qemu-uefi-x86: new board for virtualized environment with serial console support, kernel boot messages

[davidandreoletti]

As of 2024 Feb, Github still not allow source branch renaming. Previous PR #6291 was auto closed by Github upon source branch renaming. This new PR supersedes it.

Description

Running "uefi-x86" board image on qemu-system-x86_64 --display none --serial stdio ... did not:

• allow GRUB boot without GUI display
• display early kernel boot messages on the serial console
• display the console prompt on serial console

@rpardini suggested adding a new board:.
This PR adds support for this new board along with the missing features above.

Jira reference number: None

How Has This Been Tested?

• Test A: Boot uefi-x86 board image on qemu-system-x86_64 --display none --serial stdio ...
  • Armbian Build.git: 24.5.0-trunk
  • Build configuration:

    BUILD_MINIMAL=no 
    BUILD_DESKTOP=no
    BOARD=uefi-x86
    

  • ✅ Result: early kernel messages + boot messages/prompt displayed on vm's serial console

• Test B: Boot uefi-x86 board image on qemu-system-x86_64 --display auto -vga virtio ...
  • Armbian Build.git: 24.5.0-trunk
  • Build configuration:

  BUILD_MINIMAL=no 
  BUILD_DESKTOP=yes
  # Xfce desktop
  BOARD=uefi-x86
  

  • ✅ Result: early kernel messages on serial + boot message/prompt displayed on serial + prompt displayed on GUI

AR-2289

Checklist:

• My code follows the style guidelines of this project
• I have performed a self-review of my own code
• I have commented my code, particularly in hard-to-understand areas
• I have made corresponding changes to the documentation
• My changes generate no new warnings
• Any dependent changes have been merged and published in downstream modules

[rpardini]

Hey @davidandreoletti -- uefi-x86 is meant as a generic board for hardware we don't know much about, so having those changes might/will probably break stuff when running on physical hardware. We've the BOARD=qemu-uboot-x86 but that's for using u-boot under qemu; maybe you're willing to create a new qemu-grub-x86 which isolates these changes?

[davidandreoletti]

maybe you're willing to create a new qemu-grub-x86 which isolates these changes?

Yes, certainly. However, before doing so, I would like to know what setting(s) in particular might be troublesome - I'll document it in the new "board" and/or discard it from the commit:

• Linux UEFI + grub support on x86-64 hardware/virtualization platform + debian is very good.
• GRUB related settings should fallback gracefully when unsupported.

[davidandreoletti]

@rpardini New board added: qemu-uefi-x86 !

All config changes affecting uefi-x86 board directly / indirectly have moved to qemu-uefi-x86 :-)
That should ease your concern about breaking any existing behaviour with the uefi-x86 board.

@rpardini / @igorpecovnik PR can be reviewed again.

[rpardini]

Looks good, thanks for isolating the changes. Let's merge

[igorpecovnik]

@davidandreoletti how time flies :(
davidandreoletti/cubietruck@e3ed655

[davidandreoletti]

@davidandreoletti how time flies :( davidandreoletti/cubietruck@e3ed655

@igorpecovnik Yep!

Congrats to you (and others) on making Armbian a viable OS for SBC.