[OE-core] REPLACEMENT: Gummiboot to Systemd-boot

[Jianxun Zhang]

Dear All,
The gummiboot has been merged into systemd project and is “systemd-boot” now. The project at the location referred in recipes is obsoleted and not maintained any more. The systemd-boot provides same functionality of gummiboot from my understanding and test. Seeing no much benefit to keep gummiboot, we suggest to replace it with systemd-boot in OE.

Please refer to the below list for a proposed plan and what’s done on systemd-boot so far.

() Build systemd-boot without dependency on the rest of systemd (merged in OE master)

() wic plugin & wks for systemd-boot (merged in OE master)

() New test cases by QA (done)

() New test target by QA (done)

() Overall document update for the replacement (patch in bz9707, reviewed)

() Propose the plan (this letter)

() If you have any work derived from gummiboot like patches, scripts, recipes or bbclasses in your layers, you will have to migrate such work onto systemd-boot accordingly. If you find any features gummiboot supports but not available on systemd-boot yet, please let us know and we will re-evaluate the situation before taking the next step.

() Purge all implementation around gummiboot in OE after, say, 30 days. All gummiboot functions are still available in this period until cleaning up starts. Feel free to suggest us another time line if you need. Change in documentation could happen prior to this step.

To enable systemd-boot, use the same interface for gummiboot and other EFI bootloaders:
EFI_PROVIDER = "systemd-boot"

We appreciate help from groups (BSP dev, QA, documentation...) in this task.

Any feedback is welcome.

Thanks