Installing UEFI Firmware on ARM SBCs
10 days ago
- #UEFI
- #Rock5ITX
- #LinuxARM
- The Rock 5 ITX+ is a versatile Mini-ITX board with features like ATX power, PoE support, eMMC storage, and M.2 slots.
- Booting from microSD is inconvenient, leading to the exploration of UEFI firmware (EDK2-RK3588) for USB booting.
- Armbian 25.2.2 Noble Gnome is used to flash the UEFI firmware onto the SPI flash.
- EDK2-RK3588 enables booting generic ARM Linux images, but requires kernel 6.15+ for full hardware acceleration.
- Fedora Rawhide and Ubuntu 25.10 were tested, with Ubuntu providing better out-of-the-box functionality.
- NetBSD was briefly tested and booted successfully but not installed.
- The goal was to avoid microSD hassles for rackmounting, though SD extenders are a simpler alternative.
- Current EDK2 + RK3588 support is functional but not perfect, with kernel 6.15 being a key requirement for full features.
- The Rock 5 ITX+ is not yet rackmounted due to these challenges.