[PATCH v6 00/25] fdt: Make OF_BOARD a boolean option

[Simon Glass]

Hi Tom,

On Fri, 3 Dec 2021 at 08:14, Tom Rini <trini at konsulko.com> wrote:
>
> On Thu, Dec 02, 2021 at 03:55:03PM -0700, Simon Glass wrote:
>
> [snip]
> > So now we find out the full horror of the fragmented mess that things
> > are to become. No way does this make sense.
> >
> > It is already too hard to build things. Just look at the meson/binman
> > series I sent last week. We need to make things easier for people, not
> > harder.
>
> I think this gets at one of my points.  It seems exceedingly unlikely to
> me that every semi vendor is going to stop making their own tooling and
> per SoC requirements here and instead converge on a common one.  I feel
> like that's not even true in x86, but it's largely just Intel or AMD
> rather than a handful of vendors.  I see places we can make change
> happen and places we're going to have to use what we're given.  Unless
> Arm Ltd pushes something, every semi gets to "innovate" in this area up
> until the point where SystemReady (well, the underlying specifications)
> say you MUST do X.

Yes, I think you are right. So I think the best we can do  for now is
describe the image and the tools needed to make it, leaving the user
to collect the required binaries and tools that are needed, repeating
until binman stops saying 'missing external blobs'. BTW binman does
have a way to show help for how to get each blob
(tools/binman/missing-blob-help) and I plan to do the same for tools
when I respin the meson series.

For x86, Intel tools have ended up open source over time, e.g. under
the influence of Chrome OS. I am less sure on the AMD side though, but
will check that and push there if needed.

I'd suggest that Arm should require the tools to be open-source. I
will make that point next time I have a chance.

Regards,
Simon