[U-Boot-Users] U-Boot-v2 updates

Wolfgang Denk
2007-10-11T10:17:12Z

In message <20071011072523.GA23573@pengutronix.de> you wrote:
>
> > You want to show us a better U-Boot; GREAT! Show us how to get there
> > then. Merge in the -v2 changes in a stepwise fashion.
>
> It won't work. At least not with a sane ammount of ressources.

With sane amount of resourcs you are thinking about your group at
Pengutronix only, or about the whole community that stands behind
U-Boot development?

I, too, was thinking that getting rid of the old bitmask way for
command selection or introducing a better config/build system was
much too much effort on one side, and much to evasive for an
evolutinary approach on the other side. Yet just a few months after
initial discussion one has been completed, and the other is on the
verge of being merged.

> > Maintain the stability of the existing board ports or provide time
> > between changes to fix breakage.
>
> You know that this doesn't work out. U-Boot is highly hardware related,
> and it won't even be possible to *test* all the boards in the tree.

There have always beeb unmaintained boards, that's true.

But most of the boards are in a pretty good shape with mor eor less
active maintainers behind them who *do* test the code.

> Well, in the end it will be up to Wolfgang's decision if he wants to see
> this effort being developed under the roof of the u-boot project.

No, this is definitely not my decision. It's up to the community to
decide where they will gather and throw forces at.

> 1) create a sane code base for the infrastructure (almost done) and do
> the designs right
>
> 2) migrate boards over to v2 when they have to be touched anyway.
> For a single board it is easy (but surely will uncover deficies
> in 2), which may need further steps in the infracturcture).

I tend to disagree here. It may work for many pretty basic ports. But
for any "real" projects like what we're seeing in our everyday work
too many essential features are missing. OK, you will argument that
this is a good chance to port these into the new code - but we
neither have time nor resources to do that on our own, and we cannot
easily sell this to a customer when the same features are available
for free in the context of the existing code.

> And it surely doesn't mean that everyone has to step to v2 at once. In
> fact, there's nothing speaking against v1 and v2 coexisting for quite
> some time.

Agree. Time and community will decide.

Best regards,

Wolfgang Denk

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