[MinnowBoard] BIOS/UEFI/Firmware settings hotkey?

Thu Apr 24 19:25:23 UTC 2014

Jack,

On 04/24/2014 01:58 PM, Jack Black wrote:
> Thanks Neill.
>
> And Dave you're extra incorrect (I don't know why someone from the
> company that's making minnows would argue that any UI is evidence of
> legacy BIOS :/). After I updated the minnow to firmware 1.0 and
> unplugged my HD (or if I do some sort of weird combo of typing exit
> then hitting esc then typing exit from the shell) I now have a boot
> menu option which lists "shell", or "UiApp" which takes me into the
> expected settings UI (and it even has options for enrolling keys for
> secureboot and such!), or my bootable HD, bootable USB, or boot from
> network (IPv4 and IPv6).

first, i clearly misunderstood what you were asking about. we get a ton 
of emails regarding the legacy bios and based on your information i 
assumed that was what you were asking about.

second, the UEFI shipped with the Minnow is a reference implementation 
that was provided by Intel. all of the direct customers of minnow using 
it in products and our own in house development is all done with 
Coreboot, which leaves our experience with UEFI somewhat limited.

third, Circuitco in the past has primarily specialized in ARM, PowerPC 
and MIPS based designs. Minnow is the first x86 based design we have 
produced and with that fact in mind we are not as experience in the 
"typical" support questions revolving around x86.

> So my question kind of still remains: is there anything I can mash to
> guarantee I get directly to that menu without having to go through the
> shell exit/esc rigamarole?

michael - are you able to answer this?

Dave

>
> Much appreciated,
> JB
>
> On Wed, Apr 23, 2014 at 7:59 PM, Neill Kapron <nkapron at gmail.com> wrote:
>> So after some examination, Intel has included the simple BDS in
>> MinnowBoardPkg/Bds/ instead of the full BDS in
>> IntelFrameworkModulePkg/Universal/BdsDxe/
>>
>> It would appear that the keys that are enabled are '+', '-', 'Esc' and 'e'.
>>
>> I would assume + or - draws a short boot device selection menu.
>>
>> '+'  Selects the boot device earlier in the list,
>> '-' Selects the boot device later in the list,
>> 'Esc' and 'e' leave the list and clear the display, booting from the
>> currently selected boot device.
>>
>> I think it would be possible to build a firmware image that enables the more
>> useful setup menu, but I do not have a minnowboard yet to test on.
>>
>> Hopefully this helps,
>> Neill
>>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Apr 23, 2014 at 3:40 PM, Neill Kapron <nkapron at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Dave,
>>>
>>> You are incorrect. There is still support for graphical setup browsers in
>>> UEFI. Any modern UEFI-based PC motherboard is a great example of this. In
>>> fact, most native UEFI browsers are much nicer than legacy bios
>>> implementations.  (Decent graphics and mouse support.)
>>>
>>> I'm looking through the source tree now, and have identified that Intel
>>> has left code for boot device management and configuration in the tree- see
>>> the comment below from /IntelFrameworkModulePkg/Universal/BdsDxe/FrontPage.c
>>>
>>>
>>>      //
>>>      // If gCallbackKey is greater than 1 and less or equal to 5,
>>>      // it will launch configuration utilities.
>>>      // 2 = set language
>>>      // 3 = boot manager
>>>      // 4 = device manager
>>>      // 5 = boot maintenance manager
>>>      //
>>>
>>> I do not have a minnowboard to test on, and they may have neutered it
>>> somewhere, but am looking for the hotkeys currently.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Neill
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Wed, Apr 23, 2014 at 3:18 PM, David Anders <danders at circuitco.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>> Jack,
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 04/23/2014 03:59 PM, Jack Black wrote:
>>>>> Other Intel developer boards I've used had both the UEFI shell and a
>>>>> settings page, where when you would type "exit" from the shell, it
>>>>> would drop you to the setting UI where you could do things like change
>>>>> UEFI secure boot keys, change boot order, etc. I take it then that the
>>>>> minnow firmware lacks this? (I know it lacks secure boot, but I'm
>>>>> wondering if it completely lacks a firmware setup options screen...)
>>>>
>>>> what you are referring to is called "Legacy BIOS". Legcy BIOS options can
>>>> be included as part of the UEFI build however based on the minnowboard being
>>>> targeted more at embedded application space, the decision was made not to
>>>> include Legacy BIOS functionality.
>>>>
>>>> most "PCs" current do include the Legacy BIOS functionality, but going
>>>> forward most new x86 based designs will only include the core UEFI support
>>>> without Legacy BIOS...
>>>>
>>>> Dave
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> JB
>>>>>
>>>>> On Wed, Apr 23, 2014 at 4:22 PM, David Anders <danders at circuitco.com>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>> JB,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> UEFI works very differently that what traditional BIOS features most
>>>>>> people
>>>>>> are familiar with.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> as you boot, you can stop the boot process and drop into a UEFI shell.
>>>>>> this
>>>>>> shell is very similar to a minimal DOS implementation
>>>>>>
>>>>>> https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/efi-shells-and-scripting
>>>>>>
>>>>>> you can view/edit settings from there...
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Dave
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On 04/23/2014 03:19 PM, Jack Black wrote:
>>>>>>> (just called it BIOS to help future googlers ;))
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Is there a way to get into the UEFI settings on a stock minnowboard? I
>>>>>>> mashed esc and F9-F12 to no avail. I would like to see what options
>>>>>>> are exposed, and also boot from a USB CD for installation to a HD.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Much appreciated,
>>>>>>> JB
>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>> 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
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> 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
>>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> 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