Getting rid of falcon mode

Maxime Ripard
2021-04-13T08:56:29Z

Hi,

On Mon, Apr 12, 2021 at 04:32:49PM -0500, Alex G. wrote:
> ## Introduction
>
> Today we use "falcon mode" to mean "boot linux straight from SPL". This
> designation makes sense, since falcons "fly at high speed and change
> direction rapidly" according to Wikipedia.
>
> The way we implement falcon mode is to reserve two areas of storage:
> * kernel area/partition
> * dtb area/partition
> By using some "special cases", and "spl export", SPL can more or less figure
> out how to skip u-boot.
>
>
> ## The plot twist
>
> People familiar with FIT, will have recognized that the above is achievable
> with a very basic FIT image. With some advantages:
>
> - No "special cases" in SPL code
> - Signed kernel images
> - Signed kernel devicetree
> - Devicetree overlays
> - Automatic selection of correct devicetree
>
>
> ## The problems
>
> The advantages of FIT are not obvious by looking at SPL code. A noticeable
> amount of SPL code is hidden under #ifdef CONFIG_SPL_OS_BOOT, leading one to
> believe that SPL_OS_BOOT is very important. It must be since it takes up so
> much code.
>
> Enabling falcon mode is not well documented, and requires a lot of trial and
> error. I've had to define 7 macros, and one new function to get it working
> on my board -- and vividly remember the grief. This is an antiquated way of
> doing things, and completely ignores the u-boot devicetree -- we could just
> as well have defined those seven values in the dtb.
>
> SPL assumes that it must load u-boot, unless in instances under
> CONFIG_SPL_OS_BOOT. This has cause me a huge amount of grief and confusion
> over the past several months. I have no less than three patch series trying
> to address shortfalls there. It's awful.
>
>
> ## The proposal
>
> I propose we drop falcon mode support for legacy images.
>
> - Drop CONFIG_SPL_OS_BOOT. Support for this is implied by SPL_FIT
> - Drop the "dtb area/partition". The dtb is derived from the FIT
> - Drop "spl export"
>
>
> How do we deal with devicetrees in the FIT then? The options are to use a
> modified devicetree which has the desired "/chosen" node, or use DTB
> overlays.
>
> What are the reasons why we shouldn't go this route?

I can see at least two, that are mainly due to a FIT image being
essentially a compiled device tree:

- Not all platforms have enough head-space in their SPL to have libfdt
in addition to what is already there.

- Parsing a DT is fairly slow too. Last time I checked booting a FIT
image took around 150ms more than a legacy image on a Cortex-A7. If
one is using the Falcon mode in the first place chances are it's to
improve the boot-time, so this seems like a step backward.

Maxime
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