User Guide

Tips

and

Tricks

Tips and Tricks

Quick Start Guide

The recommended sequence for someone new to the toolkit is:

1. Read this User Guide.

2. Flash the Intel Rapid Boot BIOS and the Generic Payload Capsule.

• Intel OFU can be used to flash the Intel Rapid Boot BIOS. Intel OFU is driven by a

configuration file. A sample configuration file can be found in the Intel OFU section of

this document. A single command BIOSNAME with the file name will suffice for a

BIOS update operation.

• Immediately after the BIOS update, a payload upload should be done with the

pyFlash utility.

3. Try out various commands with the kboot shell prompt in Generic Payload. For example,

try a kexec call to launch a second stage kernel from a network location.

4. Re-create the Generic Payload using the instructions in Section 6, “Sample Payloads.”

Payload Development

While developing payloads, Intel recommends using the Launcher Payload along with the

bzImage and initrd in a USB device. This ensures that the system will not be rendered

unusable if the payload does not boot for some reason.

While developing payloads, where possible, use Intel Server Board S5000AL or S5000SL.

These server boards have an additional layer of security called the “rolling BIOS” support

which gives the ability to switch BIOS banks (with the recovery jumper (J3H1)) if one of the

banks has a payload which will not boot. This feature was described in a previous section.

Ref# D96629-001 Intel

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