[U-Boot-Users] In kernel mkimage

[Behan Webster]

Stefan Roese wrote:
> Hi Behan,
>   
Hey Stefan.

> On Tuesday 17 July 2007, Behan Webster wrote:
>   
>> mkimage is used for building kernel images (and other related things
>> like ramdisk images).
>>     
>
> And it is being used for building other images too. Not only Linux kernel 
> images but other OS images (VxWorks, QNX, etc.), FPGA images, bitmaps and so 
> on. Everything related to U-Boot in a way. So the mkimage tool should at 
> least be available in the U-Boot source tree.
>   
I was unaware.

It was merely an idea to remove the "duplication of code" concern.


>> Lowering the barrier to entry to the use of u-boot (i.e. by allowing
>> kernels to be more easily built for it) will encourage more to use it.
>> More people using it will eventually lead to more people interested in
>> learning about the code.  It also cuts down on people asking a FAQ.
>>
>> It also puts a tool in the kernel tree which encourages others to use
>> u-boot as their boot loader. :)
>>
>> It's a win-win solution.
>>     
>
> I have to support you here, that it should be easier to "use" mkimage in the 
> Linux kernel generation. But completely removing it from the U-Boot source 
> doesn't make sense to me because of the reasons mentioned above.
>   
Indeed.

> The easiest change would be to add a make target to the U-Boot top-level 
> Makefile, for mkimage generation. This way the Linux "user" would at least 
> not have to worry about compiling U-Boot for a not needed platform.
>   
This is the easiest and a good first step.

However, I agree with Josh that it's still strange that this is
necessary step to build a kernel.

Of course, if mkimage is a seperable tool, then at the very least linux
distributions can start to package it as a seperate tool. This is
something that a lot of users have asked for from what I've seen.

If it is both easy to build mkimage by itself, and can be distributed as
a package for the various distros, then most of this issue goes away.

-- 
Behan Webster
behanw at websterwood.com