sunxi-tools 1.4 doesn't install sunxi-nand-image-builder

[daym]

sunxi-tools 1.4 doesn't install sunxi-nand-image-builder.

I'm packaging sunxi-tools for Guix and it won't install sunxi-nand-image-builder that way. Did you mean to leave it off? Or is it supposed to go in TOOLS ?

[n1tehawk]

When the sunxi-nand-image-builder utility was initially submitted/discussed on the linux-sunxi mailing list, it was in fact me who suggested that it would go into MISC_TOOLS instead of TOOLS - due to the rather specific nature of this tool, and the fact that it might not be relevant / of interest to a broader audience. That also means it doesn't get built by default and/or included in make install.

You seem to be suggesting that this is not the case - as a consequence it should probably be moved from MISC_TOOLS to TOOLS.

@bbrezillon, @ssvb What do you think?

Regards, NiteHawk

[daym]

I'm just asking. Guix usually has the policy of including all the bells and whistles so in cases like this we ask to make sure that the authors intended to leave it off.

If you did, okay.

I'm not sure why you would write a program nobody could use since it doesn't get installed - but maybe it's a debug tool?

But I checked the source code and it doesn't seem to need target /dev/mem or anything. It looks like any other image builder - probably a person is supposed to use a bus pirate or something to flash it. So not sure why it's not just a normal tool.

For example FPGA toolchains also have lots of weird programs that do things that work on just this FPGA block - they are still installed. Maybe someone needs it.

[n1tehawk]

Our assumption (or lame excuse 😛) so far was that users that would actually want / benefit from the specialized tools would be tech-savvy enough to do git clone and make misc.

But I acknowledge that we probably should cater for different needs here, and leave it up to the package maintainers what selection of binaries they actually want to include in their distribution.

How about adding make install-misc to handle things in a way similar to what install-tools and install-target-tools already do? If your package really wants to include everything plus the kitchen sink, it could then use make install-all install-misc when building...

Regards, NiteHawk

[daym]

Yeah, I think that's a good idea.

[n1tehawk]

Done.

The various build targets are now also documented in the README, see https://github.com/linux-sunxi/sunxi-tools#building.

Regards, NiteHawk

[daym]

Works for us. Thanks!

I just found that another program, sunxi-script_extractor, will still not be installed.

[n1tehawk]

That's somewhat on purpose. sunxi-script_extractor is a rather sloppy tool hacked together to dump configuration data (script.bin) from a fixed memory location. The tool has fallen into disuse / isn't actively maintained, users were only having limited success with it anyway, and IIRC it won't work on the more recent Allwinner SoCs.

[daym]

Okay, thanks!

[n1tehawk]

If you want it included nevertheless, you could now override TARGET_TOOLS the way you initially wanted. 😉

make target-tools TARGET_TOOLS=sunxi-meminfo sunxi-pio sunxi-script_extractor

[ssvb]

My understanding is that the sunxi-nand-image-builder is currently a provisional work-in-progress code dump. It is not expected to be useful for the end users yet. At least not until the NAND support is in a better shape in the mainline Linux and U-Boot. And it may take months (or years?) before this happens. The https://linux-sunxi.org/Mainline_NAND_Howto wiki page provides some additional details (please note that there is even no reference to the sunxi-nand-image-builder tool there).

[bbrezillon]

@ssvb: then you did not understand what I tried to explain when I submitted this tool. sunxi-nand-image-builder will always be useful and is not meant to be replaced by something else. I know you'd like a more user-friendly solution, but there's nothing like that right now, and, AFAIK, nobody is working on such a solution.
Also note that this tool is completely independent of the u-boot and linux implementation, it's just there to generate raw NAND images, which is required if you want to create an SPL image bootable from NAND.

Regarding u-boot and linux support for the sunxi NAND controller, it's already there and functional, the only thing we miss is reliable support for MLC NANDs, which is not Allwinner specific, but is impacting all boards using an MLC NAND.

Yes, I know, the wiki page is not up-to-date, and it's partly because I'm lazy. But the other good reason is that I don't want people to start using the NAND on boards which embed an MLC chip (which, AFAIK, is the case of all Allwinner based devices embedding a NAND, except the CHIP Pro).

So please, stop considering sunxi-nand-image-builder as my personal development/debugging tool. It's been used by other people which were trying to generate a SPL image bootable from NAND. And even if you don't like the current solution, please accept that there's currently no other alternative.