[edk2-devel] How to select boot device for current boot in response to IPMI System Boot Options commands?

[Sean]

Jeshua,

I did ask my team how we have incorporated IPMI boot features into BDS.  
There are two main points.

1.  The BDS you see in edk2 is very rarely used as is for commercial 
products.  In fact, most PC class systems and servers have a lot of 
customization in the BDS.

2. The BDS you see in edk2 has no concept of "generic boot options".  
IPMI basically says I want to boot some "generic" thing like HDD.  Some 
platform code has to convert HDD into something real that the BDS/UEFI 
system can actually boot.   For example in Project Mu we have a BDS with 
a concept of generic platform boot options.  These boot options actually 
just boot a platform defined firmware application which then can 
interpret the "generic" request and runs a platform defined algorithm 
for finding something bootable.   Using the HDD example, it would 
connect the storage drivers  (say NVME Dxe driver) and then enumerate 
each of storage device found in a defined order and look for a 
efi/boot{arch} file.  This would then allow the IPMI defined generic 
options to actually convert into a boot path that BDS could use.


Regarding the handling of BootNext specifically this is modified as part 
of the larger overhaul to the BDS and its relevant libraries/APIs.

My expectation is this doesn't really help you with your current problem 
but might give some context as to why this functionality isn't 
integrated in the edk2 BDS and you haven't got a lot of feedback from 
the mailing list.  If interested I can provide more info on our BDS in 
Project Mu and reference platform bds implementation used here 
microsoft/mu_tiano_platforms: Project Mu Virtual Platform Firmware 
(github.com) <https://github.com/microsoft/mu_tiano_platforms>

Thanks

Sean




On 1/10/2023 7:53 AM, Jeshua Smith via groups.io wrote:
>
> Any input on this?
>
> It seems that the current behavior isn’t ideal:
>
>   * If BootNext is already set when PlatformBootManagerLib APIs are
>     called, a new BootNext value from the PlatformBootManagerLib code
>     will be *ignored* (because the original value is cached before the
>     APIs have a chance to set it) and then deleted (when the cached
>     value is consumed after the APIs have been called)
>   * If BootNext is not already set, then the current boot will not be
>     affected by the BootNext value that PlatformBootManagerLib API
>     code sets (because there was no value when the value was cached),
>     but the *subsequent* boot will boot with the BootNext value set by
>     the APIs during the current boot (because not having a cached
>     value skips the deletion of BootNext).
>
> To me this seems inconsistent and confusing.
>
> *From:* devel at edk2.groups.io <devel at edk2.groups.io> *On Behalf Of 
> *Jeshua Smith via groups.io
> *Sent:* Tuesday, January 3, 2023 11:32 AM
> *To:* devel at edk2.groups.io
> *Cc:* Zhichao Gao <zhichao.gao at intel.com>; Ray Ni <ray.ni at intel.com>
> *Subject:* [edk2-devel] How to select boot device for current boot in 
> response to IPMI System Boot Options commands?
>
> *External email: Use caution opening links or attachments*
>
> Happy New Year!
>
> I’m trying to figure out the proper place to add code to allow the EFI 
> boot code to respond to the IPMI System Boot Options request to boot a 
> device on the current boot. My initial thought was to change BootNext 
> in the PlatformBootManagerLib APIs, but based on the comment 
> https://www.mail-archive.com/edk2-devel@lists.01.org/msg30378.html it 
> looks like that is **intentionally** unsupported. Does anyone know why 
> we want to avoid PlatformBootManagerLib hooks from being able to set 
> BootNext to control what gets booted on the current boot? Is there an 
> intended alternative way to support the IPMI System Boot Options 
> Command request to use a boot device for the current boot?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jeshua Smith
>
> 


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