Bootware Preview

Bootware Release Schedule:

• Bootware 1.0 - April 2024
• Bootware Preview (deprecated) – February 2024. Limited functionality. Not intended for Production.

Notable changes from Bootware Preview to GA Bootware 1.0

Utility name changes: The following utilities changed names:

Updates:

Bootware Preview 2.1 (Jan 10, 2024)

Issue #140 : Bootware Preview 2.0 has an issue with uboot and cached environment variables. This is a uboot issue but it affects bootware during kernel/os upgrades that include device tree changes. It is highly likely that a device tree area change can leave the system in an unbootable state. u-boot will fail with a “Flattened Device Tree” error and fail to boot. This has been fixed in Preview 2.1 (01092024). zboot version in green will read 0.3.1. Bootware Preview has been updated to include the fix for this issue, along with the example image.

BOOTWARE PREVIEW FEATURE SET (October 2023)

Bootware Preview is designed for customers to do the following:

1. Transfer a Raspberry Pi CM4 image to an SCM
2. Replicate an SCM “golden image” to other SCMs
3. Store an original golden image in one eMMC partition plus a copy for development in a second partition, allowing regression to the original golden image at will

To achieve this functionality, Bootware Preview provides the following new SCM functionality:

1. The ability to make and update two partitions (A/B), managed by a partition supervisor called zboot.
2. A zboot methodology to load (and subsequently reload) the A/B partitions from a USB or a URL endpoint
3. The ability to manually select to boot from one partition or the other.
4. Initial tools and scripts for creating and loading images into the A/B partitions.
5. Automatic rollback and recovery of A/B partitions.

Important Bootware Preview Restrictions

1. Two partitions (A/B) are supported. A shared data partition is not included in the Preview.
2. In an A/B partition layout, the maximum SCM partition size is 14.4 GB. Images larger than 14.4 GB should not be attempted.
3. Only load SCM or CM4 images that have been tested. The Preview unit cannot recover if it cannot access the zboot bootloader. “bare metal recovery” is not included in the Preview.
4. The Zymbit SCM uses its own/boot/config.txt that both enables zboot and the dwc2 driver. Do not enable otg_mode in config.txt.
5. USB storage devices most likely require a powered hub when using the Zymbit Secure Edge Node or Zymbit Dev IO board. Failure to do so may result in the SCM rebooting.
6. Only RaspberryPI OS Bullseye64-based images are supported by the Preview. For other images, please contact Zymbit for verification
7. Image security features are not enabled in the Preview release. Secure image rollback and recovery features will be implemented in the final release.

Using zboot - Hardened Zymbit boot utility

Zboot is Zymbit’s boot utility included with Bootware that pulls and reflashes a device with a new user image. In the current Preview, the image can be downloaded two ways:

• over the network via https
• from a USB storage device

Getting Started - Download and Install Bootware Software

Download the Bootware software to the SCM. The Bootware software can be downloaded with curl:

curl https://zk-sw-repo.s3.amazonaws.com/ota_preview/zymbit-ota-preview.tgz --output zymbit-ota-preview.tgz

Once the tar file is downloaded, untar:

tar xvzf zymbit-ota-preview.tgz

The contents will be extracted into zymbit-ota-preview/. Files extracted:

Run the following install script on the SCM to install the zboot utilities:

cd zymbit-ota-preview
sudo ./install_zboot_tools.sh

Installing zboot tools...
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
…
Installing zboot...
Done!
After installing the zboot tools. A reboot is required. Reboot now? (Y/n)

Reboot to complete the installation process. Once completed, all necessary files required for loading new images via zboot will be installed.

Installing and running zboot to reflash an image

zboot requires images in a particular format unique to zboot. An image conversion tool is provided. Input images can be either complete binary images of your entire eMMC or tarballs of your /boot and /rootfs partitions. NOTE: This does not have to be done on the running device. The script can be run on any workstation.

If you would like to get started with a sample image, we’ve converted the base image installed on the SCM for the preview to a zboot format. Otherwise, continue on to create your own image. Our example image can be downloaded from here, or you can use the URL as a valid endpoint to load a known good image:

curl https://zk-sw-repo.s3.amazonaws.com/ota_preview/base_preview.zi --output base_preview.zi

The script used to convert to a zboot image is:

zymbit-image-converter [ test.img | {-b <boot.tar> -r <root.tar} | -z ] [-o <directory> ]  
    test.img	      Binary image file of eMMC (e.g. created from dd). Name of output image need not match.  
    -b	<boot.tar>    Use this boot tarball as input. Must include -r option.  
    -r  <root.tar>    Use this root tarball as input. Must include -b option.  
    -o  <directory>   Output directory for new .zi image.  
    -z                Creates a zi image from your current running root file system.  

Examples of Image conversions:

Example to create a zi image from your current running root file system

sudo zymbit-image-converter -z

Example to convert a binary image file (created from dd if=/dev/sda bs=4M of=my.img):

sudo zymbit-image-converter my.img

The script will prompt for information:

The script extracts the boot/root tarballs of the binary image. It will then packages it up in a Zymbit image and output it to:

/etc/zymbit/zboot/update_artifacts/output/base_preview.zi

Example to convert boot/root tarballs (created from tar cvf my_boot.tar <boot_part>, tar cvf my_rfs.tar <root_part>)

You will need to provide the names and paths to your tarballs. Run the script:

sudo zymbit-image-converter -b ./boot.tar -r ./root.tar

The script will prompt for information:

The script extracts the boot/root tarballs of the binary image. It will then package it up in a Zymbit image and output it to:

/etc/zymbit/zboot/update_artifacts/output/base_preview.zi

Put the .zi image from the script on a server or USB drive for download. Zboot downloads images from either a USB storage device or the internet via curl requests.

Use the Bootware Wizard to Configure your System

Bootware Preview includes a a tool to help configure your system called zb-wizard. zb-wizard is meant to set your device environment up for pulling down updates from a configured endpoint and the update policies for how to apply those updates. Bootware recommends update policies with A/B schema to have a stable backup partition for rollback. To start the wizard,

sudo zb-wizard

Choose your settings as described below.

Bootware Wizard -Main Screen

Partition Setup – Specifies the device partition layout after an update. The root file system will be re-partitioned with your chosen configuration. Filesystem sizes estimates are based off of 32GB CM4s.

• 1 A Only [HALF DISK] – This will take the remaining disk space available after the boot partition and create an encrypted partition that will use half of this space as the root partition (around 14.4 GB). This leaves half the disk empty on purpose for dev usage.

• 2 A only [FULL DISK] – This will take the remaining disk space available after the boot partition (around ~29GB) and create an encrypted partition that will use almost all of this space as the root partition.

• 3 A/B – RECOMMENDED This will take the remaining disk space available after the boot partition and create two encrypted partitions, each taking up half of the remaining space (around 14.4 GB). Most useful for rollback and recovery with an Active/Backup configuration.

Update Policy – The update policies are centered around how a new update gets applied to the filesystems on the device. The update policies listed below are only related to (A)ctive/(B)ackup partitioned devices, as (A)ctive only devices only have one filesystem to update.

• 1 Backup – RECOMMENDED Apply new updates to current backup filesystem and swap to booting the new updated backup partition as the active partition now. If the new update is bad, it will rollback into the previous stable active partition. Only relevant when configured with A/B partitions.

• 2 Active – Apply new updates to only the current active filesystem and keep the backup partition untouched. Only relevant when configured with A/B partitions.

• 3 Both – Apply new updates to both filesystems and always boot on the first root partition as the active partition. Warning: A bad update will have nothing to rollback to; the device will have to go through a recovery process.

Endpoint Setup – The configured endpoint ready with a new update(.zi image). The endpoint can be either an https URL or an external mass storage device like a USB stick.

• Endpoint – Type the endpoint where the .zi image resides for the device to pull updates from. The endpoint will be checked for validity.

  Example https URL: https://zk-sw-repo.s3.amazonaws.com/ota_preview/base_preview.zi
  Example USB stick: /dev/sda1

Wireless Setup – Bootware supports pulling updates via Wifi or LAN connections. Wifi credentials need to be provided in order for bootware to access the wifi during updates. If no wireless credentials are provided, the wireless interface is disabled in zboot.

• SSID - Provide the Wifi SSID
• Passphrase - Provide the Wifi passphrase

Save and Exit. You may also choose to Revert to the default configuration.

Use zboot to Install the New Image

Once you have completed using the Wizard to configure your Bootware, run zboot-install-new-update to complete the process by repartitioning and loading your image.

sudo zboot-install-new-update

The script will show your configuration for review and confirmation, or give you the option to change the configuration. This method can be used as an alternative to using the Wizaard.

zboot-install-new-update

The script will prompt for a reboot to complete the process.

zboot Boot Process

The Zboot process will now take place.

On the console, you will see:

• “Loading: Encrypted zboot please wait…” message, which takes around 4-5min.
• The A/B partitions will be configured and setup for LUKS encryption protected by the Zymbit SCM
• It will then take a few minutes to get/unpack tarballs from the image.
• It will take some time to unpack the image into the A/B root partitions - approximately 7 minutes, each.
• Once it’s done unpacking the image to the A and B partitions, it will boot into the updated ACTIVE partition. You can use lsblk to examine the partitions.

Reload all utilities

The Bootware utilities are needed for Bootware to function. If not included in your newly loaded image, you will need to load the utilities into your partition(s). Our example zi file base_preview.zi has the Bootware Utilities pre-loaded.

Recovery

Each successful boot will clear a max_boot_failure counter. A max_boot_failure count of 3 will trigger the recovery mechanism. The BACKUP partition will become the ACTIVE partition. If neither can boot, the endpoint with a good image will be loaded. A ROLLOVER notification message will be added to the MOTD.

Force Failover (Change Active/Backup partitions)

A failover from Active to Backup is done with the -r option to zboot-install-new-update

sudo zboot-install-new-update -r

Uninstall Bootware

A utility is included to uninstall bootware, returning to the standard linux boot process. The uninstall process will leave you in the current encrypted active partition and preserve the contents of that partion as well as the overall partition layout.

cd ~/zymbit-ota-preview
sudo ./uninstall_zboot.sh

The script will confirm you would like to uninstall the bootware scripts and artifacts, as well as a required reboot.

Additional Information and Support

Contact Support