Fw: [patch 08/16] powerpc: remove EMBEDDED6xx Kconfig entry

Fw: [patch 08/16] powerpc: remove EMBEDDED6xx Kconfig entry

[Stephen Winiecki]

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Benjamin Herrenschmidt <benh@kernel.crashing.org> wrote on 11/02/2006
05:30:25 PM:

>
> > What exactly is the intent of PPC_MULTIPLATFORM - the current desc
> > states "Generic desktop/server/laptop" - which doesn't exactly scream
> > 'embedded' to me either.  I guess I saw embedded6xx as a 'catch-all'
> > for everything else.
>
> It's historical. It was the good old prep/chrp/pmac option, meaning that
> more than one board support can be built in the same kernel. I've made
> the policy decision with ARCH=powerpc that we should now make that
> mandatory for new boards (of course provided the CPUs are of the same
> family) since, as Sascha rightfully pointed out, it costs nothing and
> keeps things cleaner.
>
> Thus I'm all about getting rid of the option :)
>

OK - so in this sense PPC_MULTIPLATFORM would be used more to help
categorize (make ppc platforms depend on it in Kconfig) as opposed to
enabling different code/function? (thus some of Sascha's patches getting
rid of CONFIG_PPC_MMULTIPLATFORM ifdefs)

> > This may be slightly off topic - but one other thing I have noticed
> > that the new boot wrapper script supports specific 'types' of zImage
> > files associated w/ 'MUTIPLATFORMS' (PSERIES, CHRP, PREP etc.) and
> > uImage - which is what I think the majority of 'embedded' platforms
> > will use by defining CONFIG_DEFAULT_UIMAGE.
>
> That is not totally clear since they have non-compatible board info.

I should have more properly said "the majority of the existing 'embedded'
platforms (not PSERIES, CHRP, PREP etc.) currently implmented in /power
seem to define CONFIG_DEFAULT_UIMAGE"

> >   For IBM boards with PIBS just 'normal' zImage ELF files get loaded -
> > I'm not sure if there should be another type defined/supported for
> > boards which don't fit necessarily into a PSERIES/CHRP/PREP definition
> > and also don't use uboot - CONFIG_DEFAULT_ZIMAGE?
> >
>
> Ask Paulus about the naming but pSeries is just "normal" in the sense
> that it's "booted from a real OF" support.
>
> The problem is despite the ability to do those nice multiplatform kernel
> images, we still have bootloader incompatibilities. Thus we want to move
> those to the zImage wrapper which can produce, from an already built
> vmlinux binary, any zImage that can be supported for a given firmware
> interface.
>
> In the long run, we hope that firmwares will finally get their gears
> together and use either a real OF entry point or a direct flat
> device-tree entry point, which means that a single zImage (the "normal
> one as you call it) will be able to boot everything.
>
> There's also a glitch with real OF zImages due to the fact that IBM
> pSeries OF requires a Notes section forcing OF into real mode while
> Apple OF is allergic to that (it will crash badly) so we need to keep a
> separate zImage for PowerMac. However, the vmlinux are the same so if
> you use something like yaboot, the same vmlinux cna be booted on all
> those machines.

Makes sense.  Specific to the current wrapper though - the boot Makefile
currently keys off the following for the different zImage 'types'

image-$(CONFIG_PPC_PSERIES)             += zImage.pseries
image-$(CONFIG_PPC_MAPLE)               += zImage.pseries
image-$(CONFIG_PPC_IBM_CELL_BLADE)      += zImage.pseries
image-$(CONFIG_PPC_CHRP)                += zImage.chrp
image-$(CONFIG_PPC_PMAC)                += zImage.pmac
image-$(CONFIG_DEFAULT_UIMAGE)          += uImage

My original point really was that if I have a ppc 'embedded' board which I
don't want to classify/define as PSERIES/MAPLE/CELL_BLADE/CHRP/PMAC, and I
don't want to generate a uImage, I think there needs to be another
definition, something like CONFIG_DEFAULT_ZIMAGE (similar to how
CONFIG_DEFAULT_UIMAGE is used in some of the existing /power platform defs
to create a uImage) which would be used to produce a 'normal' zImage type
(zImage.pseries?).  Basically - a definition analogous to the exisiting
CONFIG_DEFAULT_UIMAGE, but for zImage.  It would be used in a similar way -
where any platform could select in its configuration to result in a
'normal' zImage being created (indeed, could PPC_PSERIES/MAPLE/BLADE just
select this more generic definition and the Makefile use it instead?)

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Re: Fw: [patch 08/16] powerpc: remove EMBEDDED6xx Kconfig entry

[Benjamin Herrenschmidt]

> OK - so in this sense PPC_MULTIPLATFORM would be used more to help
> categorize (make ppc platforms depend on it in Kconfig) as opposed to
> enabling different code/function? (thus some of Sascha's patches
> getting rid of CONFIG_PPC_MMULTIPLATFORM ifdefs)

I'd rather get rid of it completely.

> I should have more properly said "the majority of the existing
> 'embedded' platforms (not PSERIES, CHRP, PREP etc.) currently
> implmented in /power seem to define CONFIG_DEFAULT_UIMAGE"

Yes. Though I hope we'll see some alternatives to uboot soon

/me looks towards ojn and segher....

> Makes sense.  Specific to the current wrapper though - the boot
> Makefile currently keys off the following for the different zImage
> 'types'
> 
> image-$(CONFIG_PPC_PSERIES)             += zImage.pseries
> image-$(CONFIG_PPC_MAPLE)               += zImage.pseries
> image-$(CONFIG_PPC_IBM_CELL_BLADE)      += zImage.pseries
> image-$(CONFIG_PPC_CHRP)                += zImage.chrp
> image-$(CONFIG_PPC_PMAC)                += zImage.pmac
> image-$(CONFIG_DEFAULT_UIMAGE)          += uImage
> 
> My original point really was that if I have a ppc 'embedded' board
> which I don't want to classify/define as
> PSERIES/MAPLE/CELL_BLADE/CHRP/PMAC, and I don't want to generate a
> uImage, I think there needs to be another definition, something like
> CONFIG_DEFAULT_ZIMAGE (similar to how CONFIG_DEFAULT_UIMAGE is used in
> some of the existing /power platform defs to create a uImage) which
> would be used to produce a 'normal' zImage type (zImage.pseries?).

Yeah, that's what the zImage.pseries is :) Bad name I agree.

>   Basically - a definition analogous to the exisiting
> CONFIG_DEFAULT_UIMAGE, but for zImage.  It would be used in a similar
> way - where any platform could select in its configuration to result
> in a 'normal' zImage being created (indeed, could
> PPC_PSERIES/MAPLE/BLADE just select this more generic definition and
> the Makefile use it instead?)

Ben.

Re: [patch 08/16] powerpc: remove EMBEDDED6xx Kconfig entry

[Olof Johansson]

On Sat, 04 Nov 2006 07:46:15 +1100 Benjamin Herrenschmidt <benh@kernel.crashing.org> wrote:

> Yes. Though I hope we'll see some alternatives to uboot soon
> 
> /me looks towards ojn and segher....

There's already PIBS, isn't there?


-Olof

Re: [patch 08/16] powerpc: remove EMBEDDED6xx Kconfig entry

[Benjamin Herrenschmidt]

On Fri, 2006-11-03 at 14:53 -0600, Olof Johansson wrote:
> On Sat, 04 Nov 2006 07:46:15 +1100 Benjamin Herrenschmidt <benh@kernel.crashing.org> wrote:
> 
> > Yes. Though I hope we'll see some alternatives to uboot soon
> > 
> > /me looks towards ojn and segher....
> 
> There's already PIBS, isn't there?


But that's not a public/opensource thing people use regulary is it ?

Ben.

Re: [patch 08/16] powerpc: remove EMBEDDED6xx Kconfig entry

[Olof Johansson]

On Sat, 04 Nov 2006 08:32:14 +1100 Benjamin Herrenschmidt <benh@kernel.crashing.org> wrote:

> But that's not a public/opensource thing people use regulary is it ?

Might not be. I don't know what AMCC use for their eval boards, if it's
u-boot or PIBS or something else.


-Olof

Re: [patch 08/16] powerpc: remove EMBEDDED6xx Kconfig entry

[Josh Boyer]

On Fri, 2006-11-03 at 17:49 -0600, Olof Johansson wrote:
> On Sat, 04 Nov 2006 08:32:14 +1100 Benjamin Herrenschmidt <benh@kernel.crashing.org> wrote:
> 
> > But that's not a public/opensource thing people use regulary is it ?
> 
> Might not be. I don't know what AMCC use for their eval boards, if it's
> u-boot or PIBS or something else.

AMCC uses u-boot on their new boards.  Some of their older ones used
PIBS.

PIBS does have an open source type license.  You can download it as part
of the PPC 970FX eval kit.  Or other eval kits for various boards.

josh

Re: [patch 08/16] powerpc: remove EMBEDDED6xx Kconfig entry

[Wolfgang Denk]

In message <20061103174948.34a5afe4@localhost.localdomain> you wrote:
> 
> Might not be. I don't know what AMCC use for their eval boards, if it's
> u-boot or PIBS or something else.

There is a working U-Boot configuration  for  all  AMCC  eval  boards
(including  downloadable  binary images). So if you want, you can use
U-Boot on all these boards.

Best regards,

Wolfgang Denk

-- 
Software Engineering:  Embedded and Realtime Systems,  Embedded Linux
Phone: (+49)-8142-66989-10 Fax: (+49)-8142-66989-80 Email: wd@denx.de
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