[Automated-testing] Looking for a Debian kernel provisioning solution

[Tim.Bird at sony.com]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Robert Schwebel [mailto:r.schwebel at pengutronix.de]
> Hi Tim,
> 
> On Wed, Jan 24, 2018 at 10:21:01PM +0000, Bird, Timothy wrote:
> > So, I want to test LTS kernels on a MinnowBoard Turbot....
> >
> > I'm looking for a board farm solution that can handle
> > building a mainline (or LTS) kernel, and deploy it to the MinnowBoard,
> > and reboot the board to a Linux shell prompt.
> >
> > The board is running Ubuntu 16.04.3, using a 4.4 Linux kernel by default,
> > and uses grub2, with OS software coming from a micro-SD card.
> > I have power control of the board, and serial console, and a network
> > connection (with ssh).
> >
> > The upstream kernels archive of Ubuntu have the software that I'll need.
> >
> > But I'm wondering if there's existing board farm software (e.g. labgrid)
> > that can handle the intricacies of installing a newly built kernel onto
> > the board, and rebooting it.
> 
> We use the Minnowboard Max for realtime testing with labgrid, and for
> the automatic setup we use an SD-USB-Mux:
> 
> https://www.pengutronix.de/en/2017-10-23-usb-sd-mux-automated-sd-
> card-juggler.html

OK - that's super-cool, and directly solves the problem of re-writing the SD card
from the host.

> 
> In fact, we still don't have a proper way of selling them, but if you
> send me your address, you'll probably be added to our beta tester
> program :-)
I will do that in a private e-mail.  Thanks.

In general, I'm looking at this from 2 angles:
 - 1) how to get my own lab set up to do this, and 
 - 2) how to make it easy for other people to do testing for this type of configuration

I don't mind getting experimental hardware for my lab, but for 2) there's an obvious
preference to avoid requiring additional hardware, and trying to ensure it's
possible for 3rd parties to do the same setup, easily.

I haven't heard anything from Jan.  Is labgrid being using to drive the
rewrite of software to the sdcard?
Would the software side of this be already integrated into labgrid?
More specifically, would I find example scripts showing how to do this in
the labgrid repository?

Thanks,
 -- Tim