[U-Boot] Building u-boot.imx and SPL simultaneously

From: Tom Rini <trini@konsulko.com>
To: u-boot@lists.denx.de
Subject: [U-Boot] Building u-boot.imx and SPL simultaneously
Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2016 10:15:30 -0400	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20160906141530.GN4990@bill-the-cat> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <75384749-1331-e3c7-5497-95917ad68e7d@nelint.com>

On Tue, Sep 06, 2016 at 07:00:56AM -0700, Eric Nelson wrote:
> Hi Tom,
> 
> On 09/06/2016 06:40 AM, Tom Rini wrote:
> > On Fri, Sep 02, 2016 at 10:53:58PM +0200, Petr Kulhavy wrote:
> >> Hi Fabio,
> >>
> >> On 02/09/16 22:03, Fabio Estevam wrote:
> >>> You don't need u-boot.imx to boot the board with imx_usb_loader.
> >>> Check the README update that Stefano did with this commit:
> >>>
> >>> commit 40f4839ce12adfc0223d6e3035cf9c3a4754a0ec
> >>> Author: Stefano Babic <sbabic@denx.de>
> >>> Date:   Fri Dec 11 17:30:42 2015 +0100
> >>>
> >>>     imx_common: check for Serial Downloader in spl_boot_device
> >>>
> >>>     Check for bmode before reading the boot device
> >>>     to check if a serial downloader is started,
> >>>     and returns UART if the serial downloader is set,
> >>>     letting SPL to wait for an image if
> >>>     CONFIG_SPL_YMODEM_SUPPORT is set.
> >>>
> >>>     This allows to load again a SPL based board
> >>>     with imx_usb_loader together with a tool
> >>>     such as kermit.
> >>>
> >>>     Signed-off-by: Stefano Babic <sbabic@denx.de>
> >>>     CC: Tim Harvey <tharvey@gateworks.com>
> >>>     CC: Fabio Estevam <Fabio.Estevam@freescale.com>
> >>>     CC: Eric Nelson <eric.nelson@boundarydevices.com>
> >>>     Reviewed-by: Eric Nelson <eric@nelint.com>
> >>>     Tested-by: Eric Nelson <eric@nelint.com>
> >> This is not particularly what I want to do. I want to load the
> >> u-boot.img directly via the imx_usb_loader.
> >> The kermit method is unacceptably slow for a production environment.
> > 
> > Another place this doesn't work (which is where it doesn't work for me)
> > is when the console is already open and I can't easily take it away to
> > shoot over the next stage via Y-MODEM.
> > 
> > Would it be possible to implement having the next stage also be sent via
> > imx_usb_loader?  ie there's examples today of doing u-boot.imx + kernel
> > + initrd via imx_usb_loader, so what would be needed for SPL +
> > u-boot.img (+ kenrel + initrd) via imx_usb_loader?  Thanks!
> > 
> 
> SPL+u-boot.img could be bundled into a single image through the
> use of plugins which would require:
> 
> - updates to mkimage to support plugins, and
> - Makefile updates to produce a third output (u-boot.imx?), and
> - an update to SPL startup on i.MX to check for the plugin flag
> and return to the boot ROM after startup (instead of loading
> U-Boot) if set.
> 
> Troy implemented the key bits back in 2012, and I provided
> some links here:
> 
> http://lists.denx.de/pipermail/u-boot/2016-June/258784.html

Ah yes, this.  I really would like to see this come in as I think it'll
be required to really drop the old style u-boot.imx binaries for cases
like factory programming.  As well as the use cases outlined before too
about supporting multiple boards more easily.

-- 
Tom
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