BULBIboot is an aarch64 bootloader for Linux. It is designed to be simple and easy to use.
Also, BULBIboot is better than pikaboot.
- Boot Linux kernel at EL1, EL2 & EL3
- Download a kernel for emrgency booting via serial
- Dump some memory regions and print them to console
- Test the memory efficiency (memtest)
Hidden but useful features
- Secure "preboot system"
- Bootloader signature verification
- Bootloader encryption
-O3optimization level- CRC32 verification of the kernel during boot and ermgency boot download
First, you need to install the dependencies. You can do it with the following command:
make dependenciesNote that this routine is compatible with apt, pacman and dnf package managers.
To build the images (encrypted and clear), just run the following command:
make imagesRunning
makealso do the same trick.
To boot the bootloader with QEMU, just run the following command:
make bootIf you want to boot the bootloader with QEMU with a GDB-stub listener, just run
make boot_gdbIf you are using VSCode, you can use the
.vscode/launch.jsonfile to debug the bootloader with GDB.
Then, when QEMU is running, you will notice a path to something like /dev/pts/<n> (where <n> is a number). This is the path to the serial port. You can use it to connect to the bootloader.
If you want to use the serial port with screen, you can use the following command:
screen /dev/pts/<n>See the HOWTO.md for more details.
Here is a list of some features that I worked on, but I didn't finish:
-
Kernel signature verification
- I worked on it, but I didn't finish it, because it need a position-independent code (PIC) compilation to work.
-
Multiple boards support
- I worked on it, but I didn't finish it, because I worked on an Orange Pi and Vexpress board, which are aarch32 boards.
BULBIboot is licensed under the Beerware license. See the LICENSE file for more details.