Where's the docs?

[Samuel Mendoza-Jonas]

On Fri, 2016-12-16 at 19:17 +0100, Michal Suchánek wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> it seems IBM has adopted Petitboot as part of their server firmware.
> 
> I totally hate it. There is no documentation whatsoever.
> 
> I found this page
> 
> https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/geoff/petitboot/petitboot.html
> 
> which has a few "man pages" with no information whatsoever how to use
> the software and a few presentations scattered over the net boasting
> how awesome this thing is.

Hi Michal,

I agree that the Petitboot documentation could do with some work, however
there are a few resources available. In particular the IBM Knowledge Center
has several sections on Petitboot, such as
http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/linuxonibm/liabp/liabppetitboot.htm

Jeremy Kerr also has some detailed information on his blog, especially this
article on netboot:
http://jk.ozlabs.org/blog/post/158/netbooting-petitboot/

And there are also some blog posts on the STHBRX blog, although these are more
general-interest rather than documentation:
https://sthbrx.github.io/

Additionally most screens in the Petitboot interface have an associated help
screen that you can access with the 'h' key or the 'Help' button. Did you
find these helpful?

> 
> So what it actually does it that it scans any devices it finds for any
> bootloader configuration it understands. Then it picks by some
> undefined algorithm a default system to boot and timeout.

Petitboot picks what to boot based on a) the device priority you have selected
and b) the default option specified by the bootloader configuration.
Do you know which version of Petitboot (or the IBM firmware) you are running?
You should see that the device boot order is configurable in the "System
Configuration" screen.

> 
> So to boot the system *you* want to boot you connect to the virtual
> console, put a mug on your keyboard in case the timeout picked is very
> short, select the system in the menu, etc.

I'm very familar with the timeout problem, but you can also adjust the timeout
value in the Configuration screen :)

> 
> There is an option to add and remove boot menu entries in the cui.
> Sadly, I found no way to just pick the default. Also any changes are
> lost on reboot, anyway.

What do you mean by changes are lost on reboot? Sounds like your machine may
have an issue there, could you provide some more detail on what you are seeing?

Cheers,
Sam

> 
> Is there any documentation on using petitboot at all?
> 
> Since you already went to the length of writing a bootloader that you
> present as almost the next best thing since sliced bread could you share
> enough information about it so one can get at least the functionality of
> the legacy PC BIOS?
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Michal
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