Re: [PATCH 09/32] bcm2837-rpi-3-b.dts for 32bit arm

From: Gerd Hoffmann
Date: Thu Jun 02 2016 - 05:14:39 EST


Hi,

> > Well, it just includes the arm64 version as-is, so we don't have
> > duplication. I'm open to suggestions to how handle this better.
> >
> > Symbolic link?
> >
> > Reference to ../../../arm64/boot/dts/broadcom/bcm2837-rpi-3-b.dts
> > directly in the Makefile?
> >
> > I've seen arch/arm/boot/dts/Makefile uses globs on *.dts, so I suspect
> > the later wouldn't be that straight forward.
>
> It's just weird that the arm64 file includes the .dtsi files from arch/arm/
> and is then again included back from another file there.
>
> I can see two possible ways to handle this better:
>
> - leave the complete set of bcm2837 files in arch/arm and then have one
> reference from arch/arm64 per .dts that refers to just that file.

So basically do it the other way around. Would be a bit less messy
indeed.

> - come up with a rule to also build the .dtb files in arch/arm64 when
> we run 'make dtbs' for arch/arm and leave this file there. The argument
> that one could use the same dtb with a 32-bit kernel should basically
> hold true for any arm64 system, it's not specific to rpi-3 really.

Yes, in theory. No, in practice. As far I know the rpi3 is the only
64bit soc where a almost identical 32bit version exists, so running
32bit kernels on a 64bit processor actually happens in practice and I
expect this to continue. If you want create sdcard images which run on
any rpi variant this is pretty much the only reasonable way to do it.

> We don't normally test 32-bit kernels on 64-bit SoCs because 64-bit
> kernels are more efficient in a number of ways, and I'm sure there
> are bugs that prevent some systems from working (aside from how some
> machines cannot work because they don't have RAM below 4GB), but if
> this is now something that users are interested in, making it just
> work seems nicer than having a couple of board specific hacks.

See above, I have my doubts that the user interest in this expands to
other boards. So I'd tend to pick the first option.

cheers,
Gerd