[PATCH 1/1] drivers: add memory disk support

Heinrich Schuchardt heinrich.schuchardt at canonical.com
Tue Apr 19 23:55:00 CEST 2022


On 4/19/22 23:26, Tom Rini wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 19, 2022 at 11:16:41PM +0200, Heinrich Schuchardt wrote:
> 
>> In some scenarios it is desirable to package U-Boot with other files into
>> a single blob. This patch allows to embed a memory disk into the U-Boot
>> binary. This memory disk can be accessed like any other block
>> device as 'mem 0'.
>>
>> Signed-off-by: Heinrich Schuchardt <heinrich.schuchardt at canonical.com>
> 
> What's the use case for this, which isn't covered by some combination of
> U-Boot being in a FIT image and the "load a firmware blob" that we have
> today?  Thanks!
> 

"U-Boot being in a FIT image" requires a loader that understands FIT.
"load a firmware blob" requires a block device or a network file system.

If you put U-Boot's payload into the U-Boot blob, you need neither a 
separate block device nor a network file system.

Packaging into U-Boot makes most sense where follow-up binaries are 
tightly integrated:

* adding a custom graphical boot manager as EFI application
* adding iPXE
* delivering device-trees

Best regards

Heinrich



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