3.3 KiB
| title | date | draft | series | tags | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Booting a Raspberry Pi Over TFTP | 2020-10-13T08:31:52-07:00 | false |
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In order to do this, I modified the EEPROM bootloader bootloader according to the instructions in the Raspberry Pi documentation. That page is also on GitHub which might be a more stable location. On Raspbian on the RPi:
{{< figures/code lang=sh >}} fw=/lib/firmware/raspberrypi/bootloader/stable/pieeprom-2020-09-03.bin rpi-eeprom-config $fw > ~/bootconf.txt vi ~/bootconf.txt rpi-eeprom-config --out ~/pieeprom-new.bin --config ~/bootconf.txt $fw sudo rpi-eeprom-update -d -f ~/pieeprom-new.bin sudo reboot {{< /figures/code >}}
My updated bootconf.txt is:
{{< figures/code lang=cfg >}} [all] BOOT_UART=1 WAKE_ON_GPIO=0 POWER_OFF_ON_HALT=0 DHCP_TIMEOUT=45000 DHCP_REQ_TIMEOUT=4000 TFTP_FILE_TIMEOUT=30000 ENABLE_SELF_UPDATE=1 DISABLE_HDMI=0 BOOT_ORDER=0xf412 {{< /figures/code >}}
I enabled UART debugging, and set the boot order to be: network 0x2, SD card
0x1, USB mass storage 0x4, and finally reboot 0xf. These steps need to be
repeated if the bootloader is updated via apt.
I enabled the TFTP server on my Mac:
{{< figures/code lang=sh >}} sudo launchctl load -F /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/tftp.plist sudo launchctl enable System/com.apple.tftpd sudo launchctl start com.apple.tftpd {{< /figures/code >}}
I’m not sure if the enable command is actually necessary. This doesn't
actually start the tftpd daemon. Instead, macOS starts the daemon on demand
when it notices an incoming tftp request on the network. Don't be alarmed!
The tftp server looks for files to serve out of /private/tftpboot, and those
things need to be world rwx, i.e. 777. By default (this is configurable) the
RPi queries for a directory named by its serial number.
{{< figures/code lang=sh >}} mkdir /private/tftpboot/$raspberry_pi_serial chmod 777 /private/tftpboot chmod -R 777 /private/tftpboot/* {{< /figures/code >}}
RPi looks for files of various names in that directory, one in particular by the name of start.elf.
Next, I had to update my Ubiquiti router's DHCP server configuration (on the
command line) to pass a tftp-server parameter in the DHCP payload. This step
may be optional because you can also set TFTP_IP in the bootconf.txt above
to specify the IP directly. On my router:
{{< figures/code lang=sh >}} configure set service dhcp-server shared-network-name LAN subnet $lan_cidr_subnet tftp-server-name $ip_of_mac commit save exit {{< /figures/code >}}
I also gave my Mac a static IP, and renewed the DHCP lease so it took the new IP to make the whole process a little more smooth. Now, it appears the RPi will attempt a TFTP boot, and I see queries in the logs on my Mac.