console= cmdline options on the RPi2 should be moved from uboot.env to cmdline.txt

[Oliver Grawert]

There is a lot of online documentation to set up different hats (addon boards) on a RPi2 ... some of them use the serial port and have instructions how to disable the serial console by dropping "console=ttyAMA0" from the cmdline.txt file.

Snappy currently sets the console= options from a uboot var that is set in uboot.env instead:

(RaspberryPi2)ubuntu@localhost:~$ fw_printenv |grep console
mmcargs=setenv bootargs "${args} console=tty0 console=ttyAMA0 root=${mmcroot}"

to drop the serial console option you would have to:

(RaspberryPi2)ubuntu@localhost:~$ sudo fw_setenv mmcargs 'setenv bootargs "${args} console=tty0 root=${mmcroot}"'
(RaspberryPi2)ubuntu@localhost:~$ fw_printenv |grep console
mmcargs=setenv bootargs "${args} console=tty0 root=${mmcroot}"

while this is as easy as editing a text file it will be hard to find for users trying to follow online docs that point to cmdline.txt instead.
all console= options should be moved over to not add confusion over third party documentation.

[Mark Shuttleworth (sabdfl)]

Ideally, we need to find a *safe* way for the gadget snap to do what's
needed here. We want to avoid any manual editing of files at all. Instead:

 * there's a declarative format in the gadget snap which covers
everything needed
 * there's some *safe* way for the system to adapt to that declaration

[Oliver Grawert (ogra)]

well, i'd see that gadget snap implementation as a broader long term solution that will also have to manage devicetree overlays and more.

for the short terrm i think we should still match online documentation (i doubt we'll have some fully fledged generic solution for the bootloader setup by next stable release in "snappy config", so moving to the upstream default as interim should still happen)

[Mark Shuttleworth (sabdfl)]

Agreed, thanks Ogra.

[Leo Arias (elopio)]

ogra, could you update the progress about this issue, please?

[Oliver Grawert (ogra)]

@leo: (sorry that bug was somehow under the radar) ... the options moved a while ago, but i kept the bug itself still open to track the gadget side ...

[Leo Arias (elopio)]

thanks for the info.