordans at tue.nl> wrote:
>>>>>>>> > >>>
>>>>>>>>> > >>>>
>>>>>>>>>> > >>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> > 
>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>http://www.elinux.org/Minnowboard:MaxBios#Switching_from_64-bit_>>>>>>>>>>
to_32-b
>>>>>>>>>> > >>>>>it
>>>>>>>>>> > >>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> > >>>>> Basically you have to re-flash the firmware with a 32-bit
>>>>>>>>>> firmware.
>>>>>>>>>> > >>>>> There's a line in the instructions that may confuse some
folks,
>>>>>>>>>> > >>>>> specifically using a FirmwareUpdateX64.efi to flash a 32-bit
>>>>>>>>>> firmware.
>>>>>>>>>> > >>>>> This is because when you go to change the firmware you are
>>>>>>>>>> running a
>>>>>>>>>> > >>>>> 64-bit firmware, and therefore need a 64-bit EFI program to
>>>>>>>>>> actually
>>>>>>>>>> > >>>>>do
>>>>>>>>>> > >>>>> the flashing.
>>>>>>>>>> > >>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> > >>>>> If you want to switch back, you'll do the opposite, use
>>>>>>>>>> > >>>>> FirmwareUpdateIA32.efi to flash a 64-bit firmware.
>>>>>>>>>> > >>>>>
>>>>>>>>> > >>>>
>>>>>>>>> > >>>>Maybe it's possible to rename those updates (or add some renamed
>>>>>>>>> > >>>>updates) to something like FirmwareUpdateIA32to64 or something?
That
>>>>>>>>> > >>>>would probably remove most of the cause for confusion here.
>>>>>>>> > >>>
>>>>>>>> > >>> That isn't accurate unfortunately. The update tool doesn't care
which
>>>>>>>> > >>>bit
>>>>>>>> > >>> length you are flashing to, you use the same tool to flash to 32b
or to
>>>>>>>> > >>> 64b, what matters is what firmware you are currently running, and
that
>>>>>>>> > >>>is
>>>>>>>> > >>> what the tool name reflects.
>>>>>>>> > >>>
>>>>>>>> > >>> --
>>>>>>>> > >>> Darren Hart                                     Open Source
>>>>>>>> Technology
>>>>>>>> > >>>Center
>>>>>>>> > >>> darren.hart at intel.com                                       Intel
>>>>>>>> > >>>Corporation
>>>>>>>> > >>>
>>>>>>>> > >>>
>>>>>>>> > >>>
>>>>>>>> > >>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>>> > >>> elinux-MinnowBoard mailing list
>>>>>>>> > >>> elinux-MinnowBoard at lists.elinux.org
>>>>>>>> > >>> http://lists.elinux.org/mailman/listinfo/elinux-minnowboard
>>>>>>> > >>_______________________________________________
>>>>>>> > >>elinux-MinnowBoard mailing list
>>>>>>> > >>elinux-MinnowBoard at lists.elinux.org
>>>>>>> > >>http://lists.elinux.org/mailman/listinfo/elinux-minnowboard
>>>>>>> > >>
>>>>>> > >
>>>>>> > >
>>>>>> > > --
>>>>>> > > Darren Hart                                     Open Source
>>>>>> Technology Center
>>>>>> > > darren.hart at intel.com                                       Intel
>>>>>> Corporation
>>>>>> > >
>>>>>> > >
>>>>>> > >
>>>>>> > > _______________________________________________
>>>>>> > > elinux-MinnowBoard mailing list
>>>>>> > > elinux-MinnowBoard at lists.elinux.org
>>>>>> > > http://lists.elinux.org/mailman/listinfo/elinux-minnowboard
>>>>> > _______________________________________________
>>>>> > elinux-MinnowBoard mailing list
>>>>> > elinux-MinnowBoard at lists.elinux.org
>>>>> > http://lists.elinux.org/mailman/listinfo/elinux-minnowboard
>>>> 
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>>> 
>>>  
>>> 
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>>  
>> 
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> 
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