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

"Thomas B. Rücker" thomas at ruecker.fi
Fri Sep 12 17:10:06 UTC 2014


On 09/12/2014 04:26 PM, Ferchu R wrote:
> Hi Darrent:
>
> Unfortunately my development work implies to work with a third party
> library that is only available (at least for now) in 32 bit. So there
> is not choice for me. By the way, I tried to boot the old Minnow's SD
> with the new MAX. It hangs when it asks for Angstrom login.

You can run either a multi-arch distro or a 32-bit userland with a 64bit
kernel.
Unless you need to somehow plug some binary only 32bit kernel module in,
there should be no reason for a 32bit kernel, from what I can tell.

Cheers

Thomas

> Thanks.
>
> 2014-09-12 10:26 GMT-05:00 Darren Hart <dvhart at linux.intel.com
> <mailto:dvhart at linux.intel.com>>:
>
>     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 HartOpen Source Technology Center
>     darren.hart at intel.com <mailto:darren.hart at intel.com>         
>       Intel Corporation
>
>     From: Ferchu R <chamac2 at gmail.com <mailto:chamac2 at gmail.com>>
>     Reply-To: MinnowBoard Development and Community Discussion
>     <elinux-minnowboard at lists.elinux.org
>     <mailto: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
>     <mailto: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
>         <mailto:john.hawley at intel.com>>:
>
>             I agree, I've 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 can't call the shutdown
>             cleanly then both D1 and D1 end up staying on
>
>              
>
>             When I'm back in the office on Monday (I'm heading to the
>             Albuquerque Maker Faire right now to show off a bunch of
>             MinnowBoard MAX stuff), I'll try the conversion and see
>             what happens.  If I can replicate the issue I'll 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 it's 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 people's fears of
>             playing with the firmware!
>
>              
>
>             - 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 6:45 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 <mailto:john.hawley at intel.com>>:
>
>                 Well getting into firmware menu is a good sign J
>
>                  
>
>                 http://elinux.org/Minnowboard:MaxBios#Change_Boot_Order
>
>                  
>
>                  
>
>                 You should be able to see "Boot Maintenance Manager",
>                 with the 4^th option being "Change Boot Order", you
>                 should be able to "<EFI Internal Shell>" (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 doesn't work, let me know here and we'll 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 <mailto: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
>                     <mailto:dvhart at linux.intel.com>> wrote:
>                     > > On 9/10/14, 8:22, "Adam Goode"
>                     <adam at spicenitz.org <mailto: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
>                     <mailto:dvhart at linux.intel.com>>
>                     > >>wrote:
>                     > >>> On 9/10/14, 1:35, "Roel Jordans"
>                     <r.jordans at tue.nl <mailto: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
>                     <mailto:darren.hart at intel.com>                   
>                                        Intel
>                     > >>>Corporation
>                     > >>>
>                     > >>>
>                     > >>>
>                     > >>> _______________________________________________
>                     > >>> elinux-MinnowBoard mailing list
>                     > >>> elinux-MinnowBoard at lists.elinux.org
>                     <mailto:elinux-MinnowBoard at lists.elinux.org>
>                     > >>>
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>                     >
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>                     > >>
>                     > >
>                     > >
>                     > > --
>                     > > Darren Hart                                   
>                      Open Source Technology Center
>                     > > darren.hart at intel.com
>                     <mailto:darren.hart at intel.com>                   
>                                        Intel Corporation
>                     > >
>                     > >
>                     > >
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