-----Original Message----- From: boot-architecture [mailto:boot-architecture- bounces@lists.linaro.org] On Behalf Of Blibbet Sent: Wednesday, July 08, 2015 9:53 PM On 07/08/2015 07:24 AM, Leif Lindholm wrote:
On Wed, Jul 01, 2015 at 12:59:12PM +0000, Meenakshi Aggarwal wrote:
This is my first query on this list. I apologize for any mistake.
This is also my first query on the list. :-)
Is this patch tested?
Yes.
Also I want to know the underline firmware volume on which this patch has been tested?
We verified it (at least) on the microSD card on the Samsung Arndale board.
Forgetting the licensing issue, would the Ext2 FS driver need to be embedded in the main firmware volume, or could it be in a .efi file in a FAT-based ESP? I am wondering if it'd be technically possible for a system with a main firmware volume that only recognizes FAT would be able to load and use the Ext2 FS driver, since most IBVs only ship FAT support (except Apple which apparently supports both FAT and HFS+) for ESP.
What about UDF for non-FAT ESP FS? UDF was checked into TianoCore a while ago, so BSD licensed. Unlike FAT, I am not aware of any UDF IP issues. UDF has OS-level FS/tool issues, but some of those edge cases could be fixed. UDF also supports large files, which would be useful for some pre- OS config issues where you need to mess with .ISO or .img files to setup a system, FAT-only FS support would be not helpful. Mainstream IBVs will not likely support a Linux-only FS, but UDF is a lot more neutral and less scary, Microsoft already supports UDF. Anyway, just a thought, for a more IP-free ESP FS... http://sourceforge.net/p/edk2/mailman/message/33187675/
Hmmm. Does UDF support flash devices like a NOR or NAND flash, which is usually the default booting source on most ARM based boards. AFAIK, UDF is mainly a mechanism suited best for optical disks and DVDs, so I am not sure it can support the usual boot devices on ARM based boards, like: - NOR flash. - NAND flash. - SD card. - SPI flash.
So, while we are on the right track when we say that Linux-only FS, may not find many takers in the EDK2 world, but does UDF solve the issue of handling flashes which are the primary boot sources on ARM platforms, rather than HDDs or Optical Disks on a x86?
Or, should we be looking at the GPIL + X11 dual-licensed licensing format for such components like ext2/ext3 support in future. This dual-license is already used for licensing Linux Device-tree (see [1]). Since X11 is pretty similar to BSD licensing, the prospect of work licensed under this dual-license are better in terms of re-use.
[1] http://lxr.free-electrons.com/source/arch/arm64/boot/dts/freescale/fsl-ls208...