# LinuxBoot Meeting Notes

We are having bi-weekly meetings to discuss the development of the [LinuxBoot project](https://linuxboot.org).

Our main reference is the [LinuxBoot book](https://book.linuxboot.org) :book:.

## 2025-09-15

### Participants

- Philip Molloy (LinuxBoot TSC)
- Daniel Maslowski (LinuxBoot TSC)
- Thierry Laurion (Heads)
- Dennis Marttinen (CSC)

### Topics

- brief sync between us

## 2025-09-01

### Participants

- Philip Molloy (LinuxBoot TSC)
- Daniel Maslowski (LinuxBoot TSC)

### Topics

- Daniel successfully did a `kexec` on MDM9625
- And even so [via a menu](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpOJrqOjBHI)
- New chapter request: [role of the initramfs](https://github.com/linuxboot/book/issues/177)

## 2025-08-18

### Participants

- Daniel Maslowski (LinuxBoot TSC)

### Topics

- Found more traces of people doing/wanting LinuxBoot
- [`kexec` on a Qualcomm Arm v7 (32-bit) based phone](https://gist.github.com/alvinhochun/7945270)
- [Ported from Mike Kasick's work](https://xdaforums.com/t/patches-kexec-syscall-support-boots-kernels-from-sd-or-usb-11-6-11-gb-support.1266827/) and [used in kernel forks](https://github.com/alvinhochun/sony-xperia-m-kernel/commits/android-4.1.2_r2.1/)
- [commit 2e818d8 "Implement kexec-hardboot"](https://github.com/alvinhochun/sony-xperia-m-kernel/commit/2e818d81f21f6a627bc629e477052045426b0663)
- See there for more references and how this was ported multiple times
- TODO: Heavy patches (~300 lines, incl. asm), can they be mainlined?
- People in the postmarketOS and Qualcomm mainline development communities are also interested
- Daniel started a writeup on `earlycon`/`earlyprintk`, from a generic perspective
- Sometimes the only debug option
- Kernel docs have notes scattered around
- [cmdline (admin guide)](https://docs.kernel.org/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.html)
- [serial API (for developers)](https://docs.kernel.org/driver-api/serial/driver.html)
- `earlyprintk` is arch specific, e.g. [x86](https://docs.kernel.org/arch/x86/earlyprintk.html), see [platform devices and drivers](https://docs.kernel.org/driver-api/driver-model/platform.html)
- TODO: early output on (SPI, I2C) screen when no UART/serial is available

## 2025-08-04

### Participants

- Dennis Marttinen (Racklet)
- Daniel Maslowski (LinuxBoot TSC)

Philip has another colliding meeting, unfortunately.

### Topics

- Platform setup
- Trinity of
- hardware features (controllers, fixed parts...)
- kernel features (enabled drivers via Kconfig, possibly hard baking in)
- boot time features (enabled via device tree, possibly ACPI)
- Question: how to you enable / reconfigure at runtime, i.e., from userspace?
- Daniel applied for OSFF grant to pick up and extend the work on Intel ME tooling
- Can we gain traction through UEFI Secure Boot key expiry?
- https://lwn.net/Articles/1029767/
- https://nondeterministic.computer/@mjg59/114949832337898099
- What motivates people to switch systems? What can we offer for firmware?
- features and anti-features (MS pushing for AI, ads...)
- performance
- not really overclocking, that's just marketing/part of the products
- some faetures are hard disabled in firmware, but hardware would be capable
- memory tuning? get more bandwidth with open firmware
- undervolting, battery life enhancement, thermal improvement
- MSRs documented by community
- [Intel XTU](https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/17881/intel-extreme-tuning-utility-intel-xtu.html) (eXtreme Tuning Utility) is for Windows only
- So is [ThrottleStop](https://www.techpowerup.com/download/techpowerup-throttlestop/) - this is basically required to fix bad OEM power configuration on a lot of laptops
- TDP adjustment
- 3rd party apps necessary to e.g. tweak GPU fan control on Windows
- firmware not capable enough
- Windows doesn't have it built in
- platform features
- MSRs, chicken bits?
- scan through firmware images to find all MSR interactions
- gain ideas from logic around, DXE GUIDs and possible names, etc
- transplant them to other platforms
- Create LinuxBoot as an intermediate stage on ESP (between firmware and OS loader)
- Enables more participation from community
- Easier to port to, say, Arm SBCs and add on top of U-Boot (proper)
- E.g. move [raspi-config](https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/computers/configuration.html) to earlier environment than final OS
- Essentially a "better GRUB", which is hard to work with in terms of UI
- Universal tool to get a menu with _all_ the UEFI options for CPU etc config
- OEMs typically hide many options that are still available nonetheless
- Extract options via [IFRExtractor](https://github.com/LongSoft/IFRExtractor-RS)
- AMD vs Intel specifics?
- AMD: [Smokeless UMAF](https://github.com/DavidS95/Smokeless_UMAF) accesses the full AGESA menu
- Daniel drafted a [writeup on multicall binaries](https://github.com/orangecms/multicall), should end up in the LinuxBoot book

## 2025-07-07

### Participants

- Dennis Marttinen (Racklet)
- Philip Molloy (LinuxBoot TSC)
- Daniel Maslowski (LinuxBoot TSC)

### Topics

- Merged into :book:: [boot config](https://github.com/linuxboot/book/pull/145)
- What next?
- Philip: [intro cleanup](https://github.com/linuxboot/book/pull/176)
- Daniel: [expand on use-cases](https://github.com/linuxboot/book/pull/140)

## 2025-06-23

### Participants

- Dennis Marttinen (Racklet)
- Thierry Laurion (Heads)
- Philip Molloy (LinuxBoot TSC)
- Daniel Maslowski (LinuxBoot TSC)

### Topics

- Restructuring the [book :book:](https://book.linuxboot.org)
- Intro has too many UEFI, u-root specifics
- Move specifics into other sections
- Keep only "What is LinuxBoot?" and "Why LinuxBoot?"
- Diagram like on the main LinuxBoot website
- Recreate with Mermaid?
- Add oreboot as another possible pre-stage
- Have graphics for EDK2, U-Boot etc for recognition
- "What LinuxBoot does" -> intro to UEFI
- Golang selling points -> under u-root
- Make high-level sections short intros, a single paragraph roughly
- Glossary using [mdbook-hints](https://lib.rs/crates/mdbook-hints)?
- Daniel drafted an application for NLnet / NGI fund
- Goal: Integrate LinuxBoot with U-Boot SPL
- ~5 platforms for reference
- Asked for EUR 50k (max)
- Will also apply for OSFF fund
- Goal: Tooling for AMD platform images based on [earlier work](https://github.com/fiedka/romulan)
- Max is EUR 5k

## 2025-06-09

### Participants

- Dennis Marttinen (Racklet)
- Thierry Laurion (Heads)
- Philip Molloy (LinuxBoot TSC)
- Daniel Maslowski (LinuxBoot TSC)

### Topics

- Philip:
- Something for the book in the next 14 days
- Make it succinct and exciting?
- Community vs corporate development
- Dennis:
- LinuxBoot is competing with "you can just download Ubuntu.iso and run it"
- Thierry: Why even Linux?
- Daniel:
- could be anything else, even Zephyr
- https://antmicro.com/blog/2023/06/zephyr-as-bootloader-for-linux-on-riscv/
- Thierry
- Why replacing UEFI DXEs by something else?
- UEFI bloated by IBV/ODM choices (most of DXEs are there for unknown reasons by IBV/ODM (ref needed)
- [Trammell Hudson, 33C3: Bringing Linux back to server boot ROMs with NERF and Heads ("Let Linux do it")](https://media.ccc.de/v/34c3-9056-bringing_linux_back_to_server_boot_roms_with_nerf_and_heads)
- Firmware devs = linux devs (community + expertise)
- How to replace UEFI DXEs by something else?
- Fiano can remove hundred of DXEs (but requires hundred of hours of DXE removal + reboot to see if causes regressions: [OCP 2018, Ron Minnich - Firmware, the last frontier: Open System Firmware (OSF))](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a1QHQ76it8)
- UEFI: 3 possible entry points for Linuxboot : easy -> hard
- UEFI Shell [Ron mistook it for DxeShell] (easy) : direct replacement with Linux
- BdsDxe (medium): replace with linux FFS, depends on how well BdsDxe follows UEFI rules)
- DXECore replacement (hard) : linux needs to run DXEs
- Daniel: other binaries can be replaced; I've done that for the X270
- `utk x270.rom replace_pe32 Setup bzImage save x270_mod.rom`
- x86 : Why wanting to replace UEFI altogether?
- SMMSTORE: A SMM backed configuration store that persist across reboot
- Why replacing UEFI by coreboot
- No need of fiano to remove DXE
- SMM on a diet
- UEFI has SMMSTORE, which runs and can be modified through SMI (SMM)
- This is why LinuxbootSMM is under development
- Dennis:
- Average person doesn't care about how a system boots.
- LinuxBoot is for people that *do* care and have specific needs.
- E.g. things UEFI does not fulfill.

## 2025-05-12

### Participants

- Richard Hughes (fwupd/LVFS)
- Dennis Marttinen (Racklet)
- Thierry Laurion (Heads)
- Philip Molloy (LinuxBoot TSC)
- Daniel Maslowski (LinuxBoot TSC)

### Topics

- Richard: SBoM
- Daniel: where should the line be drawn?
- Richard: focus on core things that provide attack surface, e.g. image parsers
- Daniel: single reference can suffice for open source distros
- Richard: multiple SBoMs possible, e.g. per boot chain component vs one global SBoM
- as part of build process, upload to LVFS
- Daniel: or attach to GitHub?
- there needs to be a way to obtain the SBoM data (from the OS?)
- Richard: Partitioning, A/B updates
- Daniel: even first stage?
- Philip: some mask ROMs have multi-slot support for first code, need
vendor/SoC specific headers
- hardware ID
- Dennis: for same hardware but different firmware, how to identify?
- Richard's recommendation: change DMI data
- device trees
- Philip: DTs in Linux upstreamed maintained at high quality, with more rigor
- funding matters
- Philip: gotta do PoC first, gain traction, then approach e.g. Rockchip
- Thierry: next NLNet funding round application deadline is June 1, 2025
- target platforms
- Philip and Daniel want to focus on SBCs, same for Dennis for Racklet
- Thierry sees interest in servers, such as older OCP hardware

## 2025-04-28

### Participants

- Chiao Yang ()
- Dennis Marttinen (Racklet)
- Philip Molloy (LinuxBoot TSC)
- Daniel Maslowski (LinuxBoot TSC)

### Topics

- another introduction round, since we have some new faces
- "awesome" list for LinuxBoot
- Philip: Khadas and Radxa have their own firmware projects
- https://docs.khadas.com/software/oowow/getting-started
- https://docs.radxa.com/en/roobi
- Daniel: want `fastboot` in LinuxBoot
- Dennis: role of LinuxBoot group? Unification?
- Daniel: clarify need for built-in modules / static kernel vs modules
- What can be modules? LinuxBoot kernel would need to load them.
- Daniel: prebuilt rootfs CPIOs for people to try out
- retire https://github.com/linuxboot/u-root-builder ?
- https://github.com/u-root/u-root-distro is a successor, needs fixups
- Dennis: meaning of "LinuxBoot compliance"?
- kexec loosely defined
- verification steps?
- Philip: non-defined interface is also a benefit; flexibility?
- make kexec debugging easier
- Dennis: provide clarity regarding boot protocols, features, subsets thereof
etc
- leave the choice to the distro whether they want ACPI/UEFI or not (!)
- e.g. Windows needs WMI

## 2025-04-14

This is our first common meeting to reestablish a LinuxBoot community.

### Participants

- Ziang Wang (ByteDance)
- Thierry Laurion (Heads)
- Jeremy Kerr (Petitboot)
- Jean-Marie Verdun (HPE)
- Philip Molloy (LinuxBoot TSC)
- Daniel Maslowski (LinuxBoot TSC)

### Topics

- getting to know everyone and our backgrounds
- how everyone implements LinuxBoot, respectively