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In the current dell_rbu code ver 2.0 the packet update mechanism makes the user app dump every individual packet in to the driver. This adds in efficiency as every packet update makes the /sys/class/firmware/dell_rbu/loading and data files to disappear and reappear again. Thus the user app needs to wait for the files to reappear to dump another packet. This slows down the packet update tremendously in case of large number of packets. I am submitting a new patch for dell_rbu which will change the way we do packet updates; In the new method the user app will create a new single file which has already packetized the rbu image and all the packets are now staged in this file. This driver also creates a new entry in /sys/devices/platform/dell_rbu/packet_size ; the user needs to echo the packet size here before downloading the packet file. The user should do the following: create one single file which has all the packets stacked together. echo the packet size in to /sys/devices/platform/dell_rbu/packet_size. echo 1 > /sys/class/firmware/dell_rbu/loading cat the packetfile > /sys/class/firmware/dell_rbu/data echo 0 > /sys/class/firmware/dell_rbu/loading The driver takes the file which came through /sys/class/firmware/dell_rbu/data and takes chunks of paket_size data from it and place in contiguous memory. This makes packet update process very efficient and fast. As all the packet update happens in one single operation. The user can still read back the downloaded file from /sys/devices/platform/dell_rbu/data. Signed-off-by: Abhay Salunke <abhay_salunke@dell.com> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org> Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
101 lines
4.9 KiB
Plaintext
101 lines
4.9 KiB
Plaintext
Purpose:
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Demonstrate the usage of the new open sourced rbu (Remote BIOS Update) driver
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for updating BIOS images on Dell servers and desktops.
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Scope:
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This document discusses the functionality of the rbu driver only.
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It does not cover the support needed from aplications to enable the BIOS to
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update itself with the image downloaded in to the memory.
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Overview:
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This driver works with Dell OpenManage or Dell Update Packages for updating
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the BIOS on Dell servers (starting from servers sold since 1999), desktops
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and notebooks (starting from those sold in 2005).
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Please go to http://support.dell.com register and you can find info on
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OpenManage and Dell Update packages (DUP).
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Libsmbios can also be used to update BIOS on Dell systems go to
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http://linux.dell.com/libsmbios/ for details.
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Dell_RBU driver supports BIOS update using the monilothic image and packetized
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image methods. In case of moniolithic the driver allocates a contiguous chunk
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of physical pages having the BIOS image. In case of packetized the app
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using the driver breaks the image in to packets of fixed sizes and the driver
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would place each packet in contiguous physical memory. The driver also
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maintains a link list of packets for reading them back.
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If the dell_rbu driver is unloaded all the allocated memory is freed.
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The rbu driver needs to have an application (as mentioned above)which will
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inform the BIOS to enable the update in the next system reboot.
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The user should not unload the rbu driver after downloading the BIOS image
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or updating.
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The driver load creates the following directories under the /sys file system.
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/sys/class/firmware/dell_rbu/loading
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/sys/class/firmware/dell_rbu/data
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/sys/devices/platform/dell_rbu/image_type
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/sys/devices/platform/dell_rbu/data
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/sys/devices/platform/dell_rbu/packet_size
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The driver supports two types of update mechanism; monolithic and packetized.
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These update mechanism depends upon the BIOS currently running on the system.
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Most of the Dell systems support a monolithic update where the BIOS image is
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copied to a single contiguous block of physical memory.
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In case of packet mechanism the single memory can be broken in smaller chuks
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of contiguous memory and the BIOS image is scattered in these packets.
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By default the driver uses monolithic memory for the update type. This can be
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changed to packets during the driver load time by specifying the load
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parameter image_type=packet. This can also be changed later as below
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echo packet > /sys/devices/platform/dell_rbu/image_type
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In packet update mode the packet size has to be given before any packets can
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be downloaded. It is done as below
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echo XXXX > /sys/devices/platform/dell_rbu/packet_size
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In the packet update mechanism, the user neesd to create a new file having
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packets of data arranged back to back. It can be done as follows
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The user creates packets header, gets the chunk of the BIOS image and
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placs it next to the packetheader; now, the packetheader + BIOS image chunk
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added to geather should match the specified packet_size. This makes one
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packet, the user needs to create more such packets out of the entire BIOS
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image file and then arrange all these packets back to back in to one single
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file.
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This file is then copied to /sys/class/firmware/dell_rbu/data.
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Once this file gets to the driver, the driver extracts packet_size data from
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the file and spreads it accross the physical memory in contiguous packet_sized
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space.
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This method makes sure that all the packets get to the driver in a single operation.
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In monolithic update the user simply get the BIOS image (.hdr file) and copies
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to the data file as is without any change to the BIOS image itself.
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Do the steps below to download the BIOS image.
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1) echo 1 > /sys/class/firmware/dell_rbu/loading
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2) cp bios_image.hdr /sys/class/firmware/dell_rbu/data
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3) echo 0 > /sys/class/firmware/dell_rbu/loading
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The /sys/class/firmware/dell_rbu/ entries will remain till the following is
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done.
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echo -1 > /sys/class/firmware/dell_rbu/loading.
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Until this step is completed the driver cannot be unloaded.
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Also echoing either mono ,packet or init in to image_type will free up the
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memory allocated by the driver.
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If an user by accident executes steps 1 and 3 above without executing step 2;
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it will make the /sys/class/firmware/dell_rbu/ entries to disappear.
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The entries can be recreated by doing the following
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echo init > /sys/devices/platform/dell_rbu/image_type
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NOTE: echoing init in image_type does not change it original value.
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Also the driver provides /sys/devices/platform/dell_rbu/data readonly file to
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read back the image downloaded.
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NOTE:
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This driver requires a patch for firmware_class.c which has the modified
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request_firmware_nowait function.
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Also after updating the BIOS image an user mdoe application neeeds to execute
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code which message the BIOS update request to the BIOS. So on the next reboot
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the BIOS knows about the new image downloaded and it updates it self.
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Also don't unload the rbu drive if the image has to be updated.
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