[meta-freescale] Issues using meta-freescale i.MX6 vs LTIB ?

[Alex J Lennon]

On 02/10/2013 14:34, Trevor Woerner wrote:
> Hi Alex,
>
> On 2 October 2013 09:12, Alex J Lennon <ajlennon at dynamicdevices.co.uk> wrote:
>> I'm trying to qualify a decision to use Yocto / meta-freescale for an
>> upcoming
>> i.MX6 board variant (based on the Sabre reference) instead of using the
>> officially supported release based on LTIB.
> In my opinion, the "right" decision will depend on the quality and
> size of your team. Are they "interested" enough in their work to go
> off and make OE/Yocto work? Are they committed enough to stray from
> the provided tools? Do they have the requisite GNU/Linux experience to
> know how to figure things out and investigate issues when things don't
> work as expected? If your team is big enough, maybe some of them could
> work on the LTIB path while a smaller group focuses on investigating
> OE/Yocto?

Thanks for your opinion Trevor. The team at present is just me :)

I've used LTIB for PowerPC devices that are currently in the field, and 
also on i.MX53
based boards. I've also used OpenEmbedded Legacy (and more recently 
Yocto) for many
years on a range of platforms from x86-based/RPi/i.MX53 and so forth.

So I'm fairly cognizant of the issues with installation, configuration, 
tools, image creation
with both. OpenEmbedded has a (much) steeper learning curve imho but is 
more reliable
and has much more support for a good eco-system of recipes. Very helpful 
when the client
wants "XYZ" adding in.

I guess what I'm really asking is, what are the drawbacks and 
limitations (just just bugs per-se)
with using the current under-development i.MX6 OpenEmbedded BSP vs the 
LTIB BSP

Maybe to put it another way, functionally is there a roadmap for where 
the i.MX6 BSP is at
and what isn't yet working or supported. Presumably there are things 
that are not working
or supported or FSL would be offically supporting at this time... :)

> It seems as though you are facing a classic tradeoff between
> short-term goals or long-term support. You can probably get to market
> faster using LTIB, but what if this is a successful product and two
> years from now you switch to a new board, one that isn't supported
> under LTIB?
>
> It would seem as though OE/Yocto's popularity (and the scope of what
> it can do) is increasing every day. The chances that you can get it to
> do what you want are good, and the chances that it will support future
> boards is even better.
>
> NOTE: I have no idea what freescale's future plans for LTIB are.

As Diaiane mentions elsewhere FSL are moving to OE but I wasn't sure if 
that was
public knowledge yet :)

> PS: the original email asks for opinions and in this email I have
> provided my own personal opinion, which has been known to not always
> be 100% aligned with the real world nor the same as the opinions of
> others :-)

Many thanks!

-- 

Dynamic Devices Ltd <http://www.dynamicdevices.co.uk/>

Alex J Lennon / Director
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