Re: [PATCH] bootimg-efi.py: Use IMGDEPLOYDIR instead of DEPLOY_DIR_IMAGE for initrd

[Patrick Ohly <patrick.ohly@intel.com>]

On Fri, 2017-06-30 at 15:38 -0500, Alejandro Hernandez wrote:
> Hey Patrick,
> 
> 
> On 06/30/2017 01:43 PM, Patrick Ohly wrote:
> > On Fri, 2017-06-30 at 10:53 -0700, Alejandro Hernandez wrote:
> >> When using wic to create an image from a certain build, wic is expecting
> >> to find initrd at the final destination of our images (DEPLOY_DIR_IMAGE),
> >> which is wrong, since the initrd file has not been copied to the final
> >> directory yet, so instead of trying to use an initrd file from
> >> DEPLOY_DIR_IMAGE we get it from IMGDEPLOYDIR, which is the directory
> >> where the resulting images are placed before their final destination,
> >> and its where we can find the correct initrd file for our image.
> > Can you give an example with some real image and initramfs recipe where
> > this works? In other words, provide an example where the old behavior
> > fails and the new one works?
> Sure, so the problem comes when you add "wic" to IMAGE_FSTYPES (which is 
> not default for core-image-minimal nor core-image-minimal-initramfs).
> If you do this, do_image_wic will be executed automatically, and if it 
> tries to use foo.cpio.gz file as initrd, it will fail to find it on
> DEPLOY_DIR_IMAGE (unless a previous build was completed without 
> executing do_image_wic) since this file is still on IMGDEPLOYDIR and hasnt
> been copied to DEPLOY_DIR_IMAGE yet.
> 
> So a real example on real hardware:
> 
> if you build:
> DISTRO="poky-tiny"
> MACHINE="intel-corei7-64"
> bitbake core-image-tiny-initramfs
>
> You'll get an error stating that the foo.cpio.gz file cant be found.

Just for completeness, foo.cpio.gz =
core-image-tiny-initramfs-intel-corei7-64.cpio.gz, which is the
initramfs image produced by the recipe itself.

Is it really intended that do_image_wic runs for
core-image-tiny-initramfs? How and where is the output of
core-image-tiny-initramfs used?

From the DESCRIPTION:

        core-image-tiny-initramfs doesn't actually generate an image but
        rather generates boot and rootfs artifacts into a common
        location that can subsequently be picked up by external image
        generation tools such as wic.

If core-image-tiny-initramfs is meant to produce an initramfs, similar
to core-image-minimal-initramfs, then it shouldn't use "wic" in its
IMAGE_FSTYPES. Currently "wic" is listed:

# don't actually generate an image, just the artifacts needed for one
IMAGE_FSTYPES = "${INITRAMFS_FSTYPES} wic"

Does the recipe still work as intended without your patch when you
remove wic here?

> I did a build for both core-image-minimal and 
> core-image-minimal-initramfs and I dont see how theyre affected, the 
> necessary files are
> on IMGDEPLOYDIR in both cases as well.

Are you sure that core-image-minimal copies an initrd in bootimg-efi.py?
It checks source_params, but systemd-bootdisk.wks does not specify an
initrd in its sourceparams:

part /boot --source bootimg-efi --sourceparams="loader=systemd-boot"
--ondisk sda --label msdos --active --align 1024

That's different for the systemd-bootdisk-tiny64.wks that is used for
core-image-tiny-initramfs, which has:

part /boot --source bootimg-efi
--sourceparams="loader=systemd-boot,initrd=core-image-tiny-initramfs-intel-corei7-64.cpio.gz" --ondisk sda --label msdos --active --align 1024

I still think your patch breaks images which use the initrd parameter to
reference an initrd produced by some other recipe.

-- 
Best Regards, Patrick Ohly

The content of this message is my personal opinion only and although
I am an employee of Intel, the statements I make here in no way
represent Intel's position on the issue, nor am I authorized to speak
on behalf of Intel on this matter.