Re: [PATCH][meta-fsl-arm] imx53qsb: Remove firmware and features list

[Nikolay Dimitrov <picmaster@mail.bg>]

Hi Daiane,

On 05/19/2015 04:31 PM, Daiane Angolini wrote:
> On Tue, May 19, 2015 at 10:19 AM, Fabio Estevam <festevam@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>> Hi Otavio,
>>
>> On Tue, May 19, 2015 at 9:05 AM, Otavio Salvador
>> <otavio@ossystems.com.br> wrote:
>>
>>> This has been added, at that time, because Freescale used the
>>> adaptor to do tests. I am not against removing this but several
>>> boards we have included list the 'capability' of using WiFi /
>>> Bluetooth, not strictly if it is at board or not.
>>>
>>> Let me know your thoughts on this.
>>
>> I would prefer to pass in MACHINE_FEATURES only the features that
>> the boards support natively.
>>
>> Otherwise, every board with a USB port, SDIO or PCIe port could
>> list many possible features of devices that could be potentially
>> attached to it.
>>
>> If we restrict MACHINE_FEATURES to only the devices that are
>> built-in, then we have a more common approach to the various
>> supported machines.
>
> It is weird to see ~once again~ an old conversation taking place in
> mailing list.
>
> I remember to have discussed about this few years ago.
>
> In my opinion, we have basically 2 kinds of boards: the products and
> the references.
>
> And, in my opinion, the reference boards should include WIFI in
> MACHINE_FEATURES even if they don't have it physically in the board.

In order to support all kinds of WIFI devices, it will also require all
kernel drivers for these devices to be enabled, and currently this is
not the case.

Another issue is that leaving/setting the WIFI feature and kernel
drivers enabled implies that Freescale or the community board maintainer
has tested all these devices on the reference builds, which I doubt is
possible.

In general, I tend to agree with Fabio that what's physically available
on the board should be supported out of the box.

Just kindly sharing my thoughts, please feel to disagree with me.

> I mean, if board has a PCIe, it is one of the board goals to ~have
> thing attached to it~, and one of the most often attached stuff is
> WIFI or/and Bluetooth.
>
> For products, it's straightforward that the board maintainer decides
> which is the best, as this is a gray area.

Kind regards,
Nikolay