Re: [PATCH 2/2] bootm: add generic android image handler

[Sascha Hauer <s.hauer@pengutronix.de>]

On Tue, Jan 20, 2026 at 04:04:37PM +0100, Ahmad Fatoum wrote:
> Hello Sascha,
> 
> On 1/20/26 3:55 PM, Sascha Hauer wrote:
> > +	if (kernel)
> > +		bootm_data.os_file = kernel;
> > +
> > +	if (initrd)
> > +		bootm_data.initrd_file = initrd;
> > +
> > +	close(fd);
> > +
> > +	ret = bootm_boot(&bootm_data);
> 
> Two quick comments:
> 
> I think this feature will not be usable when
> CONFIG_BOOTM_OFTREE_FALLBACK is disabled, which is a shame, because I
> think normal deployments should disable that option to avoid unexpected
> fallback behavior.
> 
> Here the fallback is expected though. Would it be possible to change
> this, so the barebox oftree is passed along explicitly to avoid falling
> into the fallback?

When a user chooses to disable CONFIG_BOOTM_OFTREE_FALLBACK to avoid
using the internal device tree as a fallback then this decision should
be universally honoured. Explicitly inserting the internal device tree
in special cases contradicts this.

Note that I have used this feature with a FIT image which carries its
own device tree, so I wasn't affected.

We currently only support version 1 of the Android image format. Since
version 2 the image can also embed a device tree which can be passed
with the --dtb option to the fastboot command, so the solution to
address your concerns should be adding support for version 2.

I would consider this a future enhancement though.

> 
> On a related note, this will probably trigger a warning on every boot if
> the barebox device tree has a state node. Maybe we could mark dupes of
> the barebox device tree as such (maybe set device_node::dev to a special
> value?!), so we can skip the warning?

You mean this warning?

dev_warn(&state->dev, "Warning: Kernel devicetree contains state node, replacing it\n");

We could mark it as duplicate as you suggested. Another possibility
would be to delete state nodes while duplicating the internal device tree.

Sascha


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