[PATCH 0/5] ArmVirtPkg, OvmfPkg: improve firmware duration of direct kernel boot

[Laszlo Ersek <lersek@redhat.com>]

(Copying Rich, Xiang and Gabriel for testing requests below.)

Repo:   https://github.com/lersek/edk2.git
Branch: kernel_before_bootdevs

After the recent series "OvmfPkg, ArmVirtQemu: leaner platform BDS
policy for connecting devices", I'm picking up another earlier idea -- a
direct kernel boot does not need devices such as disks and NICs to be
bound by UEFI.

I tested this series extensively on QEMU, in OVMF (IA32X64) and
ArmVirtQemu (AARCH64), both with and without direct kernel boot. I
compared the logs in all sensible relations within a given architecture.

Rich, can you please test this on ARM64, with guestfish/libguestfs?
Please attach a good number of disks at once on the command line, and
compare the appliance's boot time between (e.g.) RHEL7's
"/usr/share/AAVMF/AAVMF_CODE.fd" and the following binary (after
decompression):

  https://people.redhat.com/lersek/kernel_before_bootdevs-991e2f2f-64cf-4566-b933-919928e2aa6b/QEMU_EFI.fd.padded.xz

(That binary corresponds to the branch linked above, cross-built from
x86_64 with "aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc (GCC) 6.1.1 20160621 (Red Hat Cross
6.1.1-2)", using the following options:

  export GCC5_AARCH64_PREFIX=aarch64-linux-gnu-
  build --cmd-len=65536 --hash -t GCC5 -b DEBUG -a AARCH64 \
    -p ArmVirtPkg/ArmVirtQemu.dsc -D DEBUG_PRINT_ERROR_LEVEL=0x80000000

and then it was padded with zeroes to 64MB.)

If you have good results, please respond with your Tested-by (which I'll
apply to patch 1/5, since that's the one that matters for the ARM64
target).

Xiang, if you use guestfish (or else direct kernel boot) occasionally,
then similar testing would be very welcome from your side too.

Gabriel, I'm CC'ing you on patch 4/5, because it affects code that you
had originally written. Can you please regression-test this series with
your usual OVMF environment / guest(s)?

Cc: "Gabriel L. Somlo" <gsomlo@gmail.com>
Cc: "Richard W.M. Jones" <rjones@redhat.com>
Cc: Ard Biesheuvel <ard.biesheuvel@linaro.org>
Cc: Jordan Justen <jordan.l.justen@intel.com>
Cc: Xiang Zheng <xiang.zheng@linaro.org>

Thanks everyone!
Laszlo

Laszlo Ersek (5):
  ArmVirtPkg/PlatformBootManagerLib: return to "-kernel before boot
    devices"
  OvmfPkg/PlatformBootManagerLib: wrap overlong lines in "BdsPlatform.c"
  OvmfPkg/PlatformBootManagerLib: rejuvenate old-style function comments
  OvmfPkg/PlatformBootManagerLib: hoist PciAcpiInitialization()
  OvmfPkg/PlatformBootManagerLib: process "-kernel" before boot devices

 ArmVirtPkg/Library/PlatformBootManagerLib/PlatformBm.c |  16 +-
 OvmfPkg/Library/PlatformBootManagerLib/BdsPlatform.c   | 262 ++++++++++----------
 2 files changed, 136 insertions(+), 142 deletions(-)

-- 
2.14.1.3.gb7cf6e02401b