Re: [Wg-test-framework] ThunderX machines (for the Xen Project OSSTEST Test Lab)

[Ian Jackson <ian.jackson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Steve Wilson writes ("RE: ThunderX machines (for the Xen Project OSSTEST Test 
Lab)"):
> Frank Motta, copied, is our software engineer.  His response: 
>       - I cannot be certain what "all firmware functions" means... but, I 
> almost never use anything but the serial interface for most of my effort 
> except upgrading firmware

Great, I think that answers that question.

>       - I am unaware of what 'chainloading' is... but, the Ubuntu netinstall 
> does boot a minimal Linux and then install Linux.  If this is not 
> chainloading,  then we need to learn what is desired.

Sorry about the opaque terminology.

What I mean is that (with appropriate configuration) exiting from a
UEFI bootloader (acquired via tftp according to a dhcp next-server
field) causes the firmware to try the next boot option (which in our
case will be to boot from the hard disk).

This allows us to control whether the machine boots the OS on the hard
disk by adjusting the configuration files for the network bootloader
(grub), without having to execute code on the host.  (This is
necessary because a previous test might have loaded code onto the host
hard disk which prevents a hard disk boot.)

We have seen one hardware/firmware combination where exiting the UEFI
grub bootloader causes the host to crash.  Would be regarded by you as
a firmware bug ?

>       - The netinstall pulls directly from Ubuntu/canonical sites - so, it is 
> as stable as what is the current repository

We use our own network installer setup, so that wouldn't be a
problem.  But obviously if you are doing that then it must work, so
jolly good.

As I say, we need support in Debian stable, possibly via Debian
"stable-backports".  Perhaps you haven't tested this.  My worry would
be if there are kernel patches or some such required, which couldn't
be sensibly upstreamed.

Do you know that these machines work with some upstream Linux and if
so which upstream Linux version ?

Thanks,
Ian.

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