Board Inspector Tool¶

This guide describes all features and uses of the tool.

About the Board Inspector Tool¶

The board inspector tool board_inspector.py enables you to generate a board configuration file on the target system. The board configuration file stores hardware-specific information extracted from the target platform and is used to customize your ACRN configuration.

Generate a Board Configuration File¶

Important

Whenever you change the configuration of the board, such as BIOS settings, additional memory, or PCI devices, you must generate a new board configuration file.

The following steps describe all options in the board inspector for generating a board configuration file.

Make sure the target system is set up and ready to run the board inspector, according to Prepare the Target and Generate a Board Configuration File in the Getting Started Guide.
Load the msr driver, used by the board inspector:
```
sudo modprobe msr
```
Run the board inspector tool (board_inspector.py) to generate the board configuration file. This example assumes the tool is in the ~/acrn-work/ directory and my_board is the desired file name. Feel free to modify the commands as needed.
```
cd ~/acrn-work/board_inspector/
sudo python3 board_inspector.py my_board
```
Upon success, the tool displays the following message:
```
PTCT table has been saved to PTCT successfully!
```
Confirm that the board configuration file my_board.xml was generated in the current directory.

Command-Line Options¶

You can configure the board inspector via command-line options. Running the board inspector with the -h option yields the following usage message:

usage: board_inspector.py [-h] [--out OUT] [--basic] [--loglevel LOGLEVEL]
             [--check-device-status] board_name

positional arguments:
  board_name            the name of the board that runs the ACRN hypervisor

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --out OUT             the name of board info file
  --basic               do not extract advanced information such as ACPI namespace
  --loglevel LOGLEVEL   choose log level, e.g. info, warning or error
  --check-device-status

                        filter out devices whose _STA object evaluates to 0

Details about certain arguments:

Argument	Details
`board_name`	Required. The board name is used as the file name of the board configuration file and is placed inside the file for other tools to read.
`--out`	Optional. Specify a file path where the board configuration file will be saved (example: `~/acrn_work`). If only a filename is provided in this option, the board inspector will generate the file in the current directory.
`--basic`	Optional. By default, the board inspector parses the ACPI namespace when generating board configuration files. This option provides a way to disable ACPI namespace parsing in case the parsing blocks the generation of board configuration files.
`--loglevel`	Optional. Choose log level, e.g., info, warning or error. (Default is warning.)
`--check-device-status`	Optional. On some boards, the device status (reported by the _STA object) returns 0 while the device object is still useful for pass-through devices. By default, the board inspector includes the devices in the board configuration file. This option filters out the devices, so that they cannot be used.