[U-Boot] [swupdate] Re: SWUpdate - U-Boot environment library dependency

[Simon Goldschmidt]

On Wed, Nov 21, 2018 at 10:19 AM Stefano Babic <sbabic at denx.de> wrote:
>
> Hi Simon,
>
> On 20/11/18 22:11, Simon Goldschmidt wrote:
> > On 04.09.2018 12:30, Andreas Reichel wrote:
> >> Hi all,
> >>
> >> as Stefano Babic was so friendly and pointed out a few things already,
> >> we come the following problematic points:
> >>
> >> For SWupdate to access U-Boot's environment, it uses code from U-Boot.
> >> Before 2015, fw_env.c was copied - hence out of version control,
> >> afterwards and since then, a lib.a produced by U-Boot has been used
> >> and renamed to libubootenv.a to link against.
> >>
> >> However, this approach creates several difficulties:
> >>
> >> * Distros like Debian cannot provide a devel package for SWUpdate like
> >>    u-boot-dev, since U-Boot has its default environment code compiled
> >>    board-dependently and Debian needed it board-independent.
> >>    If a board-independent libubootenv.a was provided without
> >>    a specific default environment, the first update process would destroy
> >>    the U-Boot environment if it had had bad CRC before.
> >>    (Thanks Stefano for this good point).
> >>
> >> * If we have a board with U-Boot already preinstalled and want to
> >>    compile SWUpdate for it, we need the sources of this very U-Boot to
> >>    get the propper lib. For example in a debian-like build system we
> >> had to
> >>    compile U-Boot again, although it is already installed since we lack
> >>    a dev package.
> >>
> >> * U-Boot does not provide any default means to install a development
> >>    library. Thus anything we modify on-top might break with the next
> >>    version.
> >>
> >> First proposal by Stefano and me would be to somehow split the default
> >> environment from the library to have a board-independent component and
> >> board specific data that is passed to U-Boot and SWUpdate somehow.
> >>
> >> Goal is to factor out U-Boot environment support for other software like
> >> SWUpdate and not patching and hacking like its the case with recipes
> >> as in
> >> openembedded atm.
> >
> > Has there been any progress in the SWupdate/fw_setenv integration? I
> > thought I remember reading something about letting fw_setenv extract the
> > environment from the U-Boot binary in the target, but I cannot find the
> > thread.
>
> I did some tests, but I have found the way quite fragile. We should need
> at least markers to identify begin and end of the environment because
> size differs for each board.
>
> > I do think the current situation should be improved, making
> > fw_setenv independent of the target that is built.
>
> A simple way is to let fw_setenv to get the default env via a parameter
> (file), but this is also error prone if u-boot is updated and the file
> with default env not.
>
> >
> > And as this thread is on the swupdate group as well: I would prefer
> > calling an external fw_setenv tool instead of linking in the static
> > library libubootenv.a...
>
> I do not prefer this - SWUpdate should be as much as possible self
> contained (also for security reasons). Linking libubootenv.a is like
> linking any other library. The weirdness is just with the default
> environment, that should be addressed.

For exactly these security reasons, I think it would be better to have
the code only once in your target. And this is not only true for the
u-boot env lib but also for mtd support and maybe for the webserver.

If you have the same versions twice, you need to track and fix both
versions if there should be issues.

I know these things are not available as libs right now, even if that
would be preferable. Therefore I think calling external binaries could
be better. And I don't yet understand why calling external binaries
would be a security risk, maybe you can explain this to me?

Regards,
Simon