Hi Ryan,
On Tue, Nov 19, 2013 at 08:30:25AM +0000, Ryan Harkin wrote:
> Hi Olivier/Steve/Leif/whoever is interested,
>
> I have a problem I'm trying to solve and I don't think there is a proper
> solution using the current ARM BDS.
>
> Basically, some of Linaro's releases are failing to boot "out of the
> box" due to incorrect default BDS config. The default assumes that the
> image has an initrd.
>
> Android (the main focus of our releases) and Ubuntu images use an initrd.
> OpenEmbedded images do not.
>
> I'd like a single UEFI binary that can work on all three without
> reconfiguration.
>
> The obvious solutions are:
> 1) there is no default config that always works and the user should configure
> the board
> themselves each time they want to boot a different image type.
> Our LAVA automated test environment and people like myself who boot test
> many images
> daily don't favour this option.
>
> 2) change OpenEmbedded to use an initrd
> It's not my image to change and the owners don't want to do that because
> it's also wrong.
>
> 3) Have different UEFI binaries for each image type
> This isn't ideal because I (and LAVA) would be forever reflashing UEFI.
>
> 4) Make BDS continue if it can't load the initrd
> This isn't ideal because if there is no initrd, it could be for a bad
> reason. By continuing, we
> aren't giving the user the change to immediately correct the config.
> However, the likelihood of the initrd being completely missing, whilst a
> valid kernel and FDT
> is provided seems slim. If it is missing, it's most likely on purpose.
>
> Of the options above, I prefer #4 and have provided a patch below for
> discussion. I suspect that if it's not going to cause other problems, it
> could
> be like my other BDS hacks, fixes and improvements and only live in the Linaro
> tree, which would be fine with me too.
>
> Opinions on a way forward and/or this patch?
Medium-term, I would say that the correct thing to do will be to simply
use the UEFI stub loader version of the kernel image. But you may not
want to take on the tediousness of having to sync this not-yet-upstream
patchset across the various kernel branches things will build from for
each new release until this code does go upstream?
I would say that the solution your patch introduces is wrong, but it is
less wrong than the current situation - so I have no fundamental
objection.
If we wanted to keep the built-in Linux loader, I would say that the
correct fix would be to add a "has initrd" property, or a NULL string
chack for the path. But we don't, so we shouldn't spend time trying to
to improve a way too old stop-gap solution.
/
Leif
p.s.
The built-in Linux loader delenda est!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shape the Mobile Experience: Free Subscription
Software experts and developers: Be at the forefront of tech innovation.
Intel(R) Software Adrenaline delivers strategic insight and game-changing
conversations that shape the rapidly evolving mobile landscape. Sign up now.
http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=63431311&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk
_______________________________________________
edk2-devel mailing list
edk2-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/edk2-devel
