Re: [U-Boot] DA850evm SPI Flash Partitions between Linux and U-boot are Inconsistent

[Adam Ford]

On Fri, Sep 1, 2017 at 9:25 AM, Sekhar Nori  wrote:
> Hi Adam,
>
> On Wednesday 30 August 2017 04:07 PM, Adam Ford wrote:
>> On Wed, Aug 30, 2017 at 12:30 AM, Sekhar Nori  wrote:
>>> On Wednesday 30 August 2017 08:07 AM, Adam Ford wrote:
 On Tue, Aug 29, 2017 at 8:05 AM, Adam Ford  wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 29, 2017 at 6:41 AM, Sekhar Nori  wrote:
>> On Tuesday 29 August 2017 03:29 PM, Adam Ford wrote:
>>> On Tue, Aug 29, 2017 at 4:13 AM, Sekhar Nori  wrote:
 Hi Adam,

 On Sunday 27 August 2017 08:31 PM, Adam Ford wrote:
> I was trying to enable MTD Partitions to make loading the Kernel and
> FS easier from within U-Boot
>
> The da850evm spi-flash partitions in Linux show
>
> "U-Boot-SPL" @ offset 0, size 64K
> "U-Boot"; @ offset 0x0001, size 512K
> "U-Boot-Env"; @ offset 0x0009

 According to board/davinci/da8xxevm/README.da850, we support AIS image
 format for SPI boot. This is a single image containing SPL and U-Boot.

 Given this, I think having separate partitions for SPL and U-Boot does
 not make sense since thats not how its going to be used.
>>>
>>> That's what I was thinking too, but I wasn't sure if someone had split
>>> SPL somehow to make it possible to update U-Boot via Linux or U-Boot
>>> itself.

>
> However U-Boot shows the following:
>
> CONFIG_SYS_SPI_U_BOOT_OFFS 0x8000 which would make the SPL partition 
> 32K.
> CONFIG_SYS_SPI_U_BOOT_SIZE  0x4 and the size of U-boot 256K
> instead of 512k.
>
> CONFIG_ENV_SIZE (64 << 10)
> CONFIG_ENV_OFFSET   (512 << 10) which is 0x8 instead of
> Linux's 0x9
>
> It seems to me like the U-Boot and Linux should try and synchronize
> their partitions tables.

 Right.

> For people who want to burn Linux into the SPI flash it seems there
> there should be some consistency.  I tried making the U-boot settings
> match the Linux ones, but it seems to hang between SPL and U-Boot, so
> I think the U-Boot offset in Linux might need to match U-Boot.  Can
> you guys make some recomendations as to which is correct?

 I have not tried it, but looks like the partitions we need are

 "SPL/U-Boot AIS" @ offset 0, size 512K
 "U-Boot Environment" @ offset 512K, size 64K
>>>
>>> I was thinking the same thing.
>>>
 "Kernel/Spare" @ offset 576K, size 7552K
 "Mac Address" @ offset 8128K, size 64K (read only)
>>>
>>> If U-Boot reads the MAC address from its environmental variables
>>> instead of using up an entire 64K for what conceivably is 6 bytes,
>>> could we free up this space to help grow the Kernel/Spare space?
>>
>> If environment sector is erased, the mac address needs to be restored
>> from SPI flash. Thats why I think it needs to remain as a read-only
>> partition. Also, its just 64K more space, not sure if it will make a big
>> difference in the overall scheme of things.
>>
 With an 8M flash, I think its futile to try to fit a modern filesystem
 on the flash.

 If you are using DT boot, we cannot really change the partitions in
 device-tree because of DT backward-compatibility requirements. But we
 can fix da850evm_spiflash_part[] table in
 arch/arm/mach-davinci/board-da850-evm.c.
>>>
>>> Wouldn't having two different partition tables between da850-evm.c and
>>> the DT cause confusion down the road?  With DT being the future, why
>>> would we not try to eliminate any custom board files with just a
>>> single common davinci board file + board specific DT?
>>
>> Thats ideal yes. But there is a lot of support in the da850-evm board
>> file which does not have a DT equivalent yet. Thats why I have kept the
>> board file around.
>>
 To help DT boot, we can pass fixed up mtdparts through environment
 variables. Something like what is done in 3f18ff07c81b ("ARM: keystone:
 Pass SPI MTD partition table via kernel command line").
>>>
>>> This was ultimately was I was wanting to do.  For some of the OMAP3
>>> boards, removing the partition tree was accepted since the partition
>>> info was passed to the kernel.  If we did this for DA850, we could
>>> simply elimiate the partition info in the Kernel (like some of the
>>> omap3 boards) and let the partition maps be defined by U-Boot would
>>> would guarantee consistency between them.
>>
>> Actually, thinking a bit more, we cannot change the partition
>> information in kernel at all since that 

Re: [U-Boot] DA850evm SPI Flash Partitions between Linux and U-boot are Inconsistent

[Sekhar Nori]

Hi Adam,

On Wednesday 30 August 2017 04:07 PM, Adam Ford wrote:
> On Wed, Aug 30, 2017 at 12:30 AM, Sekhar Nori  wrote:
>> On Wednesday 30 August 2017 08:07 AM, Adam Ford wrote:
>>> On Tue, Aug 29, 2017 at 8:05 AM, Adam Ford  wrote:
 On Tue, Aug 29, 2017 at 6:41 AM, Sekhar Nori  wrote:
> On Tuesday 29 August 2017 03:29 PM, Adam Ford wrote:
>> On Tue, Aug 29, 2017 at 4:13 AM, Sekhar Nori  wrote:
>>> Hi Adam,
>>>
>>> On Sunday 27 August 2017 08:31 PM, Adam Ford wrote:
 I was trying to enable MTD Partitions to make loading the Kernel and
 FS easier from within U-Boot

 The da850evm spi-flash partitions in Linux show

 "U-Boot-SPL" @ offset 0, size 64K
 "U-Boot"; @ offset 0x0001, size 512K
 "U-Boot-Env"; @ offset 0x0009
>>>
>>> According to board/davinci/da8xxevm/README.da850, we support AIS image
>>> format for SPI boot. This is a single image containing SPL and U-Boot.
>>>
>>> Given this, I think having separate partitions for SPL and U-Boot does
>>> not make sense since thats not how its going to be used.
>>
>> That's what I was thinking too, but I wasn't sure if someone had split
>> SPL somehow to make it possible to update U-Boot via Linux or U-Boot
>> itself.
>>>

 However U-Boot shows the following:

 CONFIG_SYS_SPI_U_BOOT_OFFS 0x8000 which would make the SPL partition 
 32K.
 CONFIG_SYS_SPI_U_BOOT_SIZE  0x4 and the size of U-boot 256K
 instead of 512k.

 CONFIG_ENV_SIZE (64 << 10)
 CONFIG_ENV_OFFSET   (512 << 10) which is 0x8 instead of
 Linux's 0x9

 It seems to me like the U-Boot and Linux should try and synchronize
 their partitions tables.
>>>
>>> Right.
>>>
 For people who want to burn Linux into the SPI flash it seems there
 there should be some consistency.  I tried making the U-boot settings
 match the Linux ones, but it seems to hang between SPL and U-Boot, so
 I think the U-Boot offset in Linux might need to match U-Boot.  Can
 you guys make some recomendations as to which is correct?
>>>
>>> I have not tried it, but looks like the partitions we need are
>>>
>>> "SPL/U-Boot AIS" @ offset 0, size 512K
>>> "U-Boot Environment" @ offset 512K, size 64K
>>
>> I was thinking the same thing.
>>
>>> "Kernel/Spare" @ offset 576K, size 7552K
>>> "Mac Address" @ offset 8128K, size 64K (read only)
>>
>> If U-Boot reads the MAC address from its environmental variables
>> instead of using up an entire 64K for what conceivably is 6 bytes,
>> could we free up this space to help grow the Kernel/Spare space?
>
> If environment sector is erased, the mac address needs to be restored
> from SPI flash. Thats why I think it needs to remain as a read-only
> partition. Also, its just 64K more space, not sure if it will make a big
> difference in the overall scheme of things.
>
>>> With an 8M flash, I think its futile to try to fit a modern filesystem
>>> on the flash.
>>>
>>> If you are using DT boot, we cannot really change the partitions in
>>> device-tree because of DT backward-compatibility requirements. But we
>>> can fix da850evm_spiflash_part[] table in
>>> arch/arm/mach-davinci/board-da850-evm.c.
>>
>> Wouldn't having two different partition tables between da850-evm.c and
>> the DT cause confusion down the road?  With DT being the future, why
>> would we not try to eliminate any custom board files with just a
>> single common davinci board file + board specific DT?
>
> Thats ideal yes. But there is a lot of support in the da850-evm board
> file which does not have a DT equivalent yet. Thats why I have kept the
> board file around.
>
>>> To help DT boot, we can pass fixed up mtdparts through environment
>>> variables. Something like what is done in 3f18ff07c81b ("ARM: keystone:
>>> Pass SPI MTD partition table via kernel command line").
>>
>> This was ultimately was I was wanting to do.  For some of the OMAP3
>> boards, removing the partition tree was accepted since the partition
>> info was passed to the kernel.  If we did this for DA850, we could
>> simply elimiate the partition info in the Kernel (like some of the
>> omap3 boards) and let the partition maps be defined by U-Boot would
>> would guarantee consistency between them.
>
> Actually, thinking a bit more, we cannot change the partition
> information in kernel at all since that means loss of data for anyone
> updating just the kernel.
>
> We can however, pass updated kernel command line arguments in U-Boot so
> anyone updating the 

Re: [U-Boot] DA850evm SPI Flash Partitions between Linux and U-boot are Inconsistent

[Adam Ford]

On Wed, Aug 30, 2017 at 12:30 AM, Sekhar Nori  wrote:
> On Wednesday 30 August 2017 08:07 AM, Adam Ford wrote:
>> On Tue, Aug 29, 2017 at 8:05 AM, Adam Ford  wrote:
>>> On Tue, Aug 29, 2017 at 6:41 AM, Sekhar Nori  wrote:
 On Tuesday 29 August 2017 03:29 PM, Adam Ford wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 29, 2017 at 4:13 AM, Sekhar Nori  wrote:
>> Hi Adam,
>>
>> On Sunday 27 August 2017 08:31 PM, Adam Ford wrote:
>>> I was trying to enable MTD Partitions to make loading the Kernel and
>>> FS easier from within U-Boot
>>>
>>> The da850evm spi-flash partitions in Linux show
>>>
>>> "U-Boot-SPL" @ offset 0, size 64K
>>> "U-Boot"; @ offset 0x0001, size 512K
>>> "U-Boot-Env"; @ offset 0x0009
>>
>> According to board/davinci/da8xxevm/README.da850, we support AIS image
>> format for SPI boot. This is a single image containing SPL and U-Boot.
>>
>> Given this, I think having separate partitions for SPL and U-Boot does
>> not make sense since thats not how its going to be used.
>
> That's what I was thinking too, but I wasn't sure if someone had split
> SPL somehow to make it possible to update U-Boot via Linux or U-Boot
> itself.
>>
>>>
>>> However U-Boot shows the following:
>>>
>>> CONFIG_SYS_SPI_U_BOOT_OFFS 0x8000 which would make the SPL partition 
>>> 32K.
>>> CONFIG_SYS_SPI_U_BOOT_SIZE  0x4 and the size of U-boot 256K
>>> instead of 512k.
>>>
>>> CONFIG_ENV_SIZE (64 << 10)
>>> CONFIG_ENV_OFFSET   (512 << 10) which is 0x8 instead of
>>> Linux's 0x9
>>>
>>> It seems to me like the U-Boot and Linux should try and synchronize
>>> their partitions tables.
>>
>> Right.
>>
>>> For people who want to burn Linux into the SPI flash it seems there
>>> there should be some consistency.  I tried making the U-boot settings
>>> match the Linux ones, but it seems to hang between SPL and U-Boot, so
>>> I think the U-Boot offset in Linux might need to match U-Boot.  Can
>>> you guys make some recomendations as to which is correct?
>>
>> I have not tried it, but looks like the partitions we need are
>>
>> "SPL/U-Boot AIS" @ offset 0, size 512K
>> "U-Boot Environment" @ offset 512K, size 64K
>
> I was thinking the same thing.
>
>> "Kernel/Spare" @ offset 576K, size 7552K
>> "Mac Address" @ offset 8128K, size 64K (read only)
>
> If U-Boot reads the MAC address from its environmental variables
> instead of using up an entire 64K for what conceivably is 6 bytes,
> could we free up this space to help grow the Kernel/Spare space?

 If environment sector is erased, the mac address needs to be restored
 from SPI flash. Thats why I think it needs to remain as a read-only
 partition. Also, its just 64K more space, not sure if it will make a big
 difference in the overall scheme of things.

>> With an 8M flash, I think its futile to try to fit a modern filesystem
>> on the flash.
>>
>> If you are using DT boot, we cannot really change the partitions in
>> device-tree because of DT backward-compatibility requirements. But we
>> can fix da850evm_spiflash_part[] table in
>> arch/arm/mach-davinci/board-da850-evm.c.
>
> Wouldn't having two different partition tables between da850-evm.c and
> the DT cause confusion down the road?  With DT being the future, why
> would we not try to eliminate any custom board files with just a
> single common davinci board file + board specific DT?

 Thats ideal yes. But there is a lot of support in the da850-evm board
 file which does not have a DT equivalent yet. Thats why I have kept the
 board file around.

>> To help DT boot, we can pass fixed up mtdparts through environment
>> variables. Something like what is done in 3f18ff07c81b ("ARM: keystone:
>> Pass SPI MTD partition table via kernel command line").
>
> This was ultimately was I was wanting to do.  For some of the OMAP3
> boards, removing the partition tree was accepted since the partition
> info was passed to the kernel.  If we did this for DA850, we could
> simply elimiate the partition info in the Kernel (like some of the
> omap3 boards) and let the partition maps be defined by U-Boot would
> would guarantee consistency between them.

 Actually, thinking a bit more, we cannot change the partition
 information in kernel at all since that means loss of data for anyone
 updating just the kernel.

 We can however, pass updated kernel command line arguments in U-Boot so
 anyone updating the bootloader and erasing the environment sector gets
 updated partition information. This is likely to be the case where
 entire flash is being re-written and loss of 

Re: [U-Boot] DA850evm SPI Flash Partitions between Linux and U-boot are Inconsistent

[Sekhar Nori]

On Wednesday 30 August 2017 08:07 AM, Adam Ford wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 29, 2017 at 8:05 AM, Adam Ford  wrote:
>> On Tue, Aug 29, 2017 at 6:41 AM, Sekhar Nori  wrote:
>>> On Tuesday 29 August 2017 03:29 PM, Adam Ford wrote:
 On Tue, Aug 29, 2017 at 4:13 AM, Sekhar Nori  wrote:
> Hi Adam,
>
> On Sunday 27 August 2017 08:31 PM, Adam Ford wrote:
>> I was trying to enable MTD Partitions to make loading the Kernel and
>> FS easier from within U-Boot
>>
>> The da850evm spi-flash partitions in Linux show
>>
>> "U-Boot-SPL" @ offset 0, size 64K
>> "U-Boot"; @ offset 0x0001, size 512K
>> "U-Boot-Env"; @ offset 0x0009
>
> According to board/davinci/da8xxevm/README.da850, we support AIS image
> format for SPI boot. This is a single image containing SPL and U-Boot.
>
> Given this, I think having separate partitions for SPL and U-Boot does
> not make sense since thats not how its going to be used.

 That's what I was thinking too, but I wasn't sure if someone had split
 SPL somehow to make it possible to update U-Boot via Linux or U-Boot
 itself.
>
>>
>> However U-Boot shows the following:
>>
>> CONFIG_SYS_SPI_U_BOOT_OFFS 0x8000 which would make the SPL partition 32K.
>> CONFIG_SYS_SPI_U_BOOT_SIZE  0x4 and the size of U-boot 256K
>> instead of 512k.
>>
>> CONFIG_ENV_SIZE (64 << 10)
>> CONFIG_ENV_OFFSET   (512 << 10) which is 0x8 instead of
>> Linux's 0x9
>>
>> It seems to me like the U-Boot and Linux should try and synchronize
>> their partitions tables.
>
> Right.
>
>> For people who want to burn Linux into the SPI flash it seems there
>> there should be some consistency.  I tried making the U-boot settings
>> match the Linux ones, but it seems to hang between SPL and U-Boot, so
>> I think the U-Boot offset in Linux might need to match U-Boot.  Can
>> you guys make some recomendations as to which is correct?
>
> I have not tried it, but looks like the partitions we need are
>
> "SPL/U-Boot AIS" @ offset 0, size 512K
> "U-Boot Environment" @ offset 512K, size 64K

 I was thinking the same thing.

> "Kernel/Spare" @ offset 576K, size 7552K
> "Mac Address" @ offset 8128K, size 64K (read only)

 If U-Boot reads the MAC address from its environmental variables
 instead of using up an entire 64K for what conceivably is 6 bytes,
 could we free up this space to help grow the Kernel/Spare space?
>>>
>>> If environment sector is erased, the mac address needs to be restored
>>> from SPI flash. Thats why I think it needs to remain as a read-only
>>> partition. Also, its just 64K more space, not sure if it will make a big
>>> difference in the overall scheme of things.
>>>
> With an 8M flash, I think its futile to try to fit a modern filesystem
> on the flash.
>
> If you are using DT boot, we cannot really change the partitions in
> device-tree because of DT backward-compatibility requirements. But we
> can fix da850evm_spiflash_part[] table in
> arch/arm/mach-davinci/board-da850-evm.c.

 Wouldn't having two different partition tables between da850-evm.c and
 the DT cause confusion down the road?  With DT being the future, why
 would we not try to eliminate any custom board files with just a
 single common davinci board file + board specific DT?
>>>
>>> Thats ideal yes. But there is a lot of support in the da850-evm board
>>> file which does not have a DT equivalent yet. Thats why I have kept the
>>> board file around.
>>>
> To help DT boot, we can pass fixed up mtdparts through environment
> variables. Something like what is done in 3f18ff07c81b ("ARM: keystone:
> Pass SPI MTD partition table via kernel command line").

 This was ultimately was I was wanting to do.  For some of the OMAP3
 boards, removing the partition tree was accepted since the partition
 info was passed to the kernel.  If we did this for DA850, we could
 simply elimiate the partition info in the Kernel (like some of the
 omap3 boards) and let the partition maps be defined by U-Boot would
 would guarantee consistency between them.
>>>
>>> Actually, thinking a bit more, we cannot change the partition
>>> information in kernel at all since that means loss of data for anyone
>>> updating just the kernel.
>>>
>>> We can however, pass updated kernel command line arguments in U-Boot so
>>> anyone updating the bootloader and erasing the environment sector gets
>>> updated partition information. This is likely to be the case where
>>> entire flash is being re-written and loss of data is not a concern.
>>>
>> That makes sense to me.
>>
>> I'll send a U-Boot patch marked RFC later today with the MTD stuff
>> enabled in U-Boot and changes to the bootargs to pass 

Re: [U-Boot] DA850evm SPI Flash Partitions between Linux and U-boot are Inconsistent

[Adam Ford]

On Tue, Aug 29, 2017 at 8:05 AM, Adam Ford  wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 29, 2017 at 6:41 AM, Sekhar Nori  wrote:
>> On Tuesday 29 August 2017 03:29 PM, Adam Ford wrote:
>>> On Tue, Aug 29, 2017 at 4:13 AM, Sekhar Nori  wrote:
 Hi Adam,

 On Sunday 27 August 2017 08:31 PM, Adam Ford wrote:
> I was trying to enable MTD Partitions to make loading the Kernel and
> FS easier from within U-Boot
>
> The da850evm spi-flash partitions in Linux show
>
> "U-Boot-SPL" @ offset 0, size 64K
> "U-Boot"; @ offset 0x0001, size 512K
> "U-Boot-Env"; @ offset 0x0009

 According to board/davinci/da8xxevm/README.da850, we support AIS image
 format for SPI boot. This is a single image containing SPL and U-Boot.

 Given this, I think having separate partitions for SPL and U-Boot does
 not make sense since thats not how its going to be used.
>>>
>>> That's what I was thinking too, but I wasn't sure if someone had split
>>> SPL somehow to make it possible to update U-Boot via Linux or U-Boot
>>> itself.

>
> However U-Boot shows the following:
>
> CONFIG_SYS_SPI_U_BOOT_OFFS 0x8000 which would make the SPL partition 32K.
> CONFIG_SYS_SPI_U_BOOT_SIZE  0x4 and the size of U-boot 256K
> instead of 512k.
>
> CONFIG_ENV_SIZE (64 << 10)
> CONFIG_ENV_OFFSET   (512 << 10) which is 0x8 instead of
> Linux's 0x9
>
> It seems to me like the U-Boot and Linux should try and synchronize
> their partitions tables.

 Right.

> For people who want to burn Linux into the SPI flash it seems there
> there should be some consistency.  I tried making the U-boot settings
> match the Linux ones, but it seems to hang between SPL and U-Boot, so
> I think the U-Boot offset in Linux might need to match U-Boot.  Can
> you guys make some recomendations as to which is correct?

 I have not tried it, but looks like the partitions we need are

 "SPL/U-Boot AIS" @ offset 0, size 512K
 "U-Boot Environment" @ offset 512K, size 64K
>>>
>>> I was thinking the same thing.
>>>
 "Kernel/Spare" @ offset 576K, size 7552K
 "Mac Address" @ offset 8128K, size 64K (read only)
>>>
>>> If U-Boot reads the MAC address from its environmental variables
>>> instead of using up an entire 64K for what conceivably is 6 bytes,
>>> could we free up this space to help grow the Kernel/Spare space?
>>
>> If environment sector is erased, the mac address needs to be restored
>> from SPI flash. Thats why I think it needs to remain as a read-only
>> partition. Also, its just 64K more space, not sure if it will make a big
>> difference in the overall scheme of things.
>>
 With an 8M flash, I think its futile to try to fit a modern filesystem
 on the flash.

 If you are using DT boot, we cannot really change the partitions in
 device-tree because of DT backward-compatibility requirements. But we
 can fix da850evm_spiflash_part[] table in
 arch/arm/mach-davinci/board-da850-evm.c.
>>>
>>> Wouldn't having two different partition tables between da850-evm.c and
>>> the DT cause confusion down the road?  With DT being the future, why
>>> would we not try to eliminate any custom board files with just a
>>> single common davinci board file + board specific DT?
>>
>> Thats ideal yes. But there is a lot of support in the da850-evm board
>> file which does not have a DT equivalent yet. Thats why I have kept the
>> board file around.
>>
 To help DT boot, we can pass fixed up mtdparts through environment
 variables. Something like what is done in 3f18ff07c81b ("ARM: keystone:
 Pass SPI MTD partition table via kernel command line").
>>>
>>> This was ultimately was I was wanting to do.  For some of the OMAP3
>>> boards, removing the partition tree was accepted since the partition
>>> info was passed to the kernel.  If we did this for DA850, we could
>>> simply elimiate the partition info in the Kernel (like some of the
>>> omap3 boards) and let the partition maps be defined by U-Boot would
>>> would guarantee consistency between them.
>>
>> Actually, thinking a bit more, we cannot change the partition
>> information in kernel at all since that means loss of data for anyone
>> updating just the kernel.
>>
>> We can however, pass updated kernel command line arguments in U-Boot so
>> anyone updating the bootloader and erasing the environment sector gets
>> updated partition information. This is likely to be the case where
>> entire flash is being re-written and loss of data is not a concern.
>>
> That makes sense to me.
>
> I'll send a U-Boot patch marked RFC later today with the MTD stuff
> enabled in U-Boot and changes to the bootargs to pass the MTD
> information to Linux.
>

I have a patch ready for review for U-Boot, but I had to make a few
changes to the davinci_all_defconfig to get the MTD 

Re: [U-Boot] DA850evm SPI Flash Partitions between Linux and U-boot are Inconsistent

[Adam Ford]

On Tue, Aug 29, 2017 at 6:41 AM, Sekhar Nori  wrote:
> On Tuesday 29 August 2017 03:29 PM, Adam Ford wrote:
>> On Tue, Aug 29, 2017 at 4:13 AM, Sekhar Nori  wrote:
>>> Hi Adam,
>>>
>>> On Sunday 27 August 2017 08:31 PM, Adam Ford wrote:
 I was trying to enable MTD Partitions to make loading the Kernel and
 FS easier from within U-Boot

 The da850evm spi-flash partitions in Linux show

 "U-Boot-SPL" @ offset 0, size 64K
 "U-Boot"; @ offset 0x0001, size 512K
 "U-Boot-Env"; @ offset 0x0009
>>>
>>> According to board/davinci/da8xxevm/README.da850, we support AIS image
>>> format for SPI boot. This is a single image containing SPL and U-Boot.
>>>
>>> Given this, I think having separate partitions for SPL and U-Boot does
>>> not make sense since thats not how its going to be used.
>>
>> That's what I was thinking too, but I wasn't sure if someone had split
>> SPL somehow to make it possible to update U-Boot via Linux or U-Boot
>> itself.
>>>

 However U-Boot shows the following:

 CONFIG_SYS_SPI_U_BOOT_OFFS 0x8000 which would make the SPL partition 32K.
 CONFIG_SYS_SPI_U_BOOT_SIZE  0x4 and the size of U-boot 256K
 instead of 512k.

 CONFIG_ENV_SIZE (64 << 10)
 CONFIG_ENV_OFFSET   (512 << 10) which is 0x8 instead of
 Linux's 0x9

 It seems to me like the U-Boot and Linux should try and synchronize
 their partitions tables.
>>>
>>> Right.
>>>
 For people who want to burn Linux into the SPI flash it seems there
 there should be some consistency.  I tried making the U-boot settings
 match the Linux ones, but it seems to hang between SPL and U-Boot, so
 I think the U-Boot offset in Linux might need to match U-Boot.  Can
 you guys make some recomendations as to which is correct?
>>>
>>> I have not tried it, but looks like the partitions we need are
>>>
>>> "SPL/U-Boot AIS" @ offset 0, size 512K
>>> "U-Boot Environment" @ offset 512K, size 64K
>>
>> I was thinking the same thing.
>>
>>> "Kernel/Spare" @ offset 576K, size 7552K
>>> "Mac Address" @ offset 8128K, size 64K (read only)
>>
>> If U-Boot reads the MAC address from its environmental variables
>> instead of using up an entire 64K for what conceivably is 6 bytes,
>> could we free up this space to help grow the Kernel/Spare space?
>
> If environment sector is erased, the mac address needs to be restored
> from SPI flash. Thats why I think it needs to remain as a read-only
> partition. Also, its just 64K more space, not sure if it will make a big
> difference in the overall scheme of things.
>
>>> With an 8M flash, I think its futile to try to fit a modern filesystem
>>> on the flash.
>>>
>>> If you are using DT boot, we cannot really change the partitions in
>>> device-tree because of DT backward-compatibility requirements. But we
>>> can fix da850evm_spiflash_part[] table in
>>> arch/arm/mach-davinci/board-da850-evm.c.
>>
>> Wouldn't having two different partition tables between da850-evm.c and
>> the DT cause confusion down the road?  With DT being the future, why
>> would we not try to eliminate any custom board files with just a
>> single common davinci board file + board specific DT?
>
> Thats ideal yes. But there is a lot of support in the da850-evm board
> file which does not have a DT equivalent yet. Thats why I have kept the
> board file around.
>
>>> To help DT boot, we can pass fixed up mtdparts through environment
>>> variables. Something like what is done in 3f18ff07c81b ("ARM: keystone:
>>> Pass SPI MTD partition table via kernel command line").
>>
>> This was ultimately was I was wanting to do.  For some of the OMAP3
>> boards, removing the partition tree was accepted since the partition
>> info was passed to the kernel.  If we did this for DA850, we could
>> simply elimiate the partition info in the Kernel (like some of the
>> omap3 boards) and let the partition maps be defined by U-Boot would
>> would guarantee consistency between them.
>
> Actually, thinking a bit more, we cannot change the partition
> information in kernel at all since that means loss of data for anyone
> updating just the kernel.
>
> We can however, pass updated kernel command line arguments in U-Boot so
> anyone updating the bootloader and erasing the environment sector gets
> updated partition information. This is likely to be the case where
> entire flash is being re-written and loss of data is not a concern.
>
That makes sense to me.

I'll send a U-Boot patch marked RFC later today with the MTD stuff
enabled in U-Boot and changes to the bootargs to pass the MTD
information to Linux.


> Thanks,
> Sekhar
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Re: [U-Boot] DA850evm SPI Flash Partitions between Linux and U-boot are Inconsistent

[Sekhar Nori]

On Tuesday 29 August 2017 03:29 PM, Adam Ford wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 29, 2017 at 4:13 AM, Sekhar Nori  wrote:
>> Hi Adam,
>>
>> On Sunday 27 August 2017 08:31 PM, Adam Ford wrote:
>>> I was trying to enable MTD Partitions to make loading the Kernel and
>>> FS easier from within U-Boot
>>>
>>> The da850evm spi-flash partitions in Linux show
>>>
>>> "U-Boot-SPL" @ offset 0, size 64K
>>> "U-Boot"; @ offset 0x0001, size 512K
>>> "U-Boot-Env"; @ offset 0x0009
>>
>> According to board/davinci/da8xxevm/README.da850, we support AIS image
>> format for SPI boot. This is a single image containing SPL and U-Boot.
>>
>> Given this, I think having separate partitions for SPL and U-Boot does
>> not make sense since thats not how its going to be used.
> 
> That's what I was thinking too, but I wasn't sure if someone had split
> SPL somehow to make it possible to update U-Boot via Linux or U-Boot
> itself.
>>
>>>
>>> However U-Boot shows the following:
>>>
>>> CONFIG_SYS_SPI_U_BOOT_OFFS 0x8000 which would make the SPL partition 32K.
>>> CONFIG_SYS_SPI_U_BOOT_SIZE  0x4 and the size of U-boot 256K
>>> instead of 512k.
>>>
>>> CONFIG_ENV_SIZE (64 << 10)
>>> CONFIG_ENV_OFFSET   (512 << 10) which is 0x8 instead of
>>> Linux's 0x9
>>>
>>> It seems to me like the U-Boot and Linux should try and synchronize
>>> their partitions tables.
>>
>> Right.
>>
>>> For people who want to burn Linux into the SPI flash it seems there
>>> there should be some consistency.  I tried making the U-boot settings
>>> match the Linux ones, but it seems to hang between SPL and U-Boot, so
>>> I think the U-Boot offset in Linux might need to match U-Boot.  Can
>>> you guys make some recomendations as to which is correct?
>>
>> I have not tried it, but looks like the partitions we need are
>>
>> "SPL/U-Boot AIS" @ offset 0, size 512K
>> "U-Boot Environment" @ offset 512K, size 64K
> 
> I was thinking the same thing.
> 
>> "Kernel/Spare" @ offset 576K, size 7552K
>> "Mac Address" @ offset 8128K, size 64K (read only)
> 
> If U-Boot reads the MAC address from its environmental variables
> instead of using up an entire 64K for what conceivably is 6 bytes,
> could we free up this space to help grow the Kernel/Spare space?

If environment sector is erased, the mac address needs to be restored
from SPI flash. Thats why I think it needs to remain as a read-only
partition. Also, its just 64K more space, not sure if it will make a big
difference in the overall scheme of things.

>> With an 8M flash, I think its futile to try to fit a modern filesystem
>> on the flash.
>>
>> If you are using DT boot, we cannot really change the partitions in
>> device-tree because of DT backward-compatibility requirements. But we
>> can fix da850evm_spiflash_part[] table in
>> arch/arm/mach-davinci/board-da850-evm.c.
> 
> Wouldn't having two different partition tables between da850-evm.c and
> the DT cause confusion down the road?  With DT being the future, why
> would we not try to eliminate any custom board files with just a
> single common davinci board file + board specific DT?

Thats ideal yes. But there is a lot of support in the da850-evm board
file which does not have a DT equivalent yet. Thats why I have kept the
board file around.

>> To help DT boot, we can pass fixed up mtdparts through environment
>> variables. Something like what is done in 3f18ff07c81b ("ARM: keystone:
>> Pass SPI MTD partition table via kernel command line").
> 
> This was ultimately was I was wanting to do.  For some of the OMAP3
> boards, removing the partition tree was accepted since the partition
> info was passed to the kernel.  If we did this for DA850, we could
> simply elimiate the partition info in the Kernel (like some of the
> omap3 boards) and let the partition maps be defined by U-Boot would
> would guarantee consistency between them.

Actually, thinking a bit more, we cannot change the partition
information in kernel at all since that means loss of data for anyone
updating just the kernel.

We can however, pass updated kernel command line arguments in U-Boot so
anyone updating the bootloader and erasing the environment sector gets
updated partition information. This is likely to be the case where
entire flash is being re-written and loss of data is not a concern.

Thanks,
Sekhar
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Re: [U-Boot] DA850evm SPI Flash Partitions between Linux and U-boot are Inconsistent

[Adam Ford]

On Tue, Aug 29, 2017 at 4:13 AM, Sekhar Nori  wrote:
> Hi Adam,
>
> On Sunday 27 August 2017 08:31 PM, Adam Ford wrote:
>> I was trying to enable MTD Partitions to make loading the Kernel and
>> FS easier from within U-Boot
>>
>> The da850evm spi-flash partitions in Linux show
>>
>> "U-Boot-SPL" @ offset 0, size 64K
>> "U-Boot"; @ offset 0x0001, size 512K
>> "U-Boot-Env"; @ offset 0x0009
>
> According to board/davinci/da8xxevm/README.da850, we support AIS image
> format for SPI boot. This is a single image containing SPL and U-Boot.
>
> Given this, I think having separate partitions for SPL and U-Boot does
> not make sense since thats not how its going to be used.

That's what I was thinking too, but I wasn't sure if someone had split
SPL somehow to make it possible to update U-Boot via Linux or U-Boot
itself.
>
>>
>> However U-Boot shows the following:
>>
>> CONFIG_SYS_SPI_U_BOOT_OFFS 0x8000 which would make the SPL partition 32K.
>> CONFIG_SYS_SPI_U_BOOT_SIZE  0x4 and the size of U-boot 256K
>> instead of 512k.
>>
>> CONFIG_ENV_SIZE (64 << 10)
>> CONFIG_ENV_OFFSET   (512 << 10) which is 0x8 instead of
>> Linux's 0x9
>>
>> It seems to me like the U-Boot and Linux should try and synchronize
>> their partitions tables.
>
> Right.
>
>> For people who want to burn Linux into the SPI flash it seems there
>> there should be some consistency.  I tried making the U-boot settings
>> match the Linux ones, but it seems to hang between SPL and U-Boot, so
>> I think the U-Boot offset in Linux might need to match U-Boot.  Can
>> you guys make some recomendations as to which is correct?
>
> I have not tried it, but looks like the partitions we need are
>
> "SPL/U-Boot AIS" @ offset 0, size 512K
> "U-Boot Environment" @ offset 512K, size 64K

I was thinking the same thing.

> "Kernel/Spare" @ offset 576K, size 7552K
> "Mac Address" @ offset 8128K, size 64K (read only)

If U-Boot reads the MAC address from its environmental variables
instead of using up an entire 64K for what conceivably is 6 bytes,
could we free up this space to help grow the Kernel/Spare space?

>
> With an 8M flash, I think its futile to try to fit a modern filesystem
> on the flash.
>
> If you are using DT boot, we cannot really change the partitions in
> device-tree because of DT backward-compatibility requirements. But we
> can fix da850evm_spiflash_part[] table in
> arch/arm/mach-davinci/board-da850-evm.c.

Wouldn't having two different partition tables between da850-evm.c and
the DT cause confusion down the road?  With DT being the future, why
would we not try to eliminate any custom board files with just a
single common davinci board file + board specific DT?

>
> To help DT boot, we can pass fixed up mtdparts through environment
> variables. Something like what is done in 3f18ff07c81b ("ARM: keystone:
> Pass SPI MTD partition table via kernel command line").

This was ultimately was I was wanting to do.  For some of the OMAP3
boards, removing the partition tree was accepted since the partition
info was passed to the kernel.  If we did this for DA850, we could
simply elimiate the partition info in the Kernel (like some of the
omap3 boards) and let the partition maps be defined by U-Boot would
would guarantee consistency between them.

>
> Thanks,
> Sekhar
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Re: [U-Boot] DA850evm SPI Flash Partitions between Linux and U-boot are Inconsistent

[Sekhar Nori]

Hi Adam,

On Sunday 27 August 2017 08:31 PM, Adam Ford wrote:
> I was trying to enable MTD Partitions to make loading the Kernel and
> FS easier from within U-Boot
> 
> The da850evm spi-flash partitions in Linux show
> 
> "U-Boot-SPL" @ offset 0, size 64K
> "U-Boot"; @ offset 0x0001, size 512K
> "U-Boot-Env"; @ offset 0x0009

According to board/davinci/da8xxevm/README.da850, we support AIS image
format for SPI boot. This is a single image containing SPL and U-Boot.

Given this, I think having separate partitions for SPL and U-Boot does
not make sense since thats not how its going to be used.

> 
> However U-Boot shows the following:
> 
> CONFIG_SYS_SPI_U_BOOT_OFFS 0x8000 which would make the SPL partition 32K.
> CONFIG_SYS_SPI_U_BOOT_SIZE  0x4 and the size of U-boot 256K
> instead of 512k.
> 
> CONFIG_ENV_SIZE (64 << 10)
> CONFIG_ENV_OFFSET   (512 << 10) which is 0x8 instead of
> Linux's 0x9
> 
> It seems to me like the U-Boot and Linux should try and synchronize
> their partitions tables.

Right.

> For people who want to burn Linux into the SPI flash it seems there
> there should be some consistency.  I tried making the U-boot settings
> match the Linux ones, but it seems to hang between SPL and U-Boot, so
> I think the U-Boot offset in Linux might need to match U-Boot.  Can
> you guys make some recomendations as to which is correct?

I have not tried it, but looks like the partitions we need are

"SPL/U-Boot AIS" @ offset 0, size 512K
"U-Boot Environment" @ offset 512K, size 64K
"Kernel/Spare" @ offset 576K, size 7552K
"Mac Address" @ offset 8128K, size 64K (read only)

With an 8M flash, I think its futile to try to fit a modern filesystem
on the flash.

If you are using DT boot, we cannot really change the partitions in
device-tree because of DT backward-compatibility requirements. But we
can fix da850evm_spiflash_part[] table in
arch/arm/mach-davinci/board-da850-evm.c.

To help DT boot, we can pass fixed up mtdparts through environment
variables. Something like what is done in 3f18ff07c81b ("ARM: keystone:
Pass SPI MTD partition table via kernel command line").

Thanks,
Sekhar
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[U-Boot] DA850evm SPI Flash Partitions between Linux and U-boot are Inconsistent

[Adam Ford]

I was trying to enable MTD Partitions to make loading the Kernel and
FS easier from within U-Boot

The da850evm spi-flash partitions in Linux show

"U-Boot-SPL" @ offset 0, size 64K
"U-Boot"; @ offset 0x0001, size 512K
"U-Boot-Env"; @ offset 0x0009

However U-Boot shows the following:

CONFIG_SYS_SPI_U_BOOT_OFFS 0x8000 which would make the SPL partition 32K.
CONFIG_SYS_SPI_U_BOOT_SIZE  0x4 and the size of U-boot 256K
instead of 512k.

CONFIG_ENV_SIZE (64 << 10)
CONFIG_ENV_OFFSET   (512 << 10) which is 0x8 instead of
Linux's 0x9

It seems to me like the U-Boot and Linux should try and synchronize
their partitions tables.

For people who want to burn Linux into the SPI flash it seems there
there should be some consistency.  I tried making the U-boot settings
match the Linux ones, but it seems to hang between SPL and U-Boot, so
I think the U-Boot offset in Linux might need to match U-Boot.  Can
you guys make some recomendations as to which is correct?

adam
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