Hi Marek, On Tue, 21 Jul 2026 at 13:48, Marek Vasut <[email protected]> wrote: > > In case MULTI_DTB_FIT_GZIP is enabled, fdtdec_setup() does uncompress > the compressed DTs in uncompress_blob() using gunzip(), which invokes > malloc() internally. The early simple malloc is initialized in board_f > initf_malloc() call, which sets up the early simple malloc limit and > offset pointer in global data. Currently, the initf_malloc() is called > after fdtdec_setup(), which leads to malloc failure in fdtdec_setup() > during the gzip decompression, because the early simple malloc is not > initialized yet. > > Call initf_malloc() before fdtdec_setup() to assure fdtdec_setup() can > use malloc() during gzip decompression of the DTs. > > The impact of this change on boot time is negligible, because the > initf_malloc() only assigns two fields in global data. > > Signed-off-by: Marek Vasut <[email protected]> > --- > Cc: Ilias Apalodimas <[email protected]> > Cc: Simon Glass <[email protected]> > Cc: Tom Rini <[email protected]> > Cc: [email protected] > --- > common/board_f.c | 2 +- > 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
I'm not keen on reordering this list... The offending call is inside uncompress_blob(), which already has a non-malloc path - MULTI_DTB_FIT_USER_DEFINED_AREA with MULTI_DTB_FIT_USER_DEF_ADDR. That is the pattern most boards using compressed multi-DTB FIT already use, and it avoids early malloc altogether. Could the BTT config not just switch to that and drop the board-local initf_malloc() workaround at the same time? Failing that, the per-board workaround in board/liebherr/btt/btt.c is ugly but localised. If we really want a generic fix, I would rather see uncompress_blob() call initf_malloc() itself when it needs the heap, so the ordering constraint stays local to the code that needs it. We would need to ensure that malloc() isn't then inited a second time. We could always add a flag to gd->boardf, I suppose. The reordering also means that malloc cannot be traced - the idea with trace is that it is enabled as early as possible. Finally (that I can think of), it means that early malloc can never be configured by the devicetree (although that is not something we have needed yet). Regards, Simon
