[U-Boot] [PATCH] configs: Remove CONFIG_SPL_FS_EXT4 for all MX6 platforms

[Marek Vasut]

On 5/26/19 1:23 AM, Tom Rini wrote:
> On Sun, May 26, 2019 at 01:20:34AM +0200, Marek Vasut wrote:
>> On 5/26/19 1:08 AM, Tom Rini wrote:
>>> On Sun, May 26, 2019 at 12:57:08AM +0200, Marek Vasut wrote:
>>>> On 5/26/19 12:45 AM, Ezequiel Garcia wrote:
>>>>> On Sun, 2019-05-26 at 00:24 +0200, Marek Vasut wrote:
>>>>>> On 5/25/19 11:47 PM, Ezequiel Garcia wrote:
>>>>>>> On Sat, 2019-05-25 at 22:15 +0200, Marek Vasut wrote:
>>>>>>>> On 5/25/19 6:49 PM, Ezequiel Garcia wrote:
>>>>>>>>> i.MX6 platforms boot U-Boot second-stage from unformatted space,
>>>>>>>>> and should not need Ext filesystem support on SPL.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> The commit was generated with:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> git grep -l MX6 -- configs/ | xargs grep -l SPL_FS_EXT4 | xargs sed -i -e '/CONFIG_SPL_FS_EXT4=y/d'
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> This change has a dramatic impact on SPL size:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> ./scripts/bloat-o-meter old new
>>>>>>>>> add/remove: 0/59 grow/shrink: 0/3 up/down: 0/-8674 (-8674)
>>>>>>>>> [..]
>>>>>>>>> Total: Before=38320, After=29646, chg -22.64%
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Cc: Otavio Salvador <otavio at ossystems.com.br>
>>>>>>>>> Cc: Fabio Estevam <fabio.estevam at nxp.com>
>>>>>>>>> Cc: Peng Fan <peng.fan at nxp.com>
>>>>>>>>> Cc: Marek Vasut <marex at denx.de>
>>>>>>>>> Cc: Stefano Babic <sbabic at denx.de>
>>>>>>>>> Cc: Stefan Roese <sr at denx.de>
>>>>>>>>> Cc: "Eric Bénard" <eric at eukrea.com>
>>>>>>>>> Cc: Breno Lima <breno.lima at nxp.com>
>>>>>>>>> Cc: Francesco Montefoschi <francesco.montefoschi at udoo.org>
>>>>>>>>> Signed-off-by: Ezequiel Garcia <ezequiel at collabora.com>
>>>>>>>>> ---
>>>>>>>>> Tested on Wandboard only. Maintainers, please ACK or NAK!
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>  configs/cgtqmx6eval_defconfig       | 1 -
>>>>>>>>>  configs/mx6cuboxi_defconfig         | 1 -
>>>>>>>>>  configs/mx6sabreauto_defconfig      | 1 -
>>>>>>>>>  configs/mx6sabresd_defconfig        | 1 -
>>>>>>>>>  configs/mx6slevk_spl_defconfig      | 1 -
>>>>>>>>>  configs/mx6sxsabresd_spl_defconfig  | 1 -
>>>>>>>>>  configs/mx6ul_14x14_evk_defconfig   | 1 -
>>>>>>>>>  configs/mx6ul_9x9_evk_defconfig     | 1 -
>>>>>>>>>  configs/novena_defconfig            | 1 -
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> NAK, I boot my Novena from ext4 and this just broke it.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> And also, NAK, this removes functionality from SPL which worked fine before.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I'll drop from Novena, but I think the patch still makes some sense,
>>>>>>> why do you want Ext4 on SPL?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> What other filesystem is available in SPL and doesn't have patent problems ?
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Sorry for not being clear. I am asking why turn on a feature that is so heavy,
>>>>> on a system that won't need it (such as Sabre* boards, Wandboard and similar)?
>>>>
>>>> Two reasons:
>>>> 1) It was enabled, disabling it means removing functionality for no good
>>>>    reason (oops, bloat, is not a good reason), and that is not desired.
>>>> 2) Booting from block device implies booting from a filesystem,
>>>>    otherwise you might overwrite various things on the block device when
>>>>    updating the file (u-boot image).
>>>
>>> So, are you using SPL to load something from ext4 or not?
>>
>> Yes, I think that's what I said.
>>
>>> There are
>>> setups where people have configured the system such that SPL loads
>>> something from ext4 and that's why we have it available.  Is anyone
>>> doing that on Novena?  Or any iMX system?
>>
>> Quoting my first response in this thread:
>> "
>> NAK, I boot my Novena from ext4 and this just broke it.
>> "
> 
> Actually, I wasn't sure from your first response if you're using SPL to
> load u-boot from EXT4 or not.  So, Novena is a no and we should wait for
> more board maintainers to speak up to see if they use it or not, thanks!

Novena is certainly a no. Since I use a couple of wandboards, those are
no as well.

But I do not want to see useful functionality removed from SPL only to
make space for useless DM/DT bloat. Temporarily band-aiding this real
problem by removing functionality is a no-go, no matter how you slice
it. The real fix is to fix the DM/DT and figure out a way to reduce it's
size and _retain_ _all_ the functionality.

-- 
Best regards,
Marek Vasut