u-boot-starfive does not contain a postinst script to update the board after package installation

[scottfk]

u-boot-starfive distributes updates to SPL and U-Boot, but it does not flash them to the board. I think it would be useful if it followed the pattern of u-boot-sifive and included a postinst script to update the board.

The script could look something like this. NB: I only have access to a StarFive VisionFive 2 v1.3B board. Not sure if the other revisions are compatible with the SPL and U-Boot images in the u-boot-starfive package:

#!/bin/sh

##

set -e

case "$1" in
    configure)
        target=""
        if grep -q '^StarFive VisionFive 2 v1.3B$' /sys/firmware/devicetree/base/model; then
            target="starfive_visionfive2"
        fi
        if [ -n "$target" ] && [ -e /dev/mtd/by-name/spl ] && [ -e /dev/mtd/by-name/uboot ]; then
            flashcp -v /usr/lib/u-boot/$target/u-boot-spl.bin.normal.out /dev/mtd/by-name/spl
            flashcp -v /usr/lib/u-boot/$target/u-boot.itb /dev/mtd/by-name/uboot
        fi
        ;;
esac

exit 0

[Heinrich Schuchardt (xypron)]

Hello Scott,

thanks for taking a look at the u-boot-starfive.

The StarFive board has multiple boot options. The vendor U-Boot is typically installed on SPI-flash. But you could also have U-Boot on the eMMC or on the SD-card. I would assume that the GPIOs determining the boot source could also be read in Linux.

When booting into Ubuntu 24.04 I see no /dev/mtd/by-name/ directory. We don't have a udev rule for it.

In /proc/dev I find:

$ cat /proc/mtd
dev: size erasesize name
mtd0: 00080000 00001000 "spl"
mtd1: 00010000 00001000 "uboot-env"
mtd2: 00400000 00001000 "uboot"
mtd3: 00a00000 00001000 "reserved-data"

These partitions seem to be derived from the device-tree (cf. arch/riscv/boot/dts/starfive/jh7110-starfive-visionfive-2.dtsi).

Best regards

Heinrich

[scottfk (scottfk)]

Heya, Heinrich.

That device in the by-name seems to get created by /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/60-persistent-storage-mtd.rules (from package udev):

# do not edit this file, it will be overwritten on update

# persistent storage links: /dev/mtd/by-name

ACTION=="remove", GOTO="persistent_storage_mtd_end"
SUBSYSTEM!="mtd", GOTO="persistent_storage_mtd_end"
KERNEL!="mtd[0-9]*", GOTO="persistent_storage_mtd_end"
KERNEL=="mtd[0-9]*ro", GOTO="persistent_storage_mtd_end"

ATTR{name}=="?*", SYMLINK+="mtd/by-name/$attr{name}"

LABEL="persistent_storage_mtd_end"

 udevadm info /dev/mtd/by-name/uboot
P: /devices/platform/soc/13010000.spi/spi_master/spi0/spi0.0/mtd/mtd2
M: mtd2
R: 2
U: mtd
T: mtd
D: c 90:4
N: mtd2
L: 0
S: mtd/by-name/uboot
E: DEVPATH=/devices/platform/soc/13010000.spi/spi_master/spi0/spi0.0/mtd/mtd2
E: DEVNAME=/dev/mtd2
E: DEVTYPE=mtd
E: OF_NAME=uboot
E: OF_FULLNAME=/soc/spi@13010000/flash@0/partitions/uboot@100000
E: OF_COMPATIBLE_N=0
E: MAJOR=90
E: MINOR=4
E: SUBSYSTEM=mtd
E: USEC_INITIALIZED=19728429
E: DEVLINKS=/dev/mtd/by-name/uboot

$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu Noble Numbat (development branch)
Release: 24.04
Codename: noble

$ apt policy udev
udev:
  Installed: 255.2-3ubuntu2
  Candidate: 255.2-3ubuntu2
  Version table:
 *** 255.2-3ubuntu2 500
        500 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports noble-proposed/main riscv64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     253.5-1ubuntu7 500
        500 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports noble/main riscv64 Packages

Maybe I am getting the device mapping because I am running a 6.8.0-rc3 kernel I compiled myself? I will reboot into the Ubuntu 6.5.0.14.14.1 kernel and check.

[Heinrich Schuchardt (xypron)]

We have no control over the kernel or device-tree that the user uses. The definitions of the MTD partitions might not match our device-tree.

/sys/class/mtd/mtd*/offset has the offsets of the MTD partitions. This would need to be checked before flashing.

[scottfk (scottfk)]

Still there.

$ uname -a
Linux venus3 6.5.0-14-generic #14.1-Ubuntu SMP Fri Nov 24 06:09:26 UTC 2023 riscv64 riscv64 riscv64 GNU/Linux

/dev/mtd/by-name$ ls -l
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Jan 24 20:53 reserved-data -> ../../mtd3
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Jan 24 20:53 spl -> ../../mtd0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Jan 24 20:53 uboot -> ../../mtd2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Jan 24 20:53 uboot-env -> ../../mtd1

(time/date are always wrong until systemd-timesyncd starts and puts things right:

$ last -1 reboot
reboot system boot 6.5.0-14-generic Wed Jan 24 20:53 still running

wtmp begins Tue Sep 19 17:54:34 2023

$ timedatectl
               Local time: Thu 2024-02-08 13:41:50 CET
           Universal time: Thu 2024-02-08 12:41:50 UTC
                 RTC time: n/a
                Time zone: Europe/Zurich (CET, +0100)
System clock synchronized: yes
              NTP service: active
          RTC in local TZ: no
)

[Heinrich Schuchardt (xypron)]

Hello Scott,

The by-name directory is not created by the kernel.

Could you, please, find out which udev rule file provides the directory on your system by running

grep -GHrn by-name /lib/udev
grep -GHrn by-name /etc/udev

With

apt-file search

you should be able to identify the package providing the file.

Best regards

Heinrich

[scottfk (scottfk)]

Heya, Heinrich... sorry, I thought I'd shown the rule in https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/u-boot/+bug/2052693/comments/2

Here we go:

$ grep -GHrn by-name /lib/udev
/lib/udev/rules.d/60-persistent-storage-mtd.rules:3:# persistent storage links: /dev/mtd/by-name
/lib/udev/rules.d/60-persistent-storage-mtd.rules:10:ATTR{name}=="?*", SYMLINK+="mtd/by-name/$attr{name}"

$ apt-file search /lib/udev/rules.d/60-persistent-storage-mtd.rules
udev: /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/60-persistent-storage-mtd.rules

$ apt policy udev
udev:
  Installed: 255.2-3ubuntu2
  Candidate: 255.2-3ubuntu2
  Version table:
 *** 255.2-3ubuntu2 500
        500 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports noble-proposed/main riscv64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     253.5-1ubuntu7 500
        500 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports noble/main riscv64 Packages

[Heinrich Schuchardt (xypron)]

File 60-persistent-storage-mtd.rules is missing in package udev_253.5-1ubuntu7_riscv64.deb which was released to Ubuntu 24.04 (Noble).

udev_255.2-3ubuntu2_riscv64.deb has a file 60-persistent-storage-mtd.rules but that package version is still in proposed.

[Heinrich Schuchardt (xypron)]

The current boot source can be discovered by commands
gpioget 1 0; gpioget 1 1.

For SPI flash both commands return 0.

[scottfk (scottfk)]

Thanks, Heinrich!

I'll take a whack at making a better/more robust script when I have some cycles.