Thanks David for the detailed response.

My main motivation to go down Coreboot/UBOOT route is to attempt to simplify 
the remaining boot-up to Linux.  Instead of using PXE-BOOT, we could use tftp 
only.  Am I correct to say that?


If we're to use whatever that is available today, instead of waiting for 
Philipp's work to complete, does coreboot/UBOOT provide secure boot support?  
I'd tend to think so, but want to confirm.  UEFI seems to already have this 
aspect covered.


Raymond


________________________________
From: David Hendricks <david.hendri...@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2018 6:03 PM
To: Raymond Yeung
Cc: coreboot@coreboot.org
Subject: Re: [coreboot] BIOS/CoreBoot/UBOOT



On Wed, Apr 11, 2018 at 3:39 PM, Raymond Yeung 
<rksye...@hotmail.com<mailto:rksye...@hotmail.com>> wrote:

I currently have a board that uses Intel Xeon D (previously codenamed Broadwell 
DE).  It boots up with BIOS/UEFI. I 'm exploring other oot-up options here.


I'm not familiar with this early stage of system initialization.  It seems 
BIOS/UEFI to Linux needs to use PXE, with the need to configure DHCP (and 
possibly Proxy DHCP), TFTP server PXELINUX, Linux initial RAM disk (initrd) 
configuration file, and then Linux.  Previously, I'd been using Coreboot/UBOOT 
environment (as a user, not developer).  Prerequisite seemed much simpler.


A few questions -


  1.  Is there even a coreboot support for this CPU already available and 
stable that I could download and reflash?  Or are we talking about some serious 
re-development?

Yes - See src/mainboard/intel/camelbackmountain_fsp/ for the reference platform.

You'll need the Intel FSP blob from 
https://github.com/IntelFsp/FSP/tree/Broadwell-DE. You'll also need microcode 
which you can download from developer.intel.com<http://developer.intel.com>.


  1.  Is it possible to go from BIOS/UEFI to UBOOT (on-board)?  How?

I haven't tried uboot as a payload, but yes, it is possible. There are other 
options available to consider depending on your use case.


  1.  Support for Secure Boot - would one approach be simpler than another?

It depends on what you want/need. Philipp Deppenwiese is working on "vboot" 
(Google's verified boot implementation) integration with upstream: 
https://review.coreboot.org/#/c/coreboot/+/24993/

More about that approach here: 
https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chromiumos-design-docs/verified-boot


  1.  Am I even on the right track thinking this way?

You seem to be off to a good start :-)
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