Handling guard file related errors during IPL

[devenrao]

During startHost IPL guard file is read and guard records are applied. There was a case where the guard file was invalid, it does not have the predefined size.
The current fix is if the guard file is invalid log predictive PEL and continue with IPL. For any other error while reading the guard records log an error and continue IPL.

https://github.com/open-power/ipl/pull/56/commits

But guard file corruption should be a critical unrecoverable error and terminate the IPL. If the guard file is invalid hw-isolation, hostboot and other applications which read guard records too might fail.

This requirement needs to be revisited.

[RameshIyyar]

But guard file corruption should be a critical unrecoverable error and terminate the IPL. If the guard file is invalid hw-isolation, hostboot and other applications which read guard records too might fail.

I think this is not about the "guard file corruption", we discussed the guard corruption case during the BMC reset and we came up with a new design to address this. Please refer here to get more details on this.

But, this particular issue should cover "what should happen during BMC and Host boot if the guard file does not exist or it is not with predefined size"