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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
275 stars 32 forks source link

I was just given two Dell i610 power edge servers; and I want to add support for this library #208

Open wade-welles opened 4 years ago

wade-welles commented 4 years ago

Is a power-edge of this generation desired? I suspect that power-edges with idrac6 (is that related to the bmc component? I believe the BMC in this server is a combination of a bios style SOIC-8 flash chip for a bootloader, and a EEMC for the core "operating stylem" component if I understood correctly, or I could be confusing the EEMC, and it is the domain of the idract6 system.

from, or around, the same generation would all be supported by this, or at least provide a simple starting point to continue to extend the functionality.

We are tearing down the entire server, pulling out all auxiliary and possibly in-securable components, and focusing on documenting the process of locating all the firmware, and flash memory containing important firmware that is either difficult or never changed .

We are very interested in using both u-root, and u-bmc.

Do you have any experience with this, do you have any suggestions on where to start reading (code or documentation ) for getting started.

One method I had considered was dumping the relevant fash memory and implementing a virtual implementation using QEMU or even simpler tools to speed up development and the upside is also being able to offer these tools to others wishing to take the journey of implementing more platforms.

Love your work, I hope, we can collaborate more, and talk sometime. I'm 100% in support of what you have written about essentially neglect of BIOS, and similar low level systems, and all we get after all this time with corporate actors with massive pools of both resources and developers is dragging their feet on UEFI, and "secure boot", which quite honestly is lackluster.

I'm currently working on a virtual machine boot-chain system that leverages u-root, to provide secure, customization ,and forward thinking implementations of initramfs, init, and other boot utilities that make up the boot process. I hope I can contribute code that finds use in these projects and it starts an ongoing relationship of collaboration .

Take care

bluecmd commented 4 years ago

Hi! Very cool!

The bar I've set for u-bmc is that it's for any BMC that runs a modern Linux. So if you can get Linux ported to the idrac6 you will have the option of running u-bmc (and possibly also OpenBMC) on it.

Starting with a qemu port sounds like a good first step, happy to bounce ideas along the way if you need it.

Best of luck!

Hurricos commented 2 years ago

For context: iDRAC6 is based on the WPCM450, which Jonathan Neuschafer has generously spent time porting to Linux.