Flat OF Device Tree for ppc32 [was: Platform bus/ppc sys model...]

[Jon Loeliger]

On Thu, 2005-03-31 at 06:33, Jon Masters wrote:
> Kumar Gala wrote:
> 
> |> My intention was to give a device tree structure to the kernel at boot
> |> time via a (pseudo?) pointer in bd_info or similar. 

> This got resurrected recently. 

Hi!

> | I think this is reasonable.  The best device tree would be a flattened
> | OF tree since we are trying to move the world in that direction.  Jon
> | Masters around?
> 
> Yes, but I've been tied up with worky and magazine stuff again. If
> someone wants to work with me then this might actually happen.

Hi Jon,

I'm here and actively(!) working on it now.   Here is the very
rough plan as Kumar and I have discussed it.  Please feel free
to comment on it or offer suggestions.  Ben has suggested that
I start with the "second step" below.  I'd like to do a round
of cleanup first.

So far, I have taken the first step of isolating the references
to the global __res[] variable into one file and replacing all
references to the data in the bd_t structure with a thin, shim
layer of function calls that are nominally into an OF-like
interface.  I have done this for all the 85xx and 83xx boards
in my development tree, and am working on the others now.
This step effectively isolates the __res[] references to one
file where a well defined interface can be created to pose as
an OF Device Tree layer (briefly).

As a follow-up second step, I plan on introducing essentially
the same code currently in ppc64 to handle the flat device tree
and provide an interface to that data in exactly the same manner
as the ppc64 currently has.  I understand the desire to have the
flat-tree handling be "outside the kernel".

As a third step, the shim layer will be rewritten/augmented to
use the actual OF device tree data where it currently fronts
for the bd_t data.

Finally, as time permits and maintainers allow (read: prod),
the other (not 85xx, not 83xx) boards can have their setup code
converted to use the "real" OF device tree function calls.

When all of that is done, the shim layer can be removed, as needed.


Oh, yeah.  Um, also on my plate will be to construct the
original flat-tree blob in U-Boot to be handed to the kernel.
(I'll start with 85xx and 83xx, naturlich.)

We have not yet decided on the layout of that tree to determine
where all the attributes and devices really belong.  I will
also discuss with Wolfgang and crew how to generate that tree
over in U-Boot land.

Right?
 
Thanks,
jdl