Re: Pi2 bootcode.bin puzzle

On 28/03/2025 at 15:19, bp@www.zefox.net wrote:

Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote:

>
I believe that config.txt is consumed by the GPU-side firmware, which is
start*.elf.  bootcode.bin is just enough to be able to load start.elf
and config.txt from storage.  I'd guess that if that storage is USB, it's
too early to have read config.txt.

 It looks like the path of least resistance is to let FreeBSD boot from
microSD, mount that as root and then mount the USB disk as /usr, with
/var/, /tmp/ and swap mounted from the USB device, either as links
to /usr or maybe as hard partitions.
 That worked fine in the very early days of FreeBSD on the Pi2.
There isn't much write activity to the root filesystem in a
"production" environment, only during OS upgrades. If the microSD
is sufficiently oversized it'll last long enough.
 I'd hoped bootcode.bin could be upgraded/tuned to boot from a
USB3 disk on a Pi2, but apparently not.
 Thanks to everyone for writing!
 bob prohaska
     

Perhaps I'm coming here too late, but the way I did it was to keep the whole of the /boot directory on the SD card and put the whole of / (minus /boot contents) onto the USB SSD. Change the PARTUUID parameter in cmdline.txt to the new SSD partuuid and of course update the SSD /etc/fstab to the new values. Worked fine for Pi2B and Pi2B+.
--
Chris Elvidge, England
SHERRI DOES NOT "GOT BACK"