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Hey all,
So I have been working with upstream u-boot, and we are gotten to a point where we have a common set of config options defined that we can be sure will be there. Next step is working on setting a common environment. The preferred boot format will be syslinux style config with boot.scr also supported. tegra boards and raspberry pi default to reading a extlinux.conf file and falling back to boot.scr if it doesnt exist, with more platforms in progress of being moved over. There has been work to make it so that lots of extra noise is not printed on screen. longer term BootLoaderSpec support will also be implemented.
a working extlinux.conf file is
# extlinux.conf generated by appliance-creator ui menu.c32 menu autoboot Welcome to Fedora-Minimal-armhfp-rawhide-20140211-test. Automatic boot in # second{,s}. Press a key for options. menu title Fedora-Minimal-armhfp-rawhide-20140211-test Boot Options. menu hidden timeout 1 totaltimeout 600
label Fedora-Minimal-armhfp-rawhide-20140211-test (3.14.0-0.rc2.git0.1.fc21.armv7hl) kernel /vmlinuz-3.14.0-0.rc2.git0.1.fc21.armv7hl append ro root=UUID=1cd5dcc6-074d-4364-b606-a9a62b498166 fdtdir /dtb-3.14.0-0.rc2.git0.1.fc21.armv7hl/ initrd /initramfs-3.14.0-0.rc2.git0.1.fc21.armv7hl.img
though menu support still needs some work you do get a menu and can select 1, 2, 3, etc
the ftddir which can also be devicetreedir specifies a directory where u-boot can find dtb files. u-boot itself will know which dtb file to load for the current board. alternatively you can use fdt or devicetree to specify the exact dtb file to load. other than the dtb support its stock standard syslinux config file. which gives a much more usable experience to users and takes away any need to know memory addresses or to wrap things with mkimage. you can if you want but raw kernel and initramfs support is enabled and just works. the end result is something more familiar and simple to users.
Just wanted to give you an update to the emails I sent last year to follow up and give a brief status update. any questions please ask. The end goal is to have it so that distros don't need to care about making sure we do things differently for each soc or board. We can just work everywhere.
Dennis