OT: Crowdfunding to port OpenBMC to Asus KGPE-D16

OT: Crowdfunding to port OpenBMC to Asus KGPE-D16

[Paul Menzel]

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[Please CC me, as I am not subscribed.]

Dear OpenBMC people,


If you haven’t heard yet, there is a crowdfunding campaign going on to
fund a port of OpenBMC to the Asus KGPE-D16 [1].

The free firmware coreboot [2] runs on that board, and no BLOBs have to
be used with it. Having OpenBMC run on that board, would be the last
step, to have a fully free, owner-controlled server mainboard. I am
citing a message from Timothy to the coreboot mailing list below from
February 6th, 2017 [3].

> As of today, we have $10,250 pledged out of $20,000 required to start
> work on the OpenBMC support for KGPE-D16 systems using coreboot.  Raptor
> is, as before, contributing an additional $25,000+ toward development
> should the $20,000 community goal be reached.
> 
> If you would like to help get this port started, please contact Martin
> Roth (gaumless@gmail.com) with information on what you would like to
> pledge.  This offer is time limited; we are looking to end the offer in
> the next month or so, so if this is something you would like to see
> please step up and contribute something to this goal!
> 
> As a general reminder, the KGPE-D16 is the last, most powerful
> owner-controllable X86 workstation / server class machine available.  It
> is still in production along with its Opteron CPUs, so it occupies a
> unique position in coreboot's tree.  Providing a libre BMC for this
> system could help adoption of coreboot in server environments,
> strengthening its position some in the market.

As of today there are still $6,000 USD missing. As the coreboot
community does not seem big enough to fund such a project, I am kindly
asking you for support. If you can’t or don’t want to spend money, it’d
be great if you could spread the word (Twitter message [4]).


Thanks,

Paul


[1] https://www.raptorengineering.com/coreboot/kgpe-d16-bmc-port-offer.php
[2] https://www.coreboot.org/
[3] https://www.coreboot.org/pipermail/coreboot/2017-February/083176.html
[4] https://twitter.com/RaptorEng/status/833738989840584704

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Re: OT: Crowdfunding to port OpenBMC to Asus KGPE-D16

[Rick Altherr]

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I replied to Raptor's tweet asking why they preferred Facebook's OpenBMC
over the IBM one. I find it odd that you are asking developers on the
latter to fund development for the former.

Rick

On Sun, Feb 26, 2017 at 10:49 AM, Paul Menzel <
paulepanter@users.sourceforge.net> wrote:

> [Please CC me, as I am not subscribed.]
>
> Dear OpenBMC people,
>
>
> If you haven’t heard yet, there is a crowdfunding campaign going on to
> fund a port of OpenBMC to the Asus KGPE-D16 [1].
>
> The free firmware coreboot [2] runs on that board, and no BLOBs have to
> be used with it. Having OpenBMC run on that board, would be the last
> step, to have a fully free, owner-controlled server mainboard. I am
> citing a message from Timothy to the coreboot mailing list below from
> February 6th, 2017 [3].
>
> > As of today, we have $10,250 pledged out of $20,000 required to start
> > work on the OpenBMC support for KGPE-D16 systems using coreboot.  Raptor
> > is, as before, contributing an additional $25,000+ toward development
> > should the $20,000 community goal be reached.
> >
> > If you would like to help get this port started, please contact Martin
> > Roth (gaumless@gmail.com) with information on what you would like to
> > pledge.  This offer is time limited; we are looking to end the offer in
> > the next month or so, so if this is something you would like to see
> > please step up and contribute something to this goal!
> >
> > As a general reminder, the KGPE-D16 is the last, most powerful
> > owner-controllable X86 workstation / server class machine available.  It
> > is still in production along with its Opteron CPUs, so it occupies a
> > unique position in coreboot's tree.  Providing a libre BMC for this
> > system could help adoption of coreboot in server environments,
> > strengthening its position some in the market.
>
> As of today there are still $6,000 USD missing. As the coreboot
> community does not seem big enough to fund such a project, I am kindly
> asking you for support. If you can’t or don’t want to spend money, it’d
> be great if you could spread the word (Twitter message [4]).
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Paul
>
>
> [1] https://www.raptorengineering.com/coreboot/kgpe-d16-bmc-port-offer.php
> [2] https://www.coreboot.org/
> [3] https://www.coreboot.org/pipermail/coreboot/2017-February/083176.html
> [4] https://twitter.com/RaptorEng/status/833738989840584704

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Re: OT: Crowdfunding to port OpenBMC to Asus KGPE-D16

[Timothy Pearson]

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On 02/27/2017 03:01 PM, Rick Altherr wrote:
> I replied to Raptor's tweet asking why they preferred Facebook's OpenBMC
> over the IBM one. I find it odd that you are asking developers on the
> latter to fund development for the former.
> 
> Rick

Perhaps I should clarify a bit.

The KGPE-D16 uses an older ASpeed device not supported by either version
of OpenBMC.  This ASpeed device is not only limited in computational
power, but ASUS limited the device further in the board design to the
point where we are not sure that the IBM OpenBMC will actually fit or
work without hardware modifications (in fact, I am fairly certain
hardware modifications would be required).  Given our past experience
with crowdfunding efforts we prioritized the total project cost over the
more expansive feature set of IBM's OpenBMC in order to get something
functional into the community's hands.  We hope that once the larger
community has had a chance to experience software freedom on the BMC
level using lower-cost commercially available hardware that they will
support the manufacturers (such as IBM) that are selling hardware with
OpenBMC available.

We have also added a stretch goal to the project to initiate a port of
IBM's OpenBMC, built on the common code and reverse engineering efforts
from the base Facebook port.  This process is expected to involve
creating new hardware to replace the limited firmware module of the
KGPE-D16, as well as integrating new x86-specific drivers into the
upstream IBM OpenBMC tree.  Perhaps this stretch goal is more
interesting to the members on this list?

Thanks!

- -- 
Timothy Pearson
Raptor Engineering
+1 (415) 727-8645 (direct line)
+1 (512) 690-0200 (switchboard)
https://www.raptorengineering.com
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Re: OT: Crowdfunding to port OpenBMC to Asus KGPE-D16

[Rick Altherr]

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I'm assuming the core work of booting u-boot and linux on the BMC used
on KGPE-D16
(AST2300?) is usable by both projects.  I'll gladly support bringup on a
new SoC as long as the patches are headed to mainline linux and u-boot.

AFAIK, the only limit on whether IBM OpenBMC can be used is the amount of
RAM and flash available.  My work on a Quanta Q71L has it booting on an
AST2400 with 128MB of RAM and 32MB of flash.

My concerns with contributing to the campaign are that I don't understand
what work is planned and where those changes will end up.

Rick

On Mon, Feb 27, 2017 at 1:15 PM, Timothy Pearson <
tpearson@raptorengineering.com> wrote:

> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> On 02/27/2017 03:01 PM, Rick Altherr wrote:
> > I replied to Raptor's tweet asking why they preferred Facebook's OpenBMC
> > over the IBM one. I find it odd that you are asking developers on the
> > latter to fund development for the former.
> >
> > Rick
>
> Perhaps I should clarify a bit.
>
> The KGPE-D16 uses an older ASpeed device not supported by either version
> of OpenBMC.  This ASpeed device is not only limited in computational
> power, but ASUS limited the device further in the board design to the
> point where we are not sure that the IBM OpenBMC will actually fit or
> work without hardware modifications (in fact, I am fairly certain
> hardware modifications would be required).  Given our past experience
> with crowdfunding efforts we prioritized the total project cost over the
> more expansive feature set of IBM's OpenBMC in order to get something
> functional into the community's hands.  We hope that once the larger
> community has had a chance to experience software freedom on the BMC
> level using lower-cost commercially available hardware that they will
> support the manufacturers (such as IBM) that are selling hardware with
> OpenBMC available.
>
> We have also added a stretch goal to the project to initiate a port of
> IBM's OpenBMC, built on the common code and reverse engineering efforts
> from the base Facebook port.  This process is expected to involve
> creating new hardware to replace the limited firmware module of the
> KGPE-D16, as well as integrating new x86-specific drivers into the
> upstream IBM OpenBMC tree.  Perhaps this stretch goal is more
> interesting to the members on this list?
>
> Thanks!
>
> - --
> Timothy Pearson
> Raptor Engineering
> +1 (415) 727-8645 (direct line)
> +1 (512) 690-0200 (switchboard)
> https://www.raptorengineering.com
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Re: OT: Crowdfunding to port OpenBMC to Asus KGPE-D16

[Timothy Pearson]

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On 02/27/2017 03:24 PM, Rick Altherr wrote:
> I'm assuming the core work of booting u-boot and linux on the BMC used
> on KGPE-D16 (AST2300?) is usable by both projects.

Exactly.

I'll gladly support
> bringup on a new SoC as long as the patches are headed to mainline linux
> and u-boot.

This would be part of the third stretch goal (IBM OpenBMC support).  Any
of the stretch goals can be funded in any order, and you can also
earmark a contribution specifically for any of the stretch goal(s) you
may be interested in.

To keep the overall costs reasonable and to allow adapting to the needs
of the community, the base goal consists of a port of the Facebook
OpenBMC system, released as a buildable source tree, and includes
creation and upstreaming of the necessary changes to coreboot and
flashrom.  More advanced features are then implemented as stretch goals,
including the work of trying to upstream the drivers into Linux and u-boot.

> AFAIK, the only limit on whether IBM OpenBMC can be used is the amount
> of RAM and flash available.  My work on a Quanta Q71L has it booting on
> an AST2400 with 128MB of RAM and 32MB of flash.

The KGPE-D16 is even more limited than that.  Even making Facebook's
OpenBMC function on an unmodified KGPE-D16 will be an interesting challenge.

> My concerns with contributing to the campaign are that I don't
> understand what work is planned and where those changes will end up.

I hope this has helped clarify some.  If you have any other questions
please feel free to ask!

Timothy Pearson
Raptor Engineering
+1 (415) 727-8645 (direct line)
+1 (512) 690-0200 (switchboard)
https://www.raptorengineering.com
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Re: OT: Crowdfunding to port OpenBMC to Asus KGPE-D16

[Paul Menzel]

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Dear Rick,


Am Montag, den 27.02.2017, 13:01 -0800 schrieb Rick Altherr:
> I replied to Raptor's tweet asking why they preferred Facebook's OpenBMC
> over the IBM one. I find it odd that you are asking developers on the
> latter to fund development for the former.

I am sorry about that. It was solely my ignorance. I just search for
*OpenBMC* and *mailing list*, and used that list address. I didn’t know
that there is a Facebook OpenBMC and an IBM one, as I had just read
about Facebook’s OpenBMC a few years ago in the press, and nothing
else.

Now I am smarter, and hope that will get IBM’s OpenBMC funded and
running on that device/board too.

So please spread the word.


Thanks,

Paul

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