[meta-freescale] [3rdparty] imx7s-warp reference support: How to add additional firmware blobs?

[Simon Hughes]

Summary

What's the **right way** to add additional firmware blobs to MACHINE=imx7s-warp DISTRO=xxx images, so we follow a sensible pattern? There are at least 2 alternatives:

-          The imx6sl-warp.conf way which leverages openembedded-core linux-firmware_git.bb.

-          The imx7s-warp.conf way which is standalone (doesn't leverage openembedded-core linux-firmware_git.bb).

We're working on imx7s-warp support in our own tree but want to be able to upstream the changes to the community as a reference implementation rather than bodging the job.

Details

To help work through the issues, let's assume we have:

-          a layer meta-foo for storing .bbappend recipes etc.

-          a machine feature "bar" which we want people to be able to turn on/off in the their images using MACHINE_FEATURES += " bar"

-          distros include packagegroup-core and packagegroup-base (so that processing can be hooked).

Aim: To install the following firmware files into the image :
- chip vendor license agreement e.g. LICENCE.broadcom_bcm43xx
- chip vendor firmware binary file e.g. brcmfmac43340-sdio.bin
- chip vendor support file e.g. brcmfmac43430-sdio.txt
- their supporting files e.g. BCM43430A1.hcd, GPL


The dependency graph from meta-freescale-3rdparty/conf/machine/imx7s-warp.conf looks like this:

imx7s-warp.conf
---- firmware-imx.bb
-------- firmware-imx.inc (provides FILES_${PN}-brcm i.e. firmware-imx-brmm )
------------ firmware-imx.bbappend

Note:

-          firmware-imx.bb can be customised with meta-foo/recipe-bsp/firmware-imx/firmware-imx.bbappend.

-          firmware-imx.bb installs to /lib/firmware/bcm

However, the dependency graph for meta-freescale-3rdparty/conf/machine/imx6sl-warp.conf looks like this:

imx6sl-warp.conf
---- bcm4330-nvram-config.bb
-------- broadcom-nvram-config.inc
------------ linux-firmware_git.bb
---------------- linux-firmware_git.bbappend

linux-firmware_git.bb can be customised with meta-foo/recipe-bsp/linux-firmware/ linux-firmware_git.bbappend. This seems a better approach because linux-firmware_git.bb already has (partial) support for our goal:

FILES_${PN}-bcm43340 = " \
  ${nonarch_base_libdir}/firmware/brcm/brcmfmac43340-sdio.bin \
"

LICENSE_${PN}-bcm43340 = "Firmware-broadcom_bcm43xx"

LIC_FILES_CHKSUM = "\
...
    file://LICENCE.broadcom_bcm43xx;md5=3160c14df7228891b868060e1951dfbc<file:///\\LICENCE.broadcom_bcm43xx;md5=3160c14df7228891b868060e1951dfbc> \
...

Notes:
- one of the files we specifically want to install (brcmfmac43340-sdio.bin) is managed in linux-firmware_git.bin
- linux-firmware_git.bb installs to /lib/firmware/brcm, which is different to firmware-imx.inc.

It seems like our best short term option is as follows:
- define imx7s-warp-foo.conf,
- in imx7s-warp-foo.conf add "require imx7s-warp.conf", add MACHINE_FEATURES += " bar", and remove anything from imx7s-warp.conf referenced symbols (e.g. MACHINE_EXTRA_RRECOMMENDS) that inhibits the next step.
- follow the imx6sl-warp.conf pattern to leverage linux-firmware_git.bb.

Then we'd upstream in the following way:
- upstream imx7s-warp-foo.conf into meta-freescale-3rdparty/conf/machine/imx7s-warp.conf
- upstream linux-firmware_%.bbappend to linux-firmware_git.bb.

Please could you share your opinions on the best way to proceed?

Thanks

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