[U-Boot] Suggestion for building all boards

[Stefan Roese <sr@denx.de>]

Hi Masahiro,

On 11.10.2013 13:29, Masahiro Yamada wrote:
> My question is:
> Where can I get suitable toolchains for all architectures
> supported by U-Boot?
> 
> 
> Gerhard Sittig told me this site:
> ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/tools/crosstool/
> 
> But I could not get the crosstool for some architectures
> (nds32, nios2) in this site.
> 
> I tried to compile as much boards as possible with crosstools
> I could download from the site.
> 
> arm, avr32, sandbox, x86 are perfect!
> I successfully compiled all board without any warnings.
> 
> For the other architectures, I can't compile at least some boards.

Mike Frysinger (unfortunately not active with U-Boot development any
more) did some work on cross-toolchain builds. With nice and small
packages. Please take a look at this thread:

http://marc.info/?l=u-boot&m=132164771013203&w=1

Here a link to the binaries:

http://dev.gentoo.org/~vapier/u-boot/

Its a bit outdated, but better than nothing. Perhaps its possible to
generate more current toolchain versions easily? Mike?

> This means the toolchain I chose was not appropriate
> or a bug in the source code.
> 
> 
> So, I'd like to suggest:
> We collect pre-built toolchains for all architectures on U-Boot ftp site.
> They become RECOMMENDED toolchans, which means it is garanteed
> all boards should be successfully compiled with such toolchains.

Its usually recommended to use the ELDK toolchains. But yes, not all
architectures are supported right now.

> At least custodians must have a suitable toolchain
> because they routinely build boards of their assigned architecture.
> If it is impossible to upload it to U-Boot ftp site,
> the link should be prepared to another download site.
> 
> If there are some variations (for ex. soft/hard float)
> for supported cross tools, all of them should be collected.
> 
> 
> My basic idea is:
> Building all boards should be easy enough for everyone.
> Of course basic skills of U-boot is required,
> but arch-specific skills should not be required
> just for compile.
> 
> If everyone can do this compiling check,
> it should be done automatically.
> The crontab daemon can do it and
> send the result to this mailing list.
> (everyday? once a week? every time u-boot/master is updated?)
> 
> We will soon notice a broken board
> before someone raise the flag.
> When a board is found to be broken,
> notification e-mail should also be sent to
> the architecture custodian and
> board maintainer (if the board is not orphan).
> 
> The board maintainer (written in boards.cfg)
> is responsible to fix the broken board.
> The custodian should guide this.
> 
> Now we have the Active/Orphan status in the first
> column of boards.cfg.
> 
> I'd like to suggest new status:
> 
> Active: can be compiled without any warnings
> Warn:   still can be compiled, but with warnings
> Broken: cannot be compiled
> 
> Suggestion for better terms is welcome :-)
> 
> (BTW, I'd like to abolish Orphan status.
> We can refer the last column for the board maintainer.
> If it is blank, it means unknown maintainer.)
> 
> If we notice a newly broken board, we should
> change the status in boards.cfg
> from Active to Warn or Broken.
> 
> If nobody fix the board for a long time (3 month or so?),
> it should go to the scrap yard.

I like this idea.

> To sum up my suggestion,
> 
>  - Collect pre-built suitable crosstools for all architectures
>    on U-boot ftp site.

Perhaps Mike's work can be used as a starting point for this?

Thanks,
Stefan