Posts

Showing posts from January, 2025

RPI 4B ARM64 booting up sequence details

Image
RPI 4B ARM64 booting up sequence details  FIRMWARE Files:   https://github.com/FreeBSD-Ask/FreeBSD-rpi4-firmware/tree/main/EFI/BOOT The boot process for an ARM64 (AArch64) operating system on a Raspberry Pi involves several steps, particularly because of the unique way the Raspberry Pi uses its GPU for initial booting. Here’s a detailed overview: Boot Process Overview : GPU Initialization : Unlike typical ARM devices, the Raspberry Pi's boot process starts with the GPU. The GPU is active first and uses the proprietary firmware ( bootcode.bin ) to initialize the SDRAM. Loading Bootloaders : bootcode.bin : This is the first stage bootloader, which is stored on the SD card. It enables SDRAM and loads the next stage bootloader ( loader.bin ). loader.bin : The second stage bootloader, which then loads start.elf or start4.elf (for Pi 4 models). Kernel Loading : start.elf handles further GPU initialization and potentially loads the device tree blob (DTB) files if present. It ...