Shell Interface

SBL comes with a built-in shell interface for diagnosis and debugging purpose. It allows one to examine platform state (e.g., dump memory content, PCI configuration registers, etc.), change boot configuration and trouble shoot before launching OS.

Developers can also add their own shell commands for unit testing.

To enter shell interface, press any key after reboot and before OS is launched.

Built-in shell commands:

Shell> help
boot     - Print or modify the OS boot option list
cdata    - Display configuration data.
cls      - Clear console
cpuid    - Read CPU specific information
dmesg    - Print messages stored in boot log buffer
exit     - Exit the shell
fs       - filesystem access command
fwupdate - Initiate Firmware Update
help     - List supported commands
hob      - List HOBs
mm       - Read or write memory, PCI config space, or IO ports
mmap     - Display memory map
mmcdll   - Tune or print MMC DLL data
msr      - Read or write model specific registers
mtrr     - Display current MTRR configuration
pappend  - Append extra parameters to the boot option's command line
pci      - Display PCI devices
perf     - Display performance data
reset    - Reset the system
ucode    - Display microcode version
usbdev   - Display USB Devices

Use ‘-h’ to get help message for a command.

Note

For small image footprint or security reasons, one can exclude shell module from SBL in release builds.