[U-Boot] KIRKWOOD - PARTITIONS and BOOTSTRAP

Tom Rini
2015-04-08T15:50:26Z

On Wed, Apr 08, 2015 at 07:24:34AM +0200, drEagle wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA256
>
> Hi,
>
> Le 07/04/2015 02:39, Tom Rini a ?crit :
> > On Sat, Apr 04, 2015 at 06:13:18PM +0200, drEagle wrote:
> >> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> >> Hash: SHA256
> >>
> >> Le 03/04/2015 23:46, Vagrant Cascadian a ?crit :
> >>> On 2015-03-25, drEagle wrote:
> >>>> Le 21/03/2015 15:53, Vagrant Cascadian a ?crit :
> >>>>> It seems that OpenRD Ultimate with u-boot 2015.04-rc3 and newer no
> >>>>> longer builds from source, both in Debian and with mainline git. It
> >>>>> appears to have overgrown the size limits set for it:
> >>>>
> >>>> Looks like the NAND partition map had to be changed to give more space for u-boot.
> >>>
> ...
> >>> I'll likely remove openrd_ultimate from future uploads to Debian if I
> >>> can't get confirmation about how to fix this properly.
> >>
> >> The same may be a problem for SHEEVAPLUG and GURUPLUG, may be also all KIRKWOOD derivatives.
> >> We need to get a more robust and compatible way to define the NAND PARTS, the BOOTLOAD and the NAND UPGRADE.
> >> Each distribution has differents needs.
> >>
> >> It's a discution needed upstream because it ill impact all distribution and users.
> >
> > It's possible that by removing some CONFIG options things can fit under
> > the size limit and not require env to be moved.
>
> I do not agree with a stay in the past situation.
> I have proposed these refresh to help kirkwood plugs become useable.
> This is a platform that was looking promising and had also been not so user frendly in the beginning.
> The features like the sheevaplug MMC/SD driver was a pain.
> UBOOT have greatly gain in a peace of software more robust that in was few years ago.
> For Kirkwood Sheevaplugs we have also a device, SD cards, which was simply unuseable.
>
> So I decided to get this driver upstream.
>
> So what now ?
> USB layer get fixed.
> IDE layer get fixed.
> UBIFS is a new standard.
> EXT4 support helpfull.
> DEVICETREE is needed for linux kernel support.
>
> What I proposed is to get a refresh for :
> - - The NAND partitions (with a possible study to be friendly with most distributions around)
> - - To discuss about the better BOOTSTRAP method (I may used a script, propose defaults ENV. We may need to boot from IDE, USB, NAND, NET, ...)
>
> It's an open discussion to get a friendly users, understand with the lesser patch in each distribution, with the most possibility afford.
>
> I do not think that, all around customisation is the solution.

I am fine with whatever the general community of users for these parts
wants to do of course. And more functionality being used is better for
everyone IMHO. The only thing I would really make a hard suggestion on
is making sure that when growing the partitions to make sure it's got as
much room as feasible for future growth.

--
Tom
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 836 bytes
Desc: Digital signature
URL: <http://lists.denx.de/pipermail/u-boot/attachments/20150408/544008ff/attachment.sig>