[U-Boot] Porting a freescale sabrelite-like board to master ?

[U-Boot] Porting a freescale sabrelite-like board to master ?

[Thierry Bultel]

Hi,

The board I am working on, is based on the Freescale sabrelite board, 
the manufacturer provides
support for it , as an about 1000 lines patch that applies to 
rel_imx_3.0.35_4.1.0
(3.0.35_4.1.0 is the kernel version I am using)

As that freescale version is too old for me (that is, it does not have 
support for USB or splashscreen),
I would like to use the latest version of mainline u-boot.

I am a little puzzled, when I see that sabrelite support has been 
removed from main, it seems to have been replaced
by the nitrogen board, so my manufacturer patch -badly- applies, 
especially due to the disparition of flash_header.S ...

I quickly found out that attempting a git rebase of rel_imx_3.0.35_4.1.0 
to master was a bad idea, too.

So what would be the easiest and time less costing option to achieve 
what I want to do ?

Best regards
Thierry

[U-Boot] Porting a freescale sabrelite-like board to master ?

[Wolfgang Denk]

Dear Thierry,

In message <5308E4D1.5000509@free.fr> you wrote:
>
> The board I am working on, is based on the Freescale sabrelite board, 
> the manufacturer provides
> support for it , as an about 1000 lines patch that applies to 
> rel_imx_3.0.35_4.1.0
> (3.0.35_4.1.0 is the kernel version I am using)

The kernel version is actually totally uninteresting here.  What
matters is what U-Boot version you have.  Let me guess - it is some
v2009.x - i. e. 5 year old stuff?

> So what would be the easiest and time less costing option to achieve 
> what I want to do ?

It is best to take current code (top of tree in git repository) and
port it to your hardware from scratch.  You can use your old code as
reference, for example how to set up pin muxing and such.  Otherwise
it is pretty much worthless.


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
The ideal situation is to have massive computing power right at home.
Something that dims the streetlights and shrinks the picture  on  the
neighbours' TVs when you boot it up.

[U-Boot] Porting a freescale sabrelite-like board to master ?

[Thierry Bultel]

Le 22/02/2014 20:20, Wolfgang Denk a ?crit :
> Dear Thierry,
>
> In message <5308E4D1.5000509@free.fr> you wrote:
>> The board I am working on, is based on the Freescale sabrelite board,
>> the manufacturer provides
>> support for it , as an about 1000 lines patch that applies to
>> rel_imx_3.0.35_4.1.0
>> (3.0.35_4.1.0 is the kernel version I am using)
> The kernel version is actually totally uninteresting here.  What
> matters is what U-Boot version you have.  Let me guess - it is some
> v2009.x - i. e. 5 year old stuff?

Dear Wolfgang,

Sorry for the confusion. I should have been more specific.
What I meant is that my current u-boot version is
tag "rel_imx_3.0.35_4.1.0" from 
http://git.freescale.com/git/cgit.cgi/imx/uboot-imx.git

If I was mentioning the kernel version, it is just to say that switching 
to a more recent kernel
version is not an option, because we do not have a device tree BSP for it.

>> So what would be the easiest and time less costing option to achieve
>> what I want to do ?
> It is best to take current code (top of tree in git repository) and
> port it to your hardware from scratch.  You can use your old code as
> reference, for example how to set up pin muxing and such.  Otherwise
> it is pretty much worthless.
If the sabrelite board would still be supported in master, it would be 
straightforward.
So I am thinking about re-bringing support for sabrelite my branch, first.

Best regards
Thierry

>
>
> Best regards,
>
> Wolfgang Denk
>

[U-Boot] Porting a freescale sabrelite-like board to master ?

[Fabio Estevam]

Hi Thierry,

On Sat, Feb 22, 2014 at 5:01 PM, Thierry Bultel <tbultel@free.fr> wrote:

> If the sabrelite board would still be supported in master, it would be
> straightforward.

sabrelite is still supported in master. Its source is located at
board/boundary/nitrogen6x/nitrogen6x.c

Regards,

Fabio Estevam

[U-Boot] Porting a freescale sabrelite-like board to master ?

[Eric Nelson]

Hi Thierry,

On 02/22/2014 01:01 PM, Thierry Bultel wrote:
> Le 22/02/2014 20:20, Wolfgang Denk a ?crit :
>> Dear Thierry,
>>
>> In message <5308E4D1.5000509@free.fr> you wrote:
>>> The board I am working on, is based on the Freescale sabrelite board,
>>> the manufacturer provides
>>> support for it , as an about 1000 lines patch that applies to
>>> rel_imx_3.0.35_4.1.0
>>> (3.0.35_4.1.0 is the kernel version I am using)
>> The kernel version is actually totally uninteresting here.  What
>> matters is what U-Boot version you have.  Let me guess - it is some
>> v2009.x - i. e. 5 year old stuff?
>
> Dear Wolfgang,
>
> Sorry for the confusion. I should have been more specific.
> What I meant is that my current u-boot version is
> tag "rel_imx_3.0.35_4.1.0" from
> http://git.freescale.com/git/cgit.cgi/imx/uboot-imx.git
>
> If I was mentioning the kernel version, it is just to say that switching
> to a more recent kernel
> version is not an option, because we do not have a device tree BSP for it.
>

Support for SABRE Lite is in the main-line kernel as well, but that's
a completely separate topic.

>>> So what would be the easiest and time less costing option to achieve
>>> what I want to do ?
>> It is best to take current code (top of tree in git repository) and
>> port it to your hardware from scratch.  You can use your old code as
>> reference, for example how to set up pin muxing and such.  Otherwise
>> it is pretty much worthless.
 >
> If the sabrelite board would still be supported in master, it would be
> straightforward.
> So I am thinking about re-bringing support for sabrelite my branch, first.
>

It **is** still in master. It just uses board/boundary/nitrogen6x.c
as the implementation.

It doesn't look anything like the 2009.08 code base, because, as
Wolfgang said, that's very old.

Regards,


Eric

[U-Boot] Porting a freescale sabrelite-like board to master ?

[Wolfgang Denk]

Dear Thierry,

In message <53090207.5060003@free.fr> you wrote:
>
> > The kernel version is actually totally uninteresting here.  What
> > matters is what U-Boot version you have.  Let me guess - it is some
> > v2009.x - i. e. 5 year old stuff?
...
> Sorry for the confusion. I should have been more specific.
> What I meant is that my current u-boot version is
> tag "rel_imx_3.0.35_4.1.0" from 
> http://git.freescale.com/git/cgit.cgi/imx/uboot-imx.git

Yes - which is, as I guessed, based on U-Boot v2009.08 (i. e. 5 yeards
old code plus a zillion out-of-tree patches).  This is totally
unusable for any commercial project; the code is unmaintainable.

> So I am thinking about re-bringing support for sabrelite my branch, first.

As others have explained, this is not your problem.  But you still
have to port U-Boot to your own hardware.

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
Unix: Some say the learning curve is steep,  but  you  only  have  to
climb it once.                                      - Karl Lehenbauer

[U-Boot] Porting a freescale sabrelite-like board to master ?

[Eric Nelson]

Hi Thierry,

On 02/22/2014 10:56 AM, Thierry Bultel wrote:
> Hi,
>
> The board I am working on, is based on the Freescale sabrelite board,
> the manufacturer provides support for it, as an about 1000
 > lines patch that applies to rel_imx_3.0.35_4.1.0
> (3.0.35_4.1.0 is the kernel version I am using)
>
Are you referring to **another** manufacturer?

We have support for SABRE Lite in main-line and are actively
maintaining it.

> As that freescale version is too old for me (that is, it does not have
> support for USB or splashscreen),
> I would like to use the latest version of mainline u-boot.
>

You should start by using a board file based on Nitrogen6x (which
contains support for both Nitrogen6x and SABRE Lite by looking
at one pin:
	http://git.denx.de/?p=u-boot.git;a=blob;f=board/boundary/nitrogen6x/nitrogen6x.c;h=d9c05b07bfae83466513735cbec95c7f949de7a5;hb=HEAD#l736

> I am a little puzzled, when I see that sabrelite support has been
> removed from main, it seems to have been replaced
> by the nitrogen board, so my manufacturer patch -badly- applies,
> especially due to the disparition of flash_header.S ...
>

The differences are minor and explained in more detail here:
	http://boundarydevices.com/differences-sabre-lite-nitrogen6x

> I quickly found out that attempting a git rebase of rel_imx_3.0.35_4.1.0
> to master was a bad idea, too.
>
> So what would be the easiest and time less costing option to achieve
> what I want to do ?
>

I'd recommend starting with main-line Nitrogen6x code base, and update
as needed for your particulars.

Regards,


Eric

[U-Boot] Porting a freescale sabrelite-like board to master ?

[Yan, Miao]

Hi Eric

> >
> Are you referring to **another** manufacturer?
> 
> We have support for SABRE Lite in main-line and are actively maintaining it.


What about i.MX6DL SABRE Auto ? Is it in main-line too ?  If yes, which config file should I use ?

By looking at boards.cfg, I could find  mx6qsabreauto, ma6dlsabrelite, 
nitrogen6dl...,  but there is no something like mx6dlsabreauto.

The support of it is also in freesacle git mentioned by Thierry

http://git.freescale.com/git/cgit.cgi/imx/uboot-imx.git/commit/?h=imx_v2009.08_3.0.35_4.1.0&id=c9b49bf8b7c64e628ce2625272e4deb65b8c8720

Thanks,
Miao

> 
> > As that freescale version is too old for me (that is, it does not have
> > support for USB or splashscreen), I would like to use the latest
> > version of mainline u-boot.
> >
> 
> You should start by using a board file based on Nitrogen6x (which contains
> support for both Nitrogen6x and SABRE Lite by looking at one pin:
> 	http://git.denx.de/?p=u-
> boot.git;a=blob;f=board/boundary/nitrogen6x/nitrogen6x.c;h=d9c05b07bfa
> e83466513735cbec95c7f949de7a5;hb=HEAD#l736
> 
> > I am a little puzzled, when I see that sabrelite support has been
> > removed from main, it seems to have been replaced by the nitrogen
> > board, so my manufacturer patch -badly- applies, especially due to the
> > disparition of flash_header.S ...
> >
> 
> The differences are minor and explained in more detail here:
> 	http://boundarydevices.com/differences-sabre-lite-nitrogen6x
> 
> > I quickly found out that attempting a git rebase of
> > rel_imx_3.0.35_4.1.0 to master was a bad idea, too.
> >
> > So what would be the easiest and time less costing option to achieve
> > what I want to do ?
> >
> 
> I'd recommend starting with main-line Nitrogen6x code base, and update as
> needed for your particulars.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> 
> Eric
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