Hi Varun,
Yes, that’s possible.
But if firmware deletes Bert records from non-volatile memory before Kernel boots, there is a possibility that Kernel gets crash even before it can dump bert records and bert records will be lost forever.
Proper solution would be – Kernel let firmware know that it has consumed bert or in some other way firmware can confirm that Kernel is booted till prompt and now it is safe to delete all bert records.
Thanks
Regards, Jaiprakash
From: Varun Wadekar vwadekar@nvidia.com Sent: Tuesday, March 17, 2026 10:18 PM To: Jaiprakash Singh jaiprakashs@marvell.com; tf-a@lists.trustedfirmware.org; Manish Pandey manish.pandey2@arm.com Cc: George Cherian gcherian@marvell.com; Ashwin Kumar Sundararamakrishnan asundararama@marvell.com Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: BERT Record Erase Only After Kernel Consumes
Hi, In this sequence, is it possible for firmware to delete the non-volatile memory contents after copying to GHES DRAM buffer in step 6? -Varun From: Jaiprakash Singh <jaiprakashs@ marvell. com> Date: Tuesday, 17 March 2026 at 10: 26 To: ZjQcmQRYFpfptBannerStart Prioritize security for external emails: Confirm sender and content safety before clicking links or opening attachments Report Suspicious https://us-phishalarm-ewt.proofpoint.com/EWT/v1/CRVmXkqW!uq3XGZ_4rnsUuiHyGP00LrjAUK815a_yzvENdn41oDuqQ5gTDQQCJPKfQ29Iy2Ocz756SeisftJOPM9UgGpHHkfzLVKA82ifAK8YajPvWIZKJ2zno5snEAOtLkp584PPDRMm_r11Wxx1ibpnQqA$ ZjQcmQRYFpfptBannerEnd Hi,
In this sequence, is it possible for firmware to delete the non-volatile memory contents after copying to GHES DRAM buffer in step 6?
-Varun
From: Jaiprakash Singh <jaiprakashs@marvell.commailto:jaiprakashs@marvell.com> Date: Tuesday, 17 March 2026 at 10:26 To: tf-a@lists.trustedfirmware.orgmailto:tf-a@lists.trustedfirmware.org <tf-a@lists.trustedfirmware.orgmailto:tf-a@lists.trustedfirmware.org>, Manish Pandey <manish.pandey2@arm.commailto:manish.pandey2@arm.com> Cc: Varun Wadekar <vwadekar@nvidia.commailto:vwadekar@nvidia.com>, George Cherian <gcherian@marvell.commailto:gcherian@marvell.com>, Ashwin Kumar Sundararamakrishnan <asundararama@marvell.commailto:asundararama@marvell.com> Subject: BERT Record Erase Only After Kernel Consumes You don't often get email from jaiprakashs@marvell.commailto:jaiprakashs@marvell.com. Learn why this is importanthttps://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__aka.ms_LearnAboutSenderIdentification&d=DwMF-g&c=nKjWec2b6R0mOyPaz7xtfQ&r=oC3FSC8uKqkQZthB7ZhljxVkk_bnBa8SpNx7QV21n9Y&m=QWd9tGUeeYV7m6YUDocvBXWB4Z1ufj2tqyn5CF4LN5Z3R5Yi9PQ3sjuVT1bhSZsk&s=945qbPnXTeGe13JZDinzHzPR5UICKWtE8xHbDbf03yI&e=
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Hi All,
BERT (Boot Error Record Table) captures errors which occurred in previous boot. Below is the Flow with FFH (firmware first handling)
1. Kernel is running 2. Fatal error happens, which requires reboot 3. Firmware decides to reboot system, before that capture current snapshot and save it as bert record on non-volatile memory 4. System reboot 5. On next boot, firmware read bert record from non-volatile memory 6. Copy bert record to ghes dram buffer 7. Kernel boots 8. Kernel reads ghes dram buffer and prints bert record.
Problem in this flow is “When firmware should erase or delete bert records from non-volatile memory”?
Ideally, when Kernel has consumed Bert record after that only firmware should erase them from non-volatile memory. But there is no communication from Kernel to firmware that it has consume bert record and now it is safe to erase them.
Is there already a solution for this problem available in Kernel or firmware? Can generic SMC call from Kernel to firmware be a solution? Any other suggestion?
Thanks
Regards, Jaiprakash