[U-Boot-Users] [PATCH] add OpenGear CM4008 board support

[Wolfgang Denk]

Dear Greg,

in message <428DF0F8.5090404 at moreton.com.au> you wrote:
> 
> The gofsk command is something I added to support loading
> snapgear/uClinux-dist style raw filesystem+kernel images.

I don't understand why a separate command is  needed  for  that;  you
need  to store the start address of the image anyway, so you can also
store it's size and use this to compute any other  offset;  or  store
the kernel address, too.

> The image itself is a simple concatenation of a root filesystem
> and a kernel. Typically it is used with a CRAMfs root filesystem.
> The primary motivator for not having any header on this image is
> that it can be dumped directly into an MTD flash partition, and
> it can be directly mounted as the root filesystem. For known

This is normal. We don't have headers for standard filesystem  images
like cramfs, ext2 or jffs2 for exactly this reason.

> filesystem types (like CRAMfs and ROMfs) the loader simply looks
> over the filesystem to get to the kernel for boot time starting.

Why do you need a separate command for this?

> Patch attached is my current implementation of this.
> 
> Is this something that you would allow into the main tree?

No, I don't think so. I don't see what it gives you what  you  cannot
get  with the existing commands and clever usage of a few environment
variables. Also, in general I find it is not a good idea  to  combine
filesystem  and  OS  kernel  into  ane  image.  Usually  you buy more
restrictions than advantages this way. If you feel you  must  do  it,
you  could extend the capabilities of mutli-file images to match your
needs.

But the main question is: what can you do with this setup that cannot
be done with the existing code, too?

Best regards,

Wolfgang Denk

-- 
Software Engineering:  Embedded and Realtime Systems,  Embedded Linux
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