Re: Installable ARMv8 cross-toolchain

[Marek Vasut <marek.vasut@gmail.com>]

Dear Loïc Minier,

> On Sat, Nov 03, 2012, Marek Vasut wrote:
> > I need to catch up with you in there ;-) What do you use for a bootloader
> > on these armv8 devices?
> 
> No bootloader at the moment, but a boot wrapper!  ;-)
> 
> At the moment, ARMv8 work is mostly on virtual platforms (I guess there
> might be some people with expensive FGPAs too); the two virtual
> platforms Linaro is using are:
> * the free (as in beer) ARMv8 Foundation model ("Foundation")
> * the pre-built ARMv8 Versatile Express model ("VE RTSM")
> 
> ARM recently published some information on the various models at:
>     http://www.arm.com/fvp
> 
> The two virtual platforms are relatively similar; the main differences
> are:
> * VE model has a MMC while the Foundation model has an AMBA virtio block
>   device
> * VE has a RTC while Foundation model hasn't
> * VE has an AMBA LCD (clcd) while Foundation model hasn't
> 
> At least the first difference prevents us from sharing a single Device
> Tree with all devices between the two platforms (kernel oops when
> starting the Foundation model with the MMC listed or vice-versa).
> 
> To boot the platform, a small boot wrapper is combined with the kernel,
> device tree, and kernel cmdline into an ELF .axf file for the model to
> run.
> 
> This page explains how to rebuild kernel + device tree + boot wrapper:
>     https://wiki.linaro.org/HowTo/BuildArm64Kernel
> (the boot wrapper is maintained by Catalin Marinas on git.kernel.org)
> 
> 
> The plan is to switch to a full bootloader -- likely Tianocore (UEFI) --
> when available as it's painful to have to rebuild the .axf whenever the
> kernel or kernel cmdline change, and real hardware wouldn't use a boot
> wrapper anyway.
> 
> I guess you're asking because you consider an U-Boot port?  :-)

Mostly, yes. I was pondering if armv8 is the terminus station for u-boot.

btw guys ... (Wookey, Loic) ... do you have any plans for tomorrow evening?

Best regards,
Marek Vasut