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This question comes up every now and then with people coming from Linux. Add some notes about it so we can point to it in the mailing list. Signed-off-by: Simon Glass <sjg@chromium.org> Reviewed-by: Heinrich Schuchardt <xypron.glpk@gmx.de>
251 lines
9.7 KiB
ReStructuredText
251 lines
9.7 KiB
ReStructuredText
.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0+
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.. sectionauthor:: Copyright 2011 The Chromium OS Authors
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Devicetree Control in U-Boot
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============================
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This feature provides for run-time configuration of U-Boot via a flattened
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devicetree (fdt).
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This feature aims to make it possible for a single U-Boot binary to support
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multiple boards, with the exact configuration of each board controlled by
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a flattened devicetree (fdt). This is the approach taken by Linux kernel for
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ARM and RISC-V and has been used by PowerPC for some time.
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The fdt is a convenient vehicle for implementing run-time configuration
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for three reasons:
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- There is already excellent infrastructure for the fdt: a compiler checks
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the text file and converts it to a compact binary format, and a library
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is already available in U-Boot (libfdt) for handling this format
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- It is extensible since it consists of nodes and properties in a nice
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hierarchical format
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- It is fairly efficient to read incrementally
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The arch/<arch>/dts directories contains a Makefile for building the devicetree
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blob and embedding it in the U-Boot image. This is useful since it allows
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U-Boot to configure itself according to what it finds there. If you have
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a number of similar boards with different peripherals, you can describe
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the features of each board in the devicetree file, and have a single
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generic source base.
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To enable this feature, add CONFIG_OF_CONTROL to your board config file.
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What is a Flattened Devicetree?
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-------------------------------
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An fdt can be specified in source format as a text file. To read about
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the fdt syntax, take a look at the specification (dtspec_).
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There is also a mailing list (dtlist_) for the compiler and associated
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tools.
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In case you are wondering, OF stands for Open Firmware. This follows the
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convention used in Linux.
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Tools
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-----
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To create flattened device trees the device tree compiler is used. This is
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provided by U-Boot automatically. If you have a system version of dtc
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(typically in the 'device-tree-compiler' package), that system version is
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currently not used.
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If you want to build your own dtc, it is kept here::
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git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/utils/dtc/dtc.git
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You can decode a binary file with::
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dtc -I dtb -O dts <filename.dtb>
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That repo also includes `fdtget`/`fdtput` for reading and writing properties in
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a binary file. U-Boot adds its own `fdtgrep` for creating subsets of the file.
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Where do I get a devicetree file for my board?
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----------------------------------------------
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You may find that the Linux kernel has a suitable file. Look in the
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kernel source in arch/<arch>/boot/dts.
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If not you might find other boards with suitable files that you can
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modify to your needs. Look in the board directories for files with a
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.dts extension.
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Failing that, you could write one from scratch yourself!
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Configuration
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-------------
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Use::
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#define CONFIG_DEFAULT_DEVICE_TREE "<name>"
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to set the filename of the devicetree source. Then put your devicetree
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file into::
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arch/<arch>/dts/<name>.dts
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This should include your CPU or SOC's devicetree file, placed in
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`arch/<arch>/dts`, and then make any adjustments required using a u-boot-dtsi
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file for your board.
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If CONFIG_OF_EMBED is defined, then it will be picked up and built into
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the U-Boot image (including u-boot.bin). This is suitable for debugging
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and development only and is not recommended for production devices.
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If CONFIG_OF_SEPARATE is defined, then it will be built and placed in
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a u-boot.dtb file alongside u-boot-nodtb.bin with the combined result placed
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in u-boot.bin so you can still just flash u-boot,bin onto your board. If you are
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using CONFIG_SPL_FRAMEWORK, then u-boot.img will be built to include the device
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tree binary.
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If CONFIG_OF_BOARD is defined, a board-specific routine will provide the
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devicetree at runtime, for example if an earlier bootloader stage creates
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it and passes it to U-Boot.
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If CONFIG_OF_HOSTFILE is defined, then it will be read from a file on
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startup. This is only useful for sandbox. Use the -d flag to U-Boot to
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specify the file to read, -D for the default and -T for the test devicetree,
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used to run sandbox unit tests.
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You cannot use more than one of these options at the same time.
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To use a devicetree file that you have compiled yourself, pass
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EXT_DTB=<filename> to 'make', as in::
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make EXT_DTB=boot/am335x-boneblack-pubkey.dtb
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Then U-Boot will copy that file to u-boot.dtb, put it in the .img file
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if used, and u-boot-dtb.bin.
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If you wish to put the fdt at a different address in memory, you can
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define the "fdtcontroladdr" environment variable. This is the hex
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address of the fdt binary blob, and will override either of the options.
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Be aware that this environment variable is checked prior to relocation,
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when only the compiled-in environment is available. Therefore it is not
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possible to define this variable in the saved SPI/NAND flash
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environment, for example (it will be ignored). After relocation, this
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variable will be set to the address of the newly relocated fdt blob.
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It is read-only and cannot be changed. It can optionally be used to
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control the boot process of Linux with bootm/bootz commands.
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To use this, put something like this in your board header file::
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#define CONFIG_EXTRA_ENV_SETTINGS "fdtcontroladdr=10000\0"
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Build:
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After the board configuration is done, fdt supported u-boot can be built in two
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ways:
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# build the default dts which is defined from CONFIG_DEFAULT_DEVICE_TREE::
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$ make
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# build the user specified dts file::
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$ make DEVICE_TREE=<dts-file-name>
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.. _dttweaks:
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Adding tweaks for U-Boot
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------------------------
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It is strongly recommended that devicetree files in U-Boot are an exact copy of
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those in Linux, so that it is easy to sync them up from time to time.
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U-Boot is of course a very different project from Linux, e.g. it operates under
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much more restrictive memory and code-size constraints. Where Linux may use a
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full clock driver with Common Clock Format (CCF) to find the input clock to the
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UART, U-Boot typically wants to output a banner as early as possible before too
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much code has run.
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A second difference is that U-Boot includes different phases. For SPL,
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constraints are even more extreme and the devicetree is shrunk to remove
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unwanted nodes, or even turned into C code to avoid access overhead.
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U-Boot automatically looks for and includes a file with updates to the standard
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devicetree for your board, searching for them in the same directory as the
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main file, in this order::
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<orig_filename>-u-boot.dtsi
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<CONFIG_SYS_SOC>-u-boot.dtsi
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<CONFIG_SYS_CPU>-u-boot.dtsi
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<CONFIG_SYS_VENDOR>-u-boot.dtsi
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u-boot.dtsi
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Only one of these is selected but of course you can #include another one within
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that file, to create a hierarchy of shared files.
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Relocation, SPL and TPL
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-----------------------
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U-Boot can be divided into three phases: TPL, SPL and U-Boot proper.
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The full devicetree is available to U-Boot proper, but normally only a subset
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(or none at all) is available to TPL and SPL. See 'Pre-Relocation Support' and
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'SPL Support' in doc/driver-model/design.rst for more details.
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Using several DTBs in the SPL (CONFIG_SPL_MULTI_DTB)
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----------------------------------------------------
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In some rare cases it is desirable to let SPL be able to select one DTB among
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many. This usually not very useful as the DTB for the SPL is small and usually
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fits several platforms. However the DTB sometimes include information that do
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work on several platforms (like IO tuning parameters).
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In this case it is possible to use CONFIG_SPL_MULTI_DTB. This option appends to
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the SPL a FIT image containing several DTBs listed in SPL_OF_LIST.
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board_fit_config_name_match() is called to select the right DTB.
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If board_fit_config_name_match() relies on DM (DM driver to access an EEPROM
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containing the board ID for example), it possible to start with a generic DTB
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and then switch over to the right DTB after the detection. For this purpose,
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the platform code must call fdtdec_resetup(). Based on the returned flag, the
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platform may have to re-initialise the DM subsystem using dm_uninit() and
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dm_init_and_scan().
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Limitations
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-----------
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Devicetrees can help reduce the complexity of supporting variants of boards
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which use the same SOC / CPU.
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However U-Boot is designed to build for a single architecture type and CPU
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type. So for example it is not possible to build a single ARM binary
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which runs on your AT91 and OMAP boards, relying on an fdt to configure
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the various features. This is because you must select one of
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the CPU families within arch/arm/cpu/arm926ejs (omap or at91) at build
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time. Similarly U-Boot cannot be built for multiple cpu types or
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architectures.
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It is important to understand that the fdt only selects options
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available in the platform / drivers. It cannot add new drivers (yet). So
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you must still have the CONFIG option to enable the driver. For example,
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you need to define CONFIG_SYS_NS16550 to bring in the NS16550 driver,
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but can use the fdt to specific the UART clock, peripheral address, etc.
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In very broad terms, the CONFIG options in general control *what* driver
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files are pulled in, and the fdt controls *how* those files work.
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History
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-------
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U-Boot configuration was previous done using CONFIG options in the board
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config file. This eventually got out of hand with nearly 10,000 options.
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U-Boot adopted devicetrees around the same time as Linux and early boards
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used it before Linux (e.g. snow). The two projects developed in parallel
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and there are still some differences in the bindings for certain boards.
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While there has been discussion of having a separate repository for devicetree
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files, in practice the Linux kernel Git repository has become the place where
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these are stored, with U-Boot taking copies and adding tweaks with u-boot.dtsi
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files.
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.. _dtspec: https://www.devicetree.org/specifications/
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.. _dtlist: https://www.spinics.net/lists/devicetree-compiler/
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