Can't create vexpress android images on cards >4GB

[Tixy (Jon Medhurst)]

On larger cards, creating Android images for vexpress fails because the sdcard partition will be >2GB and an attempt is made to format this as FAT16. This is because VexpressConfig() specifies fat_size = 16, so the boot partition is understandable by ARMs boot monitor.

I propose to fix this by making setup_android_partitions() always use FAT32 for the sdcard partition. (The option for boards to specify fat_size only seems to exist for those with restrictions in boot partition format. I don't think it makes sense to also use this for the sdcard partition.)

[Loïc Minier (lool)]

On Wed, Dec 21, 2011, Tixy (Jon Medhurst) wrote:
> On larger cards, creating Android images for vexpress fails because the
> sdcard partition will be >2GB and an attempt is made to format this as
> FAT16. This is because VexpressConfig() specifies fat_size = 16, so the
> boot partition is understandable by ARMs boot monitor.
>
> I propose to fix this by making setup_android_partitions() always use
> FAT32 for the sdcard partition. (The option for boards to specify
> fat_size only seems to exist for those with restrictions in boot
> partition format. I don't think it makes sense to also use this for the
> sdcard partition.)

 FAT16 on Vexpress was suggested for compatibility with the boot
 monitor; if it supports FAT32, then that would be ideal.

--
Loïc Minier

[Tixy (Jon Medhurst) (tixy)]

On Wed, 2011-12-21 at 21:22 +0000, Loïc Minier wrote:
> On Wed, Dec 21, 2011, Tixy (Jon Medhurst) wrote:
> > On larger cards, creating Android images for vexpress fails because the
> > sdcard partition will be >2GB and an attempt is made to format this as
> > FAT16. This is because VexpressConfig() specifies fat_size = 16, so the
> > boot partition is understandable by ARMs boot monitor.
> >
> > I propose to fix this by making setup_android_partitions() always use
> > FAT32 for the sdcard partition. (The option for boards to specify
> > fat_size only seems to exist for those with restrictions in boot
> > partition format. I don't think it makes sense to also use this for the
> > sdcard partition.)
>
> FAT16 on Vexpress was suggested for compatibility with the boot
> monitor; if it supports FAT32, then that would be ideal.

I'm not sure about the boot monitor, the ARM Landing Team's workflow
don't use it. But as the boot monitor should only need to to read the
boot partition, I thought my fix of just changing the sdcard partition
to FAT32 was the safest solution.

--
Tixy

[Loïc Minier (lool)]

I don't have the gear to test Vexpress, and I've never played with boot monitor myself; I would like Linaro Image Tools to support larger / FAT32 Android images, but it's important not to regress a boot monitor based installation (I believe it's the only working one at the moment?).

So what I would propose is that you try testing Vexpress + boot monitor with FAT32 partitions, and if that works we just switch from FAT16 to FAT32 in the board config and hwpacks.

If that doesn't work, we introduce separate boarconfigs or hwpacks for Vexpress and VexpressFat32 or something like that; a better name than VexpressFat32 would be ideal of course.

The proposed branch does NOT seem ok to me because it forces FAT32 for all boards and hwpacks rather than changing Vexpress from FAT16 to FAT32. If FAT16 isn't needed anymore anywhere, then we should remove all mentions of FAT16 vs. FAT32 from the code rather than just this one.

[Loïc Minier (lool)]

Sorry, misunderstood the change; you just changed the Android user data partition to FAT32, not the boot partition; that should be fine!