F2-NAS2 and NSA325 contributions

[Tony Dinh]

Hi Heny,

On Thu, Jun 29, 2023 at 6:01 PM Henry Smith <henrybsee at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> I'm a hobbyist that has been playing with Linkstation LS-WVL years
> ago. After frying UART on that, I got Terramaster F2-NAS2 later and
> got u-boot from the main tree to work on it.
>
> Both landed in the closet until I dug up F2-NAS2 recently. My original
> source code modifications and images were nowhere to be found so I
> started from scratch.
>
> First tried to compile and run every defconfig available that uses Kirkwood SoC:
> u-boot # for config in $(grep -i kirkwood ./configs -r | cut -d ":"
> -f1 | cut -d "/" -f3 | sort -u); do make clean; make distclean;
> ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-none-eabi- make $config && ARCH=arm
> CROSS_COMPILE=arm-none-eabi- make -j64; echo $config; read; done
>
> Unfortunately, that didn't work. Then I saw the following:
> "...By the way this box is a close cousin of the NSA325 (Kirkwood)..."
> Source:
> https://forum.doozan.com/read.php?3,49804,49964#msg-49964
>
> With that in mind, I've found the first compiled version I could lay
> my hands on:
> https://forum.doozan.com/read.php?3,12381
> Actual file:
> https://bitly.com/2xnfGmv
>
> The file worked, here is the source:
> https://github.com/mibodhi/u-boot-kirkwood
>

That is my Kirkwood u-boot GitHub for 2017.07. So it would not compile
with current u-boot.

> The thing didn't compile and threw errors about libfdt:
> https://github.com/hardkernel/u-boot/issues/73
>
> This is when I started porting it to the main u-boot tree from that
> fork. I got it to boot on Terramaster F2-NAS2.
>
> To continue, I have 2 questions:
> 1) Original changes ported to the original tree were for NSA325. Can
> somebody test them on their own box or that's not something you would
> do?

I've planned to add support to mainline u-boot for ZyXEL NSA325 board.
But I've been busy for a while so have not got time to do it. I've
already released the u-boot 2023.04. binary in doozan forum.

https://forum.doozan.com/read.php?3,12381
"2023.04 U-Boot Kirkwood - ZyXEL NSA325. This version adds the
capability of booting with the rootfs attached to the USB 3.0 port in
the front, among other capabilities"

> 2) I have changes for Terramaster F2-NAS2 derived from #1 as well. How
> do I submit them since the PR pointed me to the mailing list:
> https://github.com/u-boot/u-boot/pull/326

Perhaps, you could wait until I send the NSA325 patch to this ML. And
then use that as a template to create the patch for F2-NAS2? We only
submit patches using the mailing list. And the patch will be reviewed
by Stefan and/or others. Of course it's up to you, but I think it
might be best that we could collaborate.

All the best,
Tony

>
> Please do not look at the changes in the PR, they are old and
> irrelevant. I will close or update it, depending on what I hear back.
>
> Best,
>
>  - Henry