Re: RPI 4/5 u-boot new port, is there any interest? [16 GiByte RPi5B (D0) basics operational via the EDK2 variant for such, NMVe booting too]

Hello  All RPi5 BCM2712 and RPi5 BCM2711 users,  Bob Prohaska, Mark 
Milliard, Bjoern A. Zeeb,  Adrian Chadd.    Thank you for the extensive 
work you do supporting Armv8a (64-bit) (and previous Armv7 (32 bit) 
builds for  FreeBSD executing on various Arm64 (Aarch64) Single boad 
computers like the Raspberry Pi 5 step D0 revision D04190 in a Raspberry 
Pi model 500 Keyboard.  I realize I got wordy and added many small 
details that interest me.  Hope this post helps us all move forward to 
use FreeBSD software on Arm64 Hardware.

Here, I share my few blog posts on using FreeBSD Arm64 images and 
porting GhostBSD source code to run on Arm64 hardware. 
https://ghostbsd-arm64.blogspot.com/

https://ghostbsd-arm64.blogspot.com/2025/10/freebsd-143-booting-freebsd-on.html#more

My suggestions for addition to the wiki.FreeBSD.org for Arm64 entries.  
IS GIC3 in this hardware model SOC?

1.)   What stepping revision do you have for which hardware model are 
you running.  I  have attached a small python program at this blog 
post,  check_steping.py   You can copy from the following blog post and 
make your own python file.   it was tested on the Debian Linux, bookworm 
Raspberry Pi Operating System.

  https://ghostbsd-arm64.blogspot.com/2025/10/freebsd-143-booting-freebsd-on.html#more

I also upgraded the EEPROM contents and the boot loader executable 
binary from the raspberry Pi operating system using the given debian 
bookworm linux tools and reported the results in the blogpost  
"freebsd-143-booting-freebsd-on.html#more"  URL given above.

2.)  Report back what stepping and revision number is your RASpi5 , 
RASpi500, RASpi400, RASpi4B hardware

For the Raspberry Pi 500 Keyboard model, I used:  Revision    :d04190   
   Dee Zero 4190

Is there a consistent method like a poll or web page entry (using a 
database)  to collect a running sum of Revision Numbers and RAM size for 
various make and models of Raspberry Pi for this Revision Number?  See 
the figure/table below for a better explanation.  See attached 
Screenshot 2025-12-18 at 00-34-53 Free BSD

Examples:

I Cannot seem to copy and paste information here.   See file attachment  
Screenshot2025-12-18  xxxxxxx.png

3.)   Use and improve the attached Python File to determine which 
steeping revision is your Broadcom 2712 SOC (System On a Chip ) Do you 
need the  RasPi5_D0.zip file to overwrite the contents of your booting 
image with the latest D0 stepping model firmware? Raspi5_D0.zip   Thank 
you Ronald Klop for your help with these firmware upgrades to support 
the D0 stepping of the BCM2712 SOC with firmware files from Raspberry 
Pi.     Copied the content of the rpi5-uefi zip to the ms-basic-data 
partition 
https://github.com/NumberOneGit/rpi5-uefi/releases/download/v0.1/RPI5_D0.zip

4.)   Documentation in the Arm64 portion of the wiki.freebsd.org,  which 
Single Board Computers with a ARM processor SOC   support the GIC3  
General Interrupt Controller version 3 ( not the version 2  GIC2 )    
Version GIC 3 allows for supporting and using BHyve Arm64 on only that 
GICv3 hardware. check your dmesg and your SOC documentation for which 
version the SOC supports.  The Broadcom BCM2712 uses a GIC2, Ampere CPU 
uses a GIC3.      FreeBSD Foundation or Arm64 FreeBSD developers may 
mention to Raspberry Pi Foundation and the Arm Corporation that FreeBSD 
supports Bhyve virtualization software only on a General Interrupt 
Controller Version 3 or 4.  Maybe newly designed  Arm SOCs can select 
the GIC3 version model deployed inside the SOC.

5.)  Yes, to operate using FreeBSD software on a Raspberry Pi 5, this 
deep in the woods,  you have to be nerdy and have knowledge and tools at 
your disposal,  like several USB flash drive  sticks, a few 16 or 32 
Gigabyte microSD cards, a 3.3V serial port to 5V USB convertor board 
device to plug into your 5V USB port on laptop or desktop development 
computer.  Have a full size SD port with a convertor / holder for that 
microSD card you want to write an image you either downloaded from a 
website or created with the FreeBSD tools.  Very Nerdy.   I see the need 
for a single image that supports booting a Raspberry Pi 5 or Raspberry 
Pi 500 ( also the Raspberry Pi 4B and Raspberry Pi 400 keyboard models 
)   This single image (Maybe its all the BCM2711 and BCM2712 firmware 
files need to be installed on the ESP FAT32 partitions.  The Arm64 
kernel files appear to be common.  VCHIQ HDMI Audio for BCM2711 is 
different than the BCM2712.   Seems that the SOC chip determines and 
selects which firmware files to load, and DTB files. ) please.  No nerdy 
dance methods to make hardware boot up with FreeBSD.  Just a single boot 
image file,  like what Raspberry Pi Operating System does.

6.)   Look at the Raspberry Pi Imager software that has hooks to allow 
additional manufactures operating system boot images to be downloaded 
and written into a blank MicroSD card or blank USB flash drive stick.  
Note that a hobbyist may not have various other computers and tools to 
use in creating/modifying an image to be able to boot a BCM2712 D0 
stepping SOC.   So a single image made specific for that model computer 
using the stepping is very important to make very easy to download and 
burn one image to get up and running FreeBSD on that single board 
computer.    It is truly amazing to plug in a hard wired ethernet cable 
into the raspberry Pi 5 hardware (the other end of the ethernet cable is 
plugged into a DHCP enabled ethernet router ( this creates the ability 
to start with a only raspberry Pi hardware and blank media to download 
and burn an image into blank media.

  This is a great help to new users.   Just turn on the power, and 
select an operating system image and download and burn into a selected 
blank microSD card or a blank USB flash drive stick plugged into any of 
the Raspberry Pi  models.  No need for extra tools or special 
development hardware to get started using FreeBSD on Raspberry Pi Arm64 
or Armv7 Hardware.  FreeBSD.org  Just needs to provide a FTP server to 
share the file for that specific Raspberry Pi model SBC.    This will 
provide a low cost hardware entry into using Arm64 with the FreeBSD 
Operating System. Today,  Raspberry Pi Operating System (Debian Linux) 
is very easy to get started and use.   This is the competitive field we 
are in to attract younger users.   Buy a Raspberry Pi 500 or RasPi 5 
hardware and test drive yourself the method and process of getting 
started.   Raspberry Pi Linux makes this super easy.   Start with 
nothing but blank media and a an internet connected wired ethernet cable 
to select an operating system image to burn into that blank media.   
Your physical location in the world is irrelevant to use the Linux open 
source software.   FreeBSD can use the same methods and interfaces by 
providing a single image for that specific model hardware.  (ie provide 
several images for several single board computers that have those image 
setup and tested on that hardware.  This would be the starting point.    
Right now you take a Raspberry Pi 4 (BCM2711 ) image and  add the 
Raspberry Pi 5 or RasPi500  firmware files to the ESP FAT32 partition.  
IE use Rasp5_D0.zip file to overlay onto the ESP FAT32 partition. (not a 
single image file that boots the RasPi5 hardware or the RasPi4 
hardware)  This requires more development computers or tools to get a 
bootable image written into the media for booting and using that 
Raspberry Pi 500 keyboard computer.     Yes, it gets wordy to 
specifically with detail to explain an idea.

Again my method or process was to first download and use Raspberry Pi 
Linux Operating System to update the EEPROM contents and the bootloader, 
so that I had the latest  versions updated in my Raspi500 keyboard 
hardware.   Was very cool to start with an ethernet CAT5 wired cable and 
blank media, Turn on the power and download an operating system image , 
write that image into blank media,  finish ,  reboot the hardware and 
now I can surf the web, read about raspberrypi. org, Raspberrypi.com,  
FreeBSD.org, FreeBSD Arm mailing lists, and play 
youtube.com/c/robonuggie video files to learn more raspberry Pi hardware 
and Arm64 processors.   Wow from nothing working, to surfing the web.

FreeBSD can be a solution for new users to learn about Arm64 SOCs and 
FreeBSD operating System.   But FreeBSD has to step up to the 
competition Linux and make our competitive solution very easy to install 
for Arm64 Single Board computers,  Ie 1 single boot image file for a 
specific hardware model,  tested to work, play audio, and many other 
small interfaces working properly,  WIFI,  HDMI Audio, several TTY 
serial UART interfaces,  a couple I2C,  a couple SPI interfaces.   Video 
decoding, Video Encoding,  GPIO pins.

Here will be the quoted remarks we will hear in the near future: "Oh 
that interface does NOT WORK on FreeBSD, so I just started with 
Raspberry Pi Linux and continue now to use Linux,   Is FreeBSD some old 
UNIX software?  It did not work for my hardware needs, so I never 
pursued learning about FreeBSD on Arm64.   Linux and SystemD is just 
great for me to use now.  Tools, hardware interfaces everything is there 
and just working with Linux.  I learned while using Linux on Raspberry 
Pi hardware, now to learn FreeBSD is hard and requires too much time to 
learn because it is not like Linux that I know and use."   These remarks 
will become a missed opportunity to acquire new FreeBSD users today with 
inexpensive Arm64 hardware available on the present market place.

So I am working to create documentation and methods to use FreeBSD and 
GhostBSD on Arm64 hardware like the Raspberry Pi 500 keyboard BCM2712 
stepping D0 and Raspberry 4B BCM2711 SOC.   See revision  D43399.   
Thank you Adrian Chadd for moving these 3 patches into the kernel source 
tree to support VCHIQ Audio HDMI interface on the HDMI TV speakers.

https://lists.freebsd.org/archives/freebsd-arm/2025-September/005163.html

https://lists.freebsd.org/archives/freebsd-arm/2025-November/005442.html 
3 patches are now in /usr/src

7.)  AUDIT  file software versions,  especially firmware files and DTB, 
DTC, and device driver files. use MD5HEAP software, so that one can 
audit and compare files to versions that have been tested to execute and 
run correctly.   Can we provide an text file of the AUDIT checksums for 
each source file that goes into the creation of a binary image file.

https://ghostbsd-arm64.blogspot.com/2021/05/audit-your-boot-files-with-md5deep.html 
Audit your boot files withe MD5deep software compiled for Arm64

https://ghostbsd-arm64.blogspot.com/2025/10/raspberry-pi-master-firmware-zip-file.html 
Raspberry Pi Master firmware files


Very excited to use the RPI 500 Keyboard with a USB SSD  Samsung T7 500 
GB model, to further create documentation and methods for booting up 
FreeBSD operating System.

https://ghostbsd-arm64.blogspot.com/2025/09/setting-up-freebsd-on-raspberry-pi-5.html 



List of ideas to work on:

1.)    What stepping revision do you have for which hardware model are 
you running.  C0 or D0 for the BCM2712

2.)  Report back what stepping and revision number is your RASpi5 , 
RASpi500, RASpi400, RASpi4B hardware

3.)   Use and improve the attached Python File to determine which 
steeping revision is your Broadcom 2712 SOC (System On a Chip )

4.)   Documentation in the Arm64 portion of the wiki.freebsd.org,   
Which ARM64 SOCs internally use the GIC3 model?  Good to support BHYVE 
Arm64 virtualization

5.)  Yes, to operate using FreeBSD software on a Raspberry Pi 5, this 
deep in the woods,  you have to be nerdy and have knowledge and tools at 
your disposal,  Make it simpler for the new users, please.  No nerdy 
dance methods to make hardware boot up with FreeBSD.  Just a single boot 
image file,  like what Raspberry Pi Operating System does.

6.)   Look at the Raspberry Pi Imager software that has hooks to allow 
additional manufactures operating system boot images to be downloaded 
and written into a blank MicroSD card or blank USB flash drive stick.

7.)  AUDIT  file software versions,  especially firmware files and DTB, 
DTC, and device driver files. use MD5DEEP audit software for files, so 
that one can audit and compare files to versions that have been tested 
to execute and run correctly.   Your version compared to what version 
has been tested to work.

8.)  Yes, I need to write up a bug report after I get the RPI500 
Keyboard operational with FreeBSD again.   I first tried to use CLI 
command "PKG install MD5DEEP"  with an image RPI  FreeBSD 15.0 Alpha 
5.   pkg  reported back the "/usr/etc/local/pkg" directory was missing 
and package exited back to the prompt. Directory path "/usr/etc/local"  
did exist.  But not sub directory "pkg"  Question:   Should the "pkg" 
command have created the missing directory it need to store information 
locally about which pkgs were installed?  OR should the created FreeBSD 
image  already have the directory path created and available, before 
starting and executing the pkg  command,  like  pkg list  or pkg search 
xyz     "pkg"  command just failed and exited.   I had to manually 
issued "sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/etc/pkg"  before the pkg would 
operate.   How would you have repaired this issue?   When you first boot 
one of these created binary images and then use command "pkg" to update; 
Does PKG command work for you on this new FreeBSD system?

What can you add to make ARM64 FreeBSD supported better for new to 
FreeBSD Users?   Written Documentation,  Bug reports.  FreeBSD revision 
entries.

Yes, very wordy and long mailing list post of ideas to improve the 
Raspberry Pi 5 image.   One could audit the Firmware files to verify 
that the latest Raspberry Pi Firmware files are being used. 
https://ghostbsd-arm64.blogspot.com/2025/10/raspberry-pi-master-firmware-zip-file.html

Fred Finster

https://ghostbsd-arm64.blogpost.com    Blog Posts 
http://ghostbsdarm64.hopto.org  My NGINX webserver with new compiled 
FreeBSD Arm64 versions of software.  Not operational today, but will be 
in the future.   2 attachments,   Screenshot of BCM2712 revisions.   
check_stepping.py  Python file to answer what revision number do you have?

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import subprocess

def get_revision():
    try:
        result = subprocess.run(['cat', '/proc/cpuinfo'], capture_output=True, text=True, check=True)
        for line in result.stdout.splitlines():
            if line.startswith('Revision'):
                return line.split(': ')[1].strip()
        return None
    except subprocess.CalledProcessError:
        return None

def check_d0_dmesg():
    try:
        result = subprocess.run(['dmesg'], capture_output=True, text=True, check=True)
        return 'bcm2712d0' in result.stdout.lower()
    except subprocess.CalledProcessError:
        return False

def check_iomem():
    try:
        result = subprocess.run(['cat', '/proc/iomem'], capture_output=True, text=True, check=True)
        return '107d517c00' in result.stdout
    except subprocess.CalledProcessError:
        return False

def check_config_txt():
    try:
        result = subprocess.run(['cat', '/boot/firmware/config.txt'], capture_output=True, text=True, check=True)
        return 'bcm2712d0' in result.stdout.lower()
    except subprocess.CalledProcessError:
        return False

def infer_stepping(rev):
    if rev is None:
        return "Unknown (could not read /proc/cpuinfo)"
    d0_indicators = [
        check_d0_dmesg(),
        check_iomem(),
        check_config_txt()
    ]
    if any(d0_indicators):
        return "D0 (confirmed by device tree, iomem, or config)"
    if rev == 'd04190':
        return "C0/C1 (likely, 8GB model, confirm with dmesg or iomem)"
    return "C0/C1 (default assumption)"

rev = get_revision()
print(f"Revision: {rev}")
print(f"Inferred Stepping: {infer_stepping(rev)}")
print("Run 'dmesg | grep -i bcm2712' or 'sudo cat /proc/iomem | grep gpio' for confirmation.")