[U-Boot] [PATCH v4 00/19] sunxi: sync H3, H5, A64 DTs from mainline Linux

[André Przywara]

On 02/04/18 12:20, Mark Kettenis wrote:

....

>> This feature make U-Boot to have full Linux dts inside, Can't we
>> implement automatic-boot-of-os distro to grab Linux dtb during
>> commands stage like other distro does? Because this make few
>> development struggles for U-Boot project like (few of the comments are
>> repeated from previous mail, but I'm trying to group them all)
>> - Unnecessary to maintain nodes which are not required for bootloader
>> and which doesn't have proper dt drivers.
>> - It becomes more patches for each-and-every sync.
>> - We can compare the sync with Linux dt and simply apply on U-Boot
>> which look not good to project growing.
>> - Increase size(though it 10KB increase) it becomes unnecessary size
>> from U-Boot point-of-view
> 
> This is not just about booting Linux.  And even if it was, it means
> that you can only boot on hardware for which a full device tree is
> included in your distro.  So a new board that comes with a usable
> U-Boot in SPI flash still won't work since the right device tree isn't
> there.

Ah right, I didn't even mention SPI flash in that thread. Thanks!

Out of curiosity: what OS are you thinking about? Collecting trophies
here ;-) I tried the FreeBSD-current installer the other day, and it
worked pretty well.

> So I Agree with Andre, U-Boot should provide the full device tree if
> possible.  That doesn't mean it shouldn't try to load a device tree
> from the boot media if there is one.  That way users can easily
> update/tweak their device tree without re-flashing the complete
> firmware.

Yes, users should still be able to provide their own DT, if needed.
Actually that's what I often do for Linux development myself.

Thanks!
Andre.