Create a development platform on Raspberry Pi

u-root / u-bmc

Open-source firmware for your baseboard management controller (BMC)

https://u-bmc.readthedocs.io

BSD 3-Clause "New" or "Revised" License

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Create a development platform on Raspberry Pi #135

Open bluecmd opened 5 years ago

bluecmd commented 5 years ago

Raspberry Pi could serve as a nice development platform.

It could also be useful for some things, like:

Attach a PWM fan and a sensor and let it control the cooling of whatever you want
Remote button pusher for some random appliance
UART console server

Stretch goal: Support open platforms like Banana Pi as well. However, given the community around RPi I think RPi is the priority target.

bluecmd commented 5 years ago

Most likely the hardest part of this is to figure out what the SPI flash story is. RPi doesn't use SPI flash by default (but does support it) and we don't want the development taget to differ too much from the real deal.

Would selling u-bmc SPI flash-boards as an add-on be the best way forward? Maybe, seems like it would remove some of the appeal to quickly get it up and running. Maybe another platform is better?

rjoleary commented 5 years ago

Can the SPI flash be connected to the RPi with a breadboard and a few wires? If so, I think it would suffice to have a tutorial, wiring diagram and a short list of components to purchase. There are already RPi kits which come with most of the materials (maybe not the SPI flash).

I've run u-root on RPi before (running off the SD card). How were you thinking of booting u-bmc on the RPi?

bluecmd commented 5 years ago

Yep, it would be like 6 wires or something like that. You're probably right that a BOM should be enough.

I was thinking of having a shim on an SD card that just jumps to the bootloader on the SPI flash.