Can a PBP use GRUB?

ab1jx · (This post was last modified: 02-23-2020, 09:32 AM by ab1jx.)

Assuming there's a large drive, probably NVMe, with space enough to install multiple alternative operating systems. It would be nice to boot to a GRUB menu asking which to boot. It might also be able to offer eMMC vs SD options.

But I don't know if GRUB is at all compatible with ARM and u-boot. My guess is that if done right each GRUB choice could replace having u-boot for that choice. The GRUB installation might not know how to set that up, it might need doing manually.

**tophneal** · (This post was last modified: 02-24-2020, 08:35 AM by tophneal.)

Likely. There's a few boards out there that do use GRUB. It doesn't replace u-boot, but is rather used as a stage 2 in bootloading, after u-boot.

Here's a guide from the ODROID forums that might shed some light on getting it set up, though: https://forum.odroid.com/viewtopic.php?t=26894

ab1jx · (This post was last modified: 02-25-2020, 02:29 PM by ab1jx.)

Thanks, there's also (in Raspbian anyway)

grub-uboot/stable 2.02+dfsg1-10 armhf
GRand Unified Bootloader, version 2 (ARM U-Boot version)

grub-uboot-bin/stable 2.02+dfsg1-10 armhf
GRand Unified Bootloader, version 2 (ARM U-Boot modules)

grub-uboot-dbg/stable 2.02+dfsg1-10 armhf
GRand Unified Bootloader, version 2 (ARM U-Boot debug files)

I hadn't looked into it really. My NVMe adapter is still in China, haven't ordered an SSD. I remember Linux and OpenBSD can share a swap partition, I've done that. I thought I couldn't afford a SSD but I found an Intel 1 TB for $125 https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Nt...yes&sts=ma and it looks good in the PBP compatibility list.

1.6 million hours MBTF, hmm calc '1600000 / 24 / 365' = 182 years, I should buy more. Can I make a RAID of them? Probably.

amiraeva · 03-18-2020, 05:03 PM

So I finally got a 3V serial cable, and after playing around with uboot I managed to boot into grub as an efi executable, and then into Manjaro once I was dropped into the grub shell. The issue with my approach is that it was a manual process in the serial console. Does anyone know how I can go about automating this a little better? And more importantly, how to go about getting grub to initialize the LCD display and keyboard so this endeavor would be useful (i.e. allow one to choose between boot entries)?

In the meantime I can automate some of the tedium by using a uboot script. Not familiar enough with grub to have that part automated.

amiraeva · 03-18-2020, 06:53 PM

Figured out how to automate it in a janky manner - details below for posterity. Still interested in getting grub to output to the LCD with keyboard input. When only letting grub see "console=tty1" in the bootargs, it spits out "error: no suitable video mode found." on the serial console right before displaying the boot menu.

boot.txt

Code:
setenv bootargs initrd=/boot/initramfs-linux.img console=ttyS0 console=tty1 root=LABEL=ROOT_MNJRO rw rootwait video=eDP-1:1920x1080@60 video=HDMI-A-1:1920x1080@60 bootsplash.bootfile=bootsplash-themes/manjaro/bootsplash

load mmc 1:1 ${fdt_addr_r} dtbs/rockchip/rk3399-pinebook-pro.dtb

load mmc 1:1 ${kernel_addr_r} efi/EFI/BOOT/BOOTAA64.EFI

bootefi ${kernel_addr_r} ${fdt_addr_r}

You might need to change the "1:1" in the "load mmc" commands for your setup - for testing I was booting off an sdcard. Also note your paths to grubaa64.efi (BOOTAA64.EFI) and dtb file may be different.

grub.cfg

Code:
set timeout_style="menu"

set timeout=5

menuentry "Kernel" {

 linux (hd0,msdos1)/Image console=tty1 root=LABEL=ROOT_MNJRO rw rootwait video=eDP-1:1920x1080@60 video=HDMI-A-1:1920x1080@60 bootsplash.bootfile=bootsplash-themes/manjaro/bootsplash

 devicetree (hd0,msdos1)/dtbs/rockchip/rk3399-pinebook-pro.dtb

 initrd (hd0,msdos1)/initramfs-linux.img

}

As others online have noted, rebooting has issues but otherwise it seems to work great.

Here is my boot log too in case it might help someone:

Code:
U-Boot TPL 2020.01-6-g365495a329 (Mar 08 2020 - 16:47:50)                                                             

Channel 0: LPDDR4, 50MHz                                                                                              

BW=32 Col=10 Bk=8 CS0 Row=15 CS1 Row=15 CS=2 Die BW=16 Size=2048MB                                                    

Channel 1: LPDDR4, 50MHz                                                                                              

BW=32 Col=10 Bk=8 CS0 Row=15 CS1 Row=15 CS=2 Die BW=16 Size=2048MB                                                    

256B stride                                                                                                           

256B stride                                                                                                           

lpddr4_set_rate: change freq to 400000000 mhz 0, 1                                                                    

lpddr4_set_rate: change freq to 800000000 mhz 1, 0                                                                    

Trying to boot from BOOTROM                                                                                           

Returning to boot ROM...                                                                                              

U-Boot SPL 2020.01-6-g365495a329 (Mar 08 2020 - 16:47:50 +0000)                                                       

Trying to boot from MMC1                                                                                              

U-Boot 2020.01-6-g365495a329 (Mar 08 2020 - 16:47:50 +0000) Manjaro ARM

Model: Pine64 Pinebook Pro                                                                                             

DRAM:  3.9 GiB                                                                                                         

PMIC:  RK808                                                                                                           

MMC:   dwmmc@fe320000: 1, sdhci@fe330000: 0                                                                            

In:    serial@ff1a0000                                                                                                 

Out:   serial@ff1a0000                                                                                                 

Err:   serial@ff1a0000                                                                                                 

Model: Pine64 Pinebook Pro                                                                                             

## Error: Can't overwrite "serial#"                                                                                    

## Error inserting "serial#" variable, errno=1                                                                         

rockchip_dnl_key_pressed: adc_channel_single_shot fail!                                                                

Net:   No ethernet found.                                                                                              

Hit any key to stop autoboot:  0                                                                                       

switch to partitions #0, OK                                                                                            

mmc1 is current device                                                                                                 

Scanning mmc 1:1...                                                                                                    

Found U-Boot script /boot.scr                                                                                          

452 bytes read in 5 ms (87.9 KiB/s)                                                                                    

## Executing script at 00500000                                                                                        

80426 bytes read in 16 ms (4.8 MiB/s)                                                                                  

135168 bytes read in 24 ms (5.4 MiB/s)                                                                                 

Scanning disk dwmmc@fe320000.blk...                                                                                    

Card did not respond to voltage select!                                                                              

Scanning disk sdhci@fe330000.blk...                                                                                    

Disk sdhci@fe330000.blk not ready                                                                                      

Found 3 disks

Welcome to GRUB!                                                                                                        

                                               GNU GRUB  version 2.04                                       [28/1829] 

 ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐  

 │*Kernel                                                                                                           │  

 │                                                                                                                  │  

 │                                                                                                                  │  

 │                                                                                                                  │  

 │                                                                                                                  │  

 │                                                                                                                  │  

 │                                                                                                                  │  

 │                                                                                                                  │  

 │                                                                                                                  │  

 │                                                                                                                  │  

 │                                                                                                                  │  

 │                                                                                                                  │  

 │                                                                                                                  │  

 │                                                                                                                  │  

 │                                                                                                                  │  

 └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘  

      Use the ▲ and ▼ keys to select which entry is highlighted.                                                       

      Press enter to boot the selected OS, `e' to edit the commands before booting or `c' for a command-line.          

   The highlighted entry will be executed automatically in 0s.                                                         

  Booting `Kernel'

EFI stub: Booting Linux Kernel...                                                                                      

EFI stub: Using DTB from configuration table                                                                           

EFI stub: Exiting boot services and installing virtual address map...

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