[Ksummit-2013-discuss] ARM topic: Is DT on ARM the solution, or is there something better?

[s.hauer@pengutronix.de (Sascha Hauer)]

On Wed, Oct 23, 2013 at 12:54:35PM -0600, Jason Gunthorpe wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 23, 2013 at 08:30:42PM +0200, Richard Cochran wrote:
> > On Wed, Oct 23, 2013 at 12:25:02PM -0600, Jason Gunthorpe wrote:
> 
> > > On ARM the package of 'stuff' can very reasonably include dtb. Distro
> > > scripts can package modules+DTB+vmlinuz into something the bootloader
> > > can understand. (The next pain point will be to standardize that)
> > > 
> > > The DTB doesn't have to be 'outside' the distro/kernel to give users a
> > > seamless upgrade experience.
> > 
> > How can a distro possibly provide me a DTB?
> > 
> > They don't know what hardware I am using. Only I know that.
> 
> I'm not sure what you are asking? Treat DTBs like kernel drivers. If
> you make hardware and you want distros to run on it, you have to
> provide the DTB for that hardware to mainline+distros.
> 
> Remember, there are two ways to view DTB:
>   a) It comes from the firmware and you have to live with whatever
>      crap the firmware does
>   b) It comes from the kernel, must match the kernel, and we don't
>      have to tolerate crap in the DTB.

c) It comes from the firmware and is at least good enough to bring up a
   kernel to install a better devicetree.

Sascha

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