Subject: Re: [bug#57070] [PATCH] bootloader: extlinux: support for optional FDTDIR

From: Maxime Devos <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 16 Aug 2022 20:44:44 +0200

On 16-08-2022 19:08, Reza Alizadeh Majd wrote:
>> Can FDTDIR be set automatically or unset automatically depending on
>> the hardware? That would reduce the required configuration
> No, that's not possible. As I mentioned in the initial message, some
> hardware may or may not require it depending on the kernel.

My question has a part 'depending on the hardware', so possibly the 
relevant code could check what the hardware is.  Likewise, the code 
could check the kernel version.  More generally, when something can be 
decided manually, it can often be detected automatically with some 
work.  I'm not seeing any impossibility here.

Also, again, why are you submitting this work-around when it appears to 
be simply a kernel bug that needs a kernel package to be updated and 
maybe a devicetree fix to be backported? As written in a previous response:

> ‘There is also no reliable way to guess if u-boot bootloader should load
> device tree or not on a specific hardware. in addition, there are
> hardware that can be booted with both firmware device tree on some
> kernels and with special device tree on other (modified) kernels.’
>
> If I'm guessing correctly, that sounds like the problem is that device 
> tree information is missing from the kernel. Proposal: upstream the 
> device tree information.

Greetings,
Maxime.