[PATCH 2/3 Try#2] NOR Flash Support (U-Boot env)

Harald Welte laforge at openmoko.org
Mon Dec 24 15:32:42 CET 2007


On Mon, Dec 24, 2007 at 10:11:28AM +0000, Andy Green wrote:
 
> If the kernel that devirginator drops in the device on GTA-01 also has
> the NOR patch, it will create a (useless, but logically present) MTD
> device representing the (IIRC, on GTA-01 nonexistent) NOR device's
> footprint and make the partitions match up.  The MTD ROM support should
> accept it despite the Flash probe would fail, so it is one way to get a
> unified behaviour.

this is not good.  Since GTA01 is already deployed, I think it will
generate a nightmare for updating and compatibility.  GTA01 partition
tables have to be as-is.

> We could treat the GTA-01 low level software like kernel, U-Boot and
> devirginator (I guess generally usermode code doesn't care much what it
> runs on) as "released" for GTA-01 and instead of trying to target -01
> and -02 for new development work -- which focuses on a GTA-02 that can
> go to production -- we find or fund a guy interested to manage
> backporting newer GTA-02 work on to a "stable" GTA-01 tree -- it's a bit
> like the 2.6 stable branch kernel maintainer.

I don't think this is acceptable.  People bought GTA01 in the
expectation that we would once finish the software stack for it.  If OM
doesn't deliver a working phone software stack to them, they will feel
tricked into buying a device based on wrong pretext/suggestions.  It
sends a really bad message to the community.

So for the time being, I'd think it is not acceptable to drop GTA01
support from anything.  All features (unless hardware like
wifi/accelerometer/... is required) have to be en par on both units.
Also, there is no technical reason why they'd not be.

Cheers,
-- 
- Harald Welte <laforge at openmoko.org>          	        http://openmoko.org/
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