[U-Boot] [PATCH 7/7] sunxi: Add environment settings to make extlinux.conf booting work

From: Stephen Warren <swarren@wwwdotorg.org>
To: u-boot@lists.denx.de
Subject: [U-Boot] [PATCH 7/7] sunxi: Add environment settings to make extlinux.conf booting work
Date: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 15:43:23 -0600	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <53DC09FB.2060607@wwwdotorg.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20140801204307.GA19374@bill-the-cat>

On 08/01/2014 02:43 PM, Tom Rini wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 01, 2014 at 02:22:40PM -0600, Stephen Warren wrote:
>> On 08/01/2014 02:05 PM, Dennis Gilmore wrote:
>>> On Fri, 01 Aug 2014 12:57:31 -0600
>>> Stephen Warren <swarren@wwwdotorg.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 08/01/2014 01:46 AM, Hans de Goede wrote:
>>>>> Automatic booting using an extlinux.conf file requires various
>>>>> environment variables to be set.
>>>>
>>>> Acked-by: Stephen Warren <swarren@nvidia.com>
>>>>
>>>> I'd personally be tempted to set fdt_high=0xffffffff,
>>>> initrd_high=0xffffffff to stop U-Boot copying the DT/initrd from the
>>>> load location to some other location under 256M, but that's just an
>>>> optimization and entirely optional.
>>>
>>> There has been quite a few times where using 0xffffff has caused
>>> issues.
>>
>> What kind of issues?
>>
>> At least for Tegra, I've carefully chosen the values for the various
>> load addresses so that there won't be issues. (Without that I can
>> easily see the potential for issues.) I've seen far more repeated
>> problems when U-Boot moves the DT/initrd around than than when it
>> didn't (none in that case). Besides, it's completely redundant and
>> unnecessary work if the blobs are already loaded at sane addresses,
>> which they are on Tegra at least.
>
> Just how large of a kernel have you thrown on a Tegra?  32MB might seem
> reasonable at first but it wouldn't be overly surprised if someone can
> shove a BSS into there.  I know I shoved DT into 128MB by default
> because a 32bit ARM kernel isn't functional at that size.

There's enough space for the following:

16M decompressed kernel
16M compressed kernel
1M DTB

The kernel I typically boot is ~4.MB zImage, and ~9MB Image (which 
doesn't include BSS).

Note that if the decompressed/compressed kernel overlap, the kernel 
decompresser takes care of relocating the compressed kernel before doing 
the decompression, and IIRC is supposed to take care not to clobber the 
DTB (or initrd?) when doing so.

Fedora's rawhide zImage is a bit larger at ~6MB. That works fine too.