[Buildroot] [PATCH 4/4] package/mender: Do not automatically select uboot tools if uboot is selected

Adam Duskett aduskett at gmail.com
Mon Mar 15 16:17:33 UTC 2021


On Mon, Mar 15, 2021 at 9:09 AM Thomas Petazzoni
<thomas.petazzoni at bootlin.com> wrote:
>
> On Mon, 15 Mar 2021 08:44:35 -0700
> Adam Duskett <aduskett at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > > -     select BR2_PACKAGE_UBOOT_TOOLS if BR2_TARGET_UBOOT # runtime
> > > > -     select BR2_PACKAGE_UBOOT_TOOLS_FWPRINTENV if BR2_TARGET_UBOOT # runtime
> > >
> > > It's a bit odd to drop these.
> > >
> > Not really, because mender-grubenv has it's own fake fw_printenv.
> >
> > > >       help
> > > >         Mender is an open source over-the-air (OTA) software updater
> > > >         for embedded Linux devices. Mender comprises a client
> > > >         running at the embedded device, as well as a server that
> > > >         manages deployments across many devices.
> > > >
> > > > +       Note:
> > > > +       For systems using uboot as the bootloader:
> > > > +         - uboot must be patched with the mender uboot patches.
> > > > +         - uboot-tools must be selected.
> > > > +         - fw_printenv must be functional on the device.
> > >
> > > Indeed, here you are precisely saying that fw_printenv is needed. What
> > > about keeping the selects *and* adding your Config.in comment, perhaps
> > > without the "uboot-tools must be selected". It would be nice to have
> > > some more specific reference to the Mender U-Boot patches.
> > The problem with this suggestion is that mender-grubenv has its own
> > fw_printenv. So if both were built then
> > uboot's fw_printenv may be built last, which would overwrite the
> > fw_printenv provided by mender-grubenv.
>
> Ah, so the problem comes from the situation where both U-Boot and grub
> are enabled, I see. I still find that a very odd combination, are there
> really people who do that?
>
Yes actually! Mender recommends doing it this way because then a developer
only needs to use mender-grubenev instead of porting the uboot patches to every
new platform. Uboot is indeed capable of loading grub as a kernel image which is
quite nice!

> That being said, with that info, indeed you can't really know if
> U-Boot's fw_printenv should be used, or mender-grubenv's fw_printenv
> should be used, so not selecting any of them probably makes the most
> sense.

I'm glad you agree!

>
> > I could provide a URL to the meta-mender repository for links to the
> > uboot patches. Would that work?
>
> That would certainly be a useful addition.
>
Great! I will add the new information and resubmit the patch!

> Thanks!
>
> Thomas
> --
> Thomas Petazzoni, co-owner and CEO, Bootlin
> Embedded Linux and Kernel engineering
> https://bootlin.com


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