Re: [edk2-devel] [PATCH - resend] MdeModulePkg/Universal/SmbiosDxe: Scan for existing tables

["Ni, Ray" <ray.ni@intel.com>]

To be specific, the reasons I like to use multiple HOBs each containing a SMBIOS structure are:
1. A well modularized bootloader may have one module producing type 4 structure, another module producing type 19 structure.
2. Try to think about what the optimal design could be regarding the universal payload spec (https://universalpayload.github.io/documentation/spec/spec.html). (The spec is not widely accepted and just an RFC.)

There are two style of consumer code:
A. SmbiosDxe consumes a Guid HOB which contains a full SMBIOS table.
B. SmbiosDxe consumes multiple Guid HOBs each contains a SMBIOS structure.

There are two options of implementations:
1. Support style A for coreboot and extend to style B for more bootloaders.
2. Support style B only. PayloadEntry breaks the coreboot SMBIOS table to multiple Guid HOBs each contains a SMBIOS structure.

Either option works for me though I will be more comfortable if choosing 2. 😊

Thanks,
Ray

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dong, Guo <guo.dong@intel.com>
> Sent: Thursday, March 4, 2021 1:54 AM
> To: Ni, Ray <ray.ni@intel.com>; Patrick Rudolph <patrick.rudolph@9elements.com>
> Cc: devel@edk2.groups.io; Chaganty, Rangasai V <rangasai.v.chaganty@intel.com>; Bi, Dandan <dandan.bi@intel.com>; Zeng,
> Star <star.zeng@intel.com>; Gao, Zhichao <zhichao.gao@intel.com>; You, Benjamin <benjamin.you@intel.com>;
> philipp.deppenwiese@9elements.com; Ma, Maurice <maurice.ma@intel.com>
> Subject: RE: [edk2-devel] [PATCH - resend] MdeModulePkg/Universal/SmbiosDxe: Scan for existing tables
> 
> 
> hi Ray,
> 
> Just saw the discussion on this patch.
> Both coreboot and SBL would build the whole SMBIOS table and report it to payloads.
> 
> For UEFI payload, I think it is not necessary to let other driver (BlSupportDxe) to split the whole SMBIOS table into records.
> I would prefer SMBIOS DXE diver could support the whole SMBIOS table from PEI/bootloader.
> But it is also possible to support individual records if required by checking AnchorString to know if it is whole table.
> 
> Thanks,
> Guo
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Ni, Ray <ray.ni@intel.com>
> > Sent: Wednesday, March 3, 2021 3:04 AM
> > To: Patrick Rudolph <patrick.rudolph@9elements.com>
> > Cc: devel@edk2.groups.io; Chaganty, Rangasai V
> > <rangasai.v.chaganty@intel.com>; Bi, Dandan <dandan.bi@intel.com>; Zeng,
> > Star <star.zeng@intel.com>; Gao, Zhichao <zhichao.gao@intel.com>; You,
> > Benjamin <benjamin.you@intel.com>;
> > philipp.deppenwiese@9elements.com; Ma, Maurice
> > <maurice.ma@intel.com>; Dong, Guo <guo.dong@intel.com>
> > Subject: RE: [edk2-devel] [PATCH - resend]
> > MdeModulePkg/Universal/SmbiosDxe: Scan for existing tables
> >
> > >
> > > Hi Ray,
> > > thanks for your feedback.
> > >
> > > Currently a single HOB containing all the SMBIOS table is exported by
> > > coreboot.
> > > As coreboot doesn't support multiple HOBs with the same ID, #2 isn't a
> > > solution.
> >
> > Hi Patrick,
> > I checked the code in deep.
> > The HOB is not created by coreboot. It's the PayloadEntry that creates the
> > HOB.
> > Can we update PayloadEntry to create multiple HOBs?
> >
> > Guo,
> > Any comments?
> >
> > The reason I like this approach is it doesn't require the other bootloaders to
> > write
> > a SMBIOS driver that merges all SMBIOS structures together into one table.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Ray