[U-Boot] [ANNOUNCE] Public x-loader git tree

[U-Boot] [ANNOUNCE] Public x-loader git tree

[Gadiyar, Anand]

Hi all,

As all OMAP folks know, x-loader is a first-stage bootloader for
OMAPs, derived from the u-boot base code. There have been several
forks of the x-loader code within and outside of TI. X-loader has no
upstream path as it is currently used only for TI-products.

To avoid duplication of efforts, it's high time the code from these
different trees was consolidated. Several contributors to x-loader
have expressed a desire to have the code developed collaboratively in
public.

To this end, we have set up an x-loader git tree on gitorious, and
seeded it with Steve Sakoman's x-loader tree [1] as of 15 December
2010. (Thanks Steve for unifying so much of the forked code, and
getting rid of the dependency on u-boot, and more!).

The tree is available at:
http://gitorious.org/x-loader/x-loader

And a wiki page at:
http://gitorious.org/x-loader/pages/Home

In addition, a mailing list has been set up at:
http://groups.google.com/group/x-loader

(Thanks Nishanth Menon for setting these up).

Deva and I have volunteered to maintain the x-loader code - everyone
is welcome to contribute and help make it better.
(This is our first attempt at maintaining a software project - so any
help is appreciated).

Currently, thanks mainly to Steve's efforts, the tree builds for and
works on the following platforms: the OMAP3 EVM, the Overo and Beagle
(both 35xx and 37xx), and the Pandaboard.

There are also configs for the 1710 h3, 2420 h4, 2430 SDP, 3430 SDP
and 3430 Labrador boards - however these don't currently compile. They
will be removed soon unless someone steps in to help bring them into
shape and maintain them. (We can discuss this on the x-loader mailing
list above ;) ).

Patches are welcome for any new platforms that would like to be
supported in this repository. If there are forked versions out there,
let us know and we'll try and integrate them here.

Feel free to use this tree, test it, report issues, and help keep the
code in shape.

- Anand and Deva

[1] Steve Sakoman's x-loader tree:
http://www.sakoman.com/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?p=x-loader.git;a=summary

[U-Boot] [ANNOUNCE] Public x-loader git tree

[Wolfgang Denk]

Dear Anand,

In message <AANLkTinHGBBJ_MO=bk2wcHjwMNuti62UACJYNaBenf3j@mail.gmail.com> you wrote:
> 
> To this end, we have set up an x-loader git tree on gitorious, and
> seeded it with Steve Sakoman's x-loader tree [1] as of 15 December
> 2010. (Thanks Steve for unifying so much of the forked code, and
> getting rid of the dependency on u-boot, and more!).
...
> Deva and I have volunteered to maintain the x-loader code - everyone
> is welcome to contribute and help make it better.
> (This is our first attempt at maintaining a software project - so any
> help is appreciated).

May I ask what your goal is for such a project?

You mentioned that x-loader was derived from U-Boot, and shares some
code.  What is the benefit from maintaining it as a separate project?

You write "getting rid of the dependency on u-boot", and try to make
this sound as an advantage.  Is this really the case? Or did you just
cut off your feed from upstream?

Would it not make more sense to merge it into the U-Boot tree, so it
gets maintained as one project, and code is automatically kept in
sync?

Best regards,

Wolfgang Denk

-- 
DENX Software Engineering GmbH,     MD: Wolfgang Denk & Detlev Zundel
HRB 165235 Munich, Office: Kirchenstr.5, D-82194 Groebenzell, Germany
Phone: (+49)-8142-66989-10 Fax: (+49)-8142-66989-80 Email: wd at denx.de
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[U-Boot] [x-loader] Re: [ANNOUNCE] Public x-loader git tree

[Nishanth Menon]

Wolfgang Denk had written, on 12/16/2010 02:38 PM, the following:
> Dear Anand,
> 
> In message <AANLkTinHGBBJ_MO=bk2wcHjwMNuti62UACJYNaBenf3j@mail.gmail.com> you wrote:
>> To this end, we have set up an x-loader git tree on gitorious, and
>> seeded it with Steve Sakoman's x-loader tree [1] as of 15 December
>> 2010. (Thanks Steve for unifying so much of the forked code, and
>> getting rid of the dependency on u-boot, and more!).
> ...
>> Deva and I have volunteered to maintain the x-loader code - everyone
>> is welcome to contribute and help make it better.
>> (This is our first attempt at maintaining a software project - so any
>> help is appreciated).
> 
> May I ask what your goal is for such a project?
> 
> You mentioned that x-loader was derived from U-Boot, and shares some
> code.  What is the benefit from maintaining it as a separate project?
> 
> You write "getting rid of the dependency on u-boot", and try to make
> this sound as an advantage.  Is this really the case? Or did you just
> cut off your feed from upstream?
The statement was more in-terms of some ghastly ln -s 
../../../u-boot/include/asm/mux.h kind of stuff which existed in 
x-loader previously, practically making build of x-loader requiring that 
u-boot source be in the same location as the x-loader. yeah, it was 
atrocious, and is one of the steps of breaking that dependency that took 
place.

> 
> Would it not make more sense to merge it into the U-Boot tree, so it
> gets maintained as one project, and code is automatically kept in
> sync?
My 2 cents:
The eventual long term goal is to make u-boot/other alternatives (such 
as OMAP configuration header[1][2]) capable of replacing x-loader. We 
have much to do to reach that stage(while we work on it in parallel).
in the meanwhile, current xfurcation (since there are more than 5 or 6 
different known forks at least) make it impossible to do where we stand 
and what needs to be done.

In a way, considering a single x-loader as a standin solution while a 
final alternative evolves and becomes practical is important and is an 
evolutionary step IMHO.

Ref:
[1] 
https://gforge.ti.com/gf/download/docmanfileversion/229/3870/linux-without-a-bootloader.ppt
[2] 
http://nishanthmenon.blogspot.com/2009/05/configuration-header-no-more-x-loader.html
-- 
Regards,
Nishanth Menon