[U-Boot-Users] FDT intentions in u-boot

[Zach Sadecki]

I have some confusion about FDT and what the intentions are for its
support and usage in u-boot.

>From what I understand so far, u-boot only supports modifying a FDT
already loaded into memory.  Isn't this kind of an odd usage of a device
tree?  I thought a unique tree should be created for each hardware
implementation (a.k.a. system board) and therefore you shouldn't be
modifying it.  If changes are made a new device tree should be created.

What is the intent for future support?  Creation of a device tree from
scratch?  That seems to be what the original (open firmware) intention
of FDTs were. (Allowing a bootloader to pass a implementation specific
hardware list up to an operating system.)  And the current Linux
implementation is a little backwards from that (let kernel compiler give
you a device tree which you then have to give to the bootloader to pass
back up to the kernel during boot).  It would seem to make more sense
(in my limited understanding of FDT) to allow the bootloader to be able
to generate this itself without dependence on a prior kernel compilation
for that particular hardware...

If the plans aren't for u-boot to have the ability to generate a device
tree would it be reasonable to create one and embed it in the u-boot
binary somehow? (so that another unique binary wouldn't have to be
loaded into another separate flash partition)

Thanks,
  Zach