Notes on using Grub2 for BIOS-based platforms
=============================================
1. Create a disk image
dd if=/dev/zero of=disk.img bs=1M count=32
2. Partition it (either legacy or GPT style partitions work)
cfdisk disk.img
- Create one partition, type Linux, for the root
filesystem. The only constraint is to make sure there
is enough free space *before* the first partition to
store Grub2. Leaving 1 MB of free space is safe.
3. Setup loop device and loop partitions
sudo losetup -f disk.img
sudo partx -a /dev/loop0
4. Prepare the root partition
sudo mkfs.ext3 -L root /dev/loop0p1
sudo mount /dev/loop0p1 /mnt
sudo tar -C /mnt -xf output/images/rootfs.tar
sudo umount /mnt
5. Install Grub2
sudo ./output/host/sbin/grub-bios-setup \
-b ./output/host/lib/grub/i386-pc/boot.img \
-c ./output/images/grub.img -d . /dev/loop0
6. Cleanup loop device
sudo partx -d /dev/loop0
sudo losetup -d /dev/loop0
7. Your disk.img is ready!
Using genimage
--------------
If you use genimage to generate your complete image,
installing Grub can be tricky. Here is how to achieve Grub's
installation with genimage:
partition boot {
in-partition-table = "no"
image = "path_to_boot.img"
offset = 0
size = 512
}
partition grub {
in-partition-table = "no"
image = "path_to_grub.img"
offset = 512
}
The result is not byte to byte identical to what
grub-bios-setup does but it works anyway.
To test your BIOS image in Qemu
-------------------------------
qemu-system-{i386,x86-64} -hda disk.img
Notes on using Grub2 for x86/x86_64 EFI-based platforms
=======================================================
1. Create a disk image
dd if=/dev/zero of=disk.img bs=1M count=32
2. Partition it with GPT partitions
cgdisk disk.img
- Create a first partition, type EF00, for the
bootloader and kernel image
- Create a second partition, type 8300, for the root
filesystem.
3. Setup loop device and loop partitions
sudo losetup -f disk.img
sudo partx -a /dev/loop0
4. Prepare the boot partition
sudo mkfs.vfat -n boot /dev/loop0p1
sudo mount /dev/loop0p1 /mnt
sudo cp -a output/images/efi-part/* /mnt/
sudo cp output/images/bzImage /mnt/
sudo umount /mnt
5. Prepare the root partition
sudo mkfs.ext3 -L root /dev/loop0p2
sudo mount /dev/loop0p2 /mnt
sudo tar -C /mnt -xf output/images/rootfs.tar
sudo umount /mnt
6 Cleanup loop device
sudo partx -d /dev/loop0
sudo losetup -d /dev/loop0
7. Your disk.img is ready!
To test your i386/x86-64 EFI image in Qemu
------------------------------------------
1. Download/install the EFI BIOS for Qemu
You can get it using the edk2 package in Buildroot (installed
in BINARIES_DIR), grab prebuilt images from the unofficial nightly
builds [0], or use one provided by your distribution as OVMF.
[0] https://github.com/retrage/edk2-nightly
2. qemu-system-{i386,x86-64} -bios <path-to-OVMF.fd> -hda disk.img
Notes on using Grub2 for ARM u-boot-based platforms
===================================================
The following steps show how to use the Grub2 arm-uboot platform
support in the simplest way possible and with a single
buildroot-generated filesystem.
1. Load qemu_arm_vexpress_defconfig
2. Enable u-boot with the vexpress_ca9x4 board name and with
u-boot.elf image format.
3. Enable grub2 for the arm-uboot platform.
4. Enable "Install kernel image to /boot in target" in the kernel
menu to populate a /boot directory with zImage in it.
5. The upstream u-boot vexpress_ca9x4 doesn't have CONFIG_API enabled
by default, which is required.
Before building, patch u-boot (for example, make u-boot-extract to
edit the source before building) file
include/configs/vexpress_common.h to define:
#define CONFIG_API
#define CONFIG_SYS_MMC_MAX_DEVICE 1
6. Create a custom grub2 config file with the following contents and
set its path in BR2_TARGET_GRUB2_CFG:
set default="0"
set timeout="5"
menuentry "Buildroot" {
set root='(hd0)'
linux /boot/zImage root=/dev/mmcblk0 console=ttyAMA0
devicetree /boot/vexpress-v2p-ca9.dtb
}
7. Create a custom builtin config file with the following contents
and set its path in BR2_TARGET_GRUB2_BUILTIN_CONFIG:
set root=(hd0)
set prefix=/boot/grub
8. Create a custom post-build script which copies files from
${BINARIES_DIR}/boot-part to $(TARGET_DIR)/boot (set its path in
BR2_ROOTFS_POST_BUILD_SCRIPT):
#!/bin/sh
cp -r ${BINARIES_DIR}/boot-part/* ${TARGET_DIR}/boot/
9. make
10. Run qemu with:
qemu-system-arm -M vexpress-a9 -kernel output/images/u-boot -m 1024 \
-nographic -sd output/images/rootfs.ext2
11. In u-boot, stop at the prompt and run grub2 with:
=> ext2load mmc 0:0 ${loadaddr} /boot/grub/grub.img
=> bootm
12. This should bring the grub2 menu, upon which selecting the "Buildroot"
entry should boot Linux.
Notes on using Grub2 for Aarch64 EFI-based platforms
====================================================
The following steps show how to use the Grub2 arm64-efi platform,
using qemu and EFI firmware built for qemu.
1. Load aarch64_efi_defconfig
2. make
3. Download the EFI firmware for qemu aarch64
You can get it using the edk2 package in Buildroot (installed
in BINARIES_DIR), grab prebuilt images from the unofficial nightly
builds [1], or use one provided by your distribution as OVMF-aarch64
or AAVMF.
[1] https://github.com/retrage/edk2-nightly
4. Run qemu with:
qemu-system-aarch64 -M virt -cpu cortex-a57 -m 512 -nographic \
-bios <path/to/EDK2>/QEMU_EFI.fd -hda output/images/disk.img \
-netdev user,id=eth0 -device virtio-net-device,netdev=eth0
5. This should bring the grub2 menu, upon which selecting the
"Buildroot" entry should boot Linux.
