WinPE Boot

Important

This feature might not be applicable to all Platforms. Please check individual Platform pages, section Supported Features to confirm if this feature is listed as supported.

Note

This section assumes the user has completed the chapter Getting Started and has a functional working environment.

Neoverse Reference Design (RD) platform software stack supports the boot of Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE) on RD platforms. A pre-built WinPE disk image is connected as a SATA disk to the fixed virtual platform (FVP). During boot, the platform firmware detects the connected WinPE disk image and boots from it.

Build the platform software

This section describes the procedure to build the platform firmware required to boot WinPE on Neoverse RD platforms.

To build the RD software stack, the command to be used is

./build-scripts/build-test-uefi.sh -p <platform name> <command>

Supported command line options are listed below

  • <platform name>

  • <command>

    • clean

    • build

    • package

    • all (all of the three above)

Examples of the build command are

  • Command to clean, build and package the RD-N2 software stack required for WinPE boot on the RD-N2 platform:

    ./build-scripts/build-test-uefi.sh -p rdn2 all

  • Command to remove the generated outputs (binaries) of the software stack for the RD-N2 platform:

    ./build-scripts/build-test-uefi.sh -p rdn2 clean

  • Command to perform an incremental build of the software components included in the software stack for the RD-N2 platform:

    ./build-scripts/build-test-uefi.sh -p rdn2 build

Note

This command should be followed by the package command to complete the preparation of the fip image.

  • Command to package the previously built software stack and prepares the fip image:

    ./build-scripts/build-test-uefi.sh -p rdn2 package

Obtain the WinPE disk image

Obtain a pre-built WinPE disk image to use it as the disk image to boot from. Refer to this page for more information.

Note

WinPE version should be 20262 or higher.

Boot WinPE

To boot from the WinPE disk image, the commands to be used are:

  • Set MODEL path before launching the model:

    export MODEL=<absolute path to the platform FVP binary>

  • If platform is SGI-575:

    cd model-scripts/sgi

  • If platform is an RD:

    cd model-scripts/rdinfra

  • Launch the FVP to boot WinPE:

    ./distro.sh -p <platform name> -d <satadisk_path> -a <additional_params> -n [true|false]

Supported command line options are listed below

  • -p <platform name>

  • -d <satadisk_path>

    • Absolute path to the WinPE disk image created using the previous section.

  • -n [true|false] (optional)

    • Controls the use of network ports by the model. If network ports have to be enabled, use ‘true’ as the option. Default value is set to ‘false’.

  • -a <additional_params> (optional)

    • Specify any additional model parameters to be passed. The model parameters and the data to be passed to those parameters can be found in the FVP documentation.

Example commands to boot WinPE are as listed below.

  • Command to begin the WinPE boot on the RD-N2 platform using a WinPE_arm64.iso pre-built disk image. Follow the instructions on console to complete the WinPE boot.

    ./distro.sh -p rdn2 -d /absolute/path/to/WinPE_arm64.iso