[U-Boot-Users] A simple howto boot sequoia (ARCH=powerpc) using flattened device tree (FDT)

[Jerry Van Baren <gerald.vanbaren@ge.com>]

Stefan Roese wrote:
> On Friday 23 May 2008, Jerry Van Baren wrote:

[snip]

>> It would be relatively easy to do c) by creating Yet Another Config
>> Variable that bootm used for the "force" flag rather than hardcoding it.
>>   I'm not wild about creating YACV.  Adding Yet Another Parameter to
>> bootm is probably as bad or worse.  Hmmmm.
> 
> I'm wondering who really wants to *not* override the chosen bootargs property? 
> I'm probably missing something here, but for me it just makes no sense to not 
> override the bootargs property with the U-Boot bootargs env variable.
> 
> Best regards,
> Stefan

Like most decisions, we kinda backed into it in an effort to mimic 
previous behavior at the start, and then tweaking our decision and code 
repeatedly over time.

The original fdt support (CONFIG_OF_FLAT_TREE) did not touch the /chosen 
node *at all* if it existed.  I carried this behavior forward with the 
libfdt version under the banner of compatibility.  Subsequently, Scott 
Wood suggested and one of us implemented a fine-grained behavior where 
we would create /chosen properties if they didn't exist but not override 
existing /chosen properties.

It may be time to reevaluate our assumptions and decisions.

Observations:
* Removing the "force" option would simplify the code.
* I've been threatening to remove the deprecated CONFIG_OF_FLAT_TREE
     for a while now.  Maybe it is time, maybe I /make/ time, to do it
     this window.

Best regards,
gvb