U-Boot and legacy SPL power control on modern platforms

U-Boot and legacy SPL power control on modern platforms

[Tom Rini]

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Hello,

As part of the work I've been doing on clarifying Kconfig dependencies
I've stumbled on to a number of modern boards[1] that are using the
SPL_POWER_LEGACY symbol. Can the maintainers please update these to use
DM_PMIC, DM_REGULATOR (and SPL variants) as needed so that they use the
modern architecture, or let me know what's missing here? Thanks!

-- 
Tom

[1]: imx8mp-icore-mx8mp-edimm2.2 imx8mp-libra-fpsc imx8mq_evk
     imx8mq_phanbell imx8mq_reform2 kontron_pitx_imx8m phycore-imx8mp
     pico-imx8mq verdin-imx8mp

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RE: U-Boot and legacy SPL power control on modern platforms

[Peng Fan (OSS)]

Hi Tom,

> Subject: U-Boot and legacy SPL power control on modern platforms
> 
> Hello,
> 
> As part of the work I've been doing on clarifying Kconfig dependencies
> I've stumbled on to a number of modern boards[1] that are using the
> SPL_POWER_LEGACY symbol. Can the maintainers please update these
> to use DM_PMIC, DM_REGULATOR (and SPL variants) as needed so
> that they use the modern architecture, or let me know what's missing
> here? Thanks!

If board maintainers would work on the migration, that would be great.
If not, I will give a check, but I not have the board to test.

Regards
Peng.


> 
> --
> Tom
> 
> [1]: imx8mp-icore-mx8mp-edimm2.2 imx8mp-libra-fpsc imx8mq_evk
>      imx8mq_phanbell imx8mq_reform2 kontron_pitx_imx8m phycore-
> imx8mp
>      pico-imx8mq verdin-imx8mp

Re: U-Boot and legacy SPL power control on modern platforms

[Francesco Dolcini]

On Sun, Mar 22, 2026 at 12:26:46PM +0000, Peng Fan (OSS) wrote:
> > SPL_POWER_LEGACY symbol. Can the maintainers please update these
> > to use DM_PMIC, DM_REGULATOR (and SPL variants) as needed so
> > that they use the modern architecture, or let me know what's missing
> > here? Thanks!
> 
> If board maintainers would work on the migration, that would be great.
> If not, I will give a check, but I not have the board to test.

Thanks Peng, I have seen the patch on Verdin and I'll test/review the code.

Francesco

Re: U-Boot and legacy SPL power control on modern platforms

[Peng Fan]

Hi Tom,

On Fri, Mar 20, 2026 at 03:45:18PM -0600, Tom Rini wrote:
>Hello,
>
>As part of the work I've been doing on clarifying Kconfig dependencies
>I've stumbled on to a number of modern boards[1] that are using the
>SPL_POWER_LEGACY symbol. Can the maintainers please update these to use
>DM_PMIC, DM_REGULATOR (and SPL variants) as needed so that they use the
>modern architecture, or let me know what's missing here? Thanks!

For i.MX8MQ, I think we may need to leave with SPL_POWER_LEGACY,
the board has 256KB TCM, but u-boot-spl-ddr.bin is almost using all
of them if enabling SPL_DM, other SPL_OF_CONTROL and other DM drivers.

u-boot-spl.bin itself is 90KB+, but ddr firmware and hdmi.bin are packed
in u-boot-spl-ddr.bin, the image is a bit large.

Regards
Peng

>
>-- 
>Tom
>
>[1]: imx8mp-icore-mx8mp-edimm2.2 imx8mp-libra-fpsc imx8mq_evk
>     imx8mq_phanbell imx8mq_reform2 kontron_pitx_imx8m phycore-imx8mp
>     pico-imx8mq verdin-imx8mp

Re: U-Boot and legacy SPL power control on modern platforms

[Tom Rini]

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On Wed, Mar 25, 2026 at 07:18:56PM +0800, Peng Fan wrote:
> Hi Tom,
> 
> On Fri, Mar 20, 2026 at 03:45:18PM -0600, Tom Rini wrote:
> >Hello,
> >
> >As part of the work I've been doing on clarifying Kconfig dependencies
> >I've stumbled on to a number of modern boards[1] that are using the
> >SPL_POWER_LEGACY symbol. Can the maintainers please update these to use
> >DM_PMIC, DM_REGULATOR (and SPL variants) as needed so that they use the
> >modern architecture, or let me know what's missing here? Thanks!
> 
> For i.MX8MQ, I think we may need to leave with SPL_POWER_LEGACY,
> the board has 256KB TCM, but u-boot-spl-ddr.bin is almost using all
> of them if enabling SPL_DM, other SPL_OF_CONTROL and other DM drivers.
> 
> u-boot-spl.bin itself is 90KB+, but ddr firmware and hdmi.bin are packed
> in u-boot-spl-ddr.bin, the image is a bit large.

Ugh. Does CONFIG_SPL_OPTIMIZE_INLINING=y win us enough space here to
matter? Changing CONFIG_SPL_LOGLEVEL rarely is enough of a win to
matter, so I don't think that'll help. Turning off CONFIG_MMC_VERBOSE
sometimes helps, but only a little.

If we really can't make it all fit, then renaming some options needs to
be done once we remove the legacy portion from full U-Boot (of which
there's a much smaller number of semi-modern platforms enabling it).
Thanks for checking on this.

-- 
Tom

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Re: U-Boot and legacy SPL power control on modern platforms

[Simon Glass]

Hi,

On Wed, 25 Mar 2026 at 10:52, Tom Rini <trini@konsulko.com> wrote:
>
> On Wed, Mar 25, 2026 at 07:18:56PM +0800, Peng Fan wrote:
> > Hi Tom,
> >
> > On Fri, Mar 20, 2026 at 03:45:18PM -0600, Tom Rini wrote:
> > >Hello,
> > >
> > >As part of the work I've been doing on clarifying Kconfig dependencies
> > >I've stumbled on to a number of modern boards[1] that are using the
> > >SPL_POWER_LEGACY symbol. Can the maintainers please update these to use
> > >DM_PMIC, DM_REGULATOR (and SPL variants) as needed so that they use the
> > >modern architecture, or let me know what's missing here? Thanks!
> >
> > For i.MX8MQ, I think we may need to leave with SPL_POWER_LEGACY,
> > the board has 256KB TCM, but u-boot-spl-ddr.bin is almost using all
> > of them if enabling SPL_DM, other SPL_OF_CONTROL and other DM drivers.
> >
> > u-boot-spl.bin itself is 90KB+, but ddr firmware and hdmi.bin are packed
> > in u-boot-spl-ddr.bin, the image is a bit large.
>
> Ugh. Does CONFIG_SPL_OPTIMIZE_INLINING=y win us enough space here to
> matter? Changing CONFIG_SPL_LOGLEVEL rarely is enough of a win to
> matter, so I don't think that'll help. Turning off CONFIG_MMC_VERBOSE
> sometimes helps, but only a little.
>
> If we really can't make it all fit, then renaming some options needs to
> be done once we remove the legacy portion from full U-Boot (of which
> there's a much smaller number of semi-modern platforms enabling it).
> Thanks for checking on this.

It is pretty ugly, but there is of-platdata

Regards,
Simon

Re: U-Boot and legacy SPL power control on modern platforms

[Peng Fan]

Hi Simon, Tom

On Wed, Mar 25, 2026 at 11:56:25AM -0600, Simon Glass wrote:
>Hi,
>
>On Wed, 25 Mar 2026 at 10:52, Tom Rini <trini@konsulko.com> wrote:
>>
>> On Wed, Mar 25, 2026 at 07:18:56PM +0800, Peng Fan wrote:
>> > Hi Tom,
>> >
>> > On Fri, Mar 20, 2026 at 03:45:18PM -0600, Tom Rini wrote:
>> > >Hello,
>> > >
>> > >As part of the work I've been doing on clarifying Kconfig dependencies
>> > >I've stumbled on to a number of modern boards[1] that are using the
>> > >SPL_POWER_LEGACY symbol. Can the maintainers please update these to use
>> > >DM_PMIC, DM_REGULATOR (and SPL variants) as needed so that they use the
>> > >modern architecture, or let me know what's missing here? Thanks!
>> >
>> > For i.MX8MQ, I think we may need to leave with SPL_POWER_LEGACY,
>> > the board has 256KB TCM, but u-boot-spl-ddr.bin is almost using all
>> > of them if enabling SPL_DM, other SPL_OF_CONTROL and other DM drivers.
>> >
>> > u-boot-spl.bin itself is 90KB+, but ddr firmware and hdmi.bin are packed
>> > in u-boot-spl-ddr.bin, the image is a bit large.
>>
>> Ugh. Does CONFIG_SPL_OPTIMIZE_INLINING=y win us enough space here to
>> matter? Changing CONFIG_SPL_LOGLEVEL rarely is enough of a win to
>> matter, so I don't think that'll help. Turning off CONFIG_MMC_VERBOSE
>> sometimes helps, but only a little.
>>
>> If we really can't make it all fit, then renaming some options needs to
>> be done once we remove the legacy portion from full U-Boot (of which
>> there's a much smaller number of semi-modern platforms enabling it).
>> Thanks for checking on this.
>
>It is pretty ugly, but there is of-platdata

I will give some try to see if we could save some time, whether using
of-platdata, turn off mmc verbose or else.

Thanks,
Peng

>
>Regards,
>Simon