Re: [PATCH v2] Add 'bootsource' /chosen property

[Rob Herring <robh@kernel.org>]

On Mon, May 05, 2025 at 05:34:22PM +0200, Quentin Schulz wrote:
> From: Quentin Schulz <quentin.schulz@cherry.de>
> 
> Bootloaders typically can be loaded from different storage media, such
> as eMMC, SD card, SPI flash, EEPROM, but also from non-persistent media
> such as USB (via proprietary protocols loading directly into SRAM, or
> fastboot, DFU, etc..), JTAG, ...
> 
> This information is usually reported by the SoC-ROM via some proprietary
> mechanism (some specific address in registers/DRAM for example).
> 
> It would be useful to know which medium was used to load the first stage
> of the bootloader. SoC-ROM shall be ignored and not reported in this
> property.
> 
> This can allow client programs to detect which medium to write to when
> updating the boot program, or detect if fallback mechanisms to
> unexpected medium were used to reach the client program's execution.
> 
> In cases where a boot program is split into multiple stages (like
> U-Boot), it only represents the device that was used to load the very
> first stage (in case of U-Boot, VPL/TPL/SPL whichever is executed first)
> and not any of the later stages (in case of U-Boot, TPL/SPL/proper) or
> any client program. They may match, but they may not and this property
> is meant to only represent the device used for loading the very first
> stage.
> 
> I have a board running U-Boot which currently has 9 boot scenarios
> (eMMC/SD/SPI-NOR for the first stage, eMMC/SD/SPI-NOR for the next
> stages; not counting USB loading yet, which would make it a few more). I
> cannot force the BootROM of this board to select a specific device aside
> from erasing the other media.
> The only way to identify which device was used for the first stage is to
> parse U-Boot first stage console output or add some custom logic for my
> board. To validate that a new version of the bootloader works, including
> the fallback mechanisms, I need to make sure the BootROM loads the first
> stage from the expected device otherwise I may have false positives.
> This would be useful for automated testing.
> 
> I could also very well see this being used to identify where the first
> stage of the boot program is stored (which may differ from where the
> later stages are! that's the case for U-Boot proper for example!) to be
> able to update it from a client program.
> 
> Note that Barebox has been using this property for a while already, with
> this very content[1].
> 
> This is chosen as a string so that it matches other properties in
> /chosen (e.g. stdout-path) as well as allows for extending it, in case
> one needs to provide additional information (e.g. HW boot partition for
> eMMC, a specific disk on an AHCI controller, a specific USB device on
> a USB bus, etc.).
> 
> [1] https://lore.kernel.org/u-boot/0066fcc2-3431-48be-8dc2-00ea7e2550c2@pengutronix.de/
> 
> Signed-off-by: Quentin Schulz <quentin.schulz@cherry.de>
> ---
> Note that this property is already set by Barebox and I'm planning on
> adding it to U-Boot as well, specifically for Rockchip SoCs.
> 
> I have some doubts about the wording, especially in the case of
> hypervisors or chained boot programs. I'm not entirely sure what would
> make the most sense to put in the property for those scenario.
> ---
> Changes in v2:
> - added usecases, non-usecases and increased verbosity of the definition
>   of the property name as requested by Simon,
> - Link to v1: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20250205-bootsource-v1-1-95f4ba69ac27@cherry.de
> ---
>  source/chapter3-devicenodes.rst | 17 +++++++++++++++++
>  1 file changed, 17 insertions(+)

Applied, thanks.

Rob