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  • Bootcode.bin-only boot mode, latest version?

    From bp@www.zefox.net@3:770/3 to All on Sat Feb 15 16:59:48 2025
    I've been booting a couple of old Pi2 v1.1 (armv7) hosts
    using the bootcode.bin method to run freebsd from usb
    mechanical hard disks.

    The hardware documentation page link for the "latest"
    bootcode.bin for this purpose appears to be at least a
    couple years old, placed on Github under the handle
    popcornmix. The URL is https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware/blob/master/boot/bootcode.bin


    Does anybody know of a more recent version of the file? Recent
    boot attempts have failed to find the USB disk, but the disk
    and SATA-to_USB adapter are recognized without a problem on
    both FreeBSD and RasPiOS Bookworm, suggesting both are ok.

    At this point the machine falls into a loop of netboot attempts.
    Alternatively, is there some way to break out of the netboot
    loop via the serial console? That might let me look around.

    Thanks for reading,

    bob prohaska

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From Theo@3:770/3 to bp@www.zefox.net on Sat Feb 15 18:20:52 2025
    bp@www.zefox.net wrote:
    I've been booting a couple of old Pi2 v1.1 (armv7) hosts
    using the bootcode.bin method to run freebsd from usb
    mechanical hard disks.

    The hardware documentation page link for the "latest"
    bootcode.bin for this purpose appears to be at least a
    couple years old, placed on Github under the handle
    popcornmix. The URL is https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware/blob/master/boot/bootcode.bin


    Does anybody know of a more recent version of the file? Recent
    boot attempts have failed to find the USB disk, but the disk
    and SATA-to_USB adapter are recognized without a problem on
    both FreeBSD and RasPiOS Bookworm, suggesting both are ok.

    That's the official repo so I don't think you'll find a newer version.

    Do you have the other files on the USB disc, ie start*.elf, fixup*.dat, etc?

    Did you try another USB disc, in case there's something about this
    particular one the bootloader doesn't like? On PCs it's not unknown for
    them to refuse to boot certain USB devices. Kernels have more flexibility
    to work around strange implementation quirks than firmware does.

    Theo

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)