[PATCH 2/2 v2] smbios: Fallback to the default DT if sysinfo nodes are missing

[Peter Robinson]

> > > > What do you mean wrong, exactly?
> > >
> > > "raspberrypi" instead of "Raspberry Pi", for example, or "friendlyarm"
> > > instead of "FriendlyElec"
> >
> > Heh, well, even in the x86 world vendors can't even spell their own
> > name consistently.
> >
> > > I just wonder what this information is actually used for. If it is
> > > just for fun, that is fine, but I believe some tools do use dmidecode,
> > > at which point it needs to be accurate and should not change later,
> > > e.g. when someone decides to actually add the info.
> >
> > So the Linux kernel uses this information to apply quirks for specific
> > machines.  But I hope that on platforms that have a device tree folks
> > will just use the board compatible string for that purpose.
>
> Right.
>
> >
> > Otherwise I think this information is mostly used to populate system
> > information UIs and asset databases.
>
> So perhaps the devicetree should be used instead? How do these things
> work today? And what are they, exactly?

Device tree used for what? To populate the SMBIOS tables? Or to
populate "system information UIs and asset databases."

If you mean the later, that is not going to work. These platforms are
often proprietary, and are generally remote. They have local agents
that use dmidecode to populate things for support and management. It's
kind of in the name "System Management". To get all these platforms
updated to "just use devicetree" will take decades. No thanks!