Using Coreboot/UBoot with Intel Xeon D

[RYeun]

We've a board that uses Intel Xeon D. Currently, we're getting a BIOS for this CPU board from a third party vendor. Is it possible/easy to replace the BIOS with Coreboot then go to UBOOT? Is such a thing already done, and we just need to download? Or are we talking about some rather serious development effort?

The reason for this question is that with BIOS (or UEFI), we end up having to set up PXE boot, that deals with multiple stages booting, as well as some server (DHCP, Proxy DHCP, TFCP) setup, as well as configuration files + PXELINUX. With UBOOT, I'm already quite familiar with, and tfts is supported to download bootable image.

[JWhee]

There is a coreboot build for Camelback Mountain CRB, which uses Broadwell DE (aka Xeon D). It uses the Intel FSP for Broadwell DE package.

At least one version of the FSP binary plus wrapper files is available from an Intel GitHub area.

You can clone coreboot from the coreboot.org repo, build it, and try it, if you want.

As you are no doubt aware, if you already have UEFI working on your board with a commercial BIOS, you might want to ensure you understand any potential tradeoffs or pitfalls before committing to some other solution.

[CarlosAM_INTEL]

Hello, rksyeung:

Thank you for contacting Intel Embedded Community.

In order to give you the information that may help you, could you please give us the part number and all the information of the third-party device related to this thread?

Waiting for your reply.

Best regards,

Carlos_A.

[RYeun]

Sure, Calos. From my Linux /proc/cpuinfo dump, I get 1 copy of the following -

processor: 0vendor_id: GenuineIntelcpu family: 6model: 86model name: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU D-1527 @ 2.20GHzstepping: 3microcode: 0x700000dcpu MHz: 800.421cache size: 6144 KBphysical id: 0siblings: 8core id: 0cpu cores: 4apicid: 0initial apicid: 0fpu: yesfpu_exception: yescpuid level: 20wp: yesflags: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc aperfmperf eagerfpu pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 ssse3 sdbg fma cx16 xtpr pdcm pcid dca sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand lahf_lm abm 3dnowprefetch ida arat epb pln pts dtherm intel_pt tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid fsgsbase tsc_adjust bmi1 hle avx2 smep bmi2 erms invpcid rtm cqm rdseed adx smap xsaveopt cqm_llc cqm_occup_llc

[CarlosAM_INTEL]

Hello, rksyeung:

Thanks for your reply.

We need more details of the third-party board (manufacturer, model, part number, etc ) because it is unmentioned in the provided information.

Waiting for your update.

Best regards,

Carlos_A.

[RYeun]

Oh, man, I didn't realize my last post has all the formats messed up completely. I thought I just did a simple text copy and paste.

Anyway, the board comes from Congatec B7XD. Website:

https://www.congatec.com/products/com-express-type-7/conga-b7xd.html https://www.congatec.com/products/com-express-type-7/conga-b7xd.html

We're using Camelback Mountain BSP from Intel (Yocto Project reference). Please let me know what else you may need to know.

Raymond

[CarlosAM_INTEL]

Hello, rksyeung :

We apologize for the delay to give you an update.

Based on your previous communication, we would like to give you the proper information but you should contact the manufacturer of the affected board.

Due to this fact, we suggest you address this consultation as a reference to the form and the channels listed at the following website:

https://www.congatec.com/en/contact.html https://www.congatec.com/en/contact.html

We hope that this information may help you.

Best regards,

Carlos_A.