Netboot option

[peltho]

I flashed EDK2 on my Radxa Rock 5C lite SPI flash module successfully but now I'm wondering how I can achieve netboot from a TFTP server for instance.

There's no boot option in stock EDK2 and Shell does not provide TFTP command.
Is it somehow possible to compile it to embed network boot options?

BR

[peltho]

I suppose this is achievable with --edk2-flags param but it doesn't seem to work

[mariobalanica]

Netboot is only supported on platforms with Realtek PCIe NICs.

I would also advise against using images meant for other boards on unsupported platforms, even more so RK3582 which isn't supposed to have all the hardware blocks of a RK3588S enabled. Not that this would necessarily cause damage, but you may see the system randomly crashing due to a half-broken CPU core being enabled when it shouldn't have been.

[Rippanda12]

@mariobalanica On my 5c lite it doesn't even boot with edk bc my cpu is messed up

[peltho]

@mariobalanica Thanks for answering so fast!
I see, however with a PoE HAT it is achievable. That's too bad it's not provided even if it wouldn't work without that HAT.
Now I'm considering using U-Boot instead unfortunately 😥

[mariobalanica]

I might actually have a look at supporting the integrated Gigabit Ethernet, but no promises. This is being tracked in #43 .

Note that this doesn't change the fact that RK3582 is still very much unsupported and your mileage may vary. I personally don't have such hardware or particular interest in it, but contributions are welcome.

[mariobalanica]

I've made some progress on this and may find time to finish the driver next week.

[peltho]

Could you please link the corresponding PR so I can have a look out of curiosity?

[mariobalanica]

The latest build from here: https://github.com/edk2-porting/edk2-rk3588/actions/workflows/build.yml now has onboard Ethernet working.

I've successfully tested it on the ROCK 5A with HTTP boot.