[OE-core] [RFC oe-core] mkcard: Add a script to parition and format an SD Card

[Joel A Fernandes]

On Tue, Aug 30, 2011 at 12:47 PM, Koen Kooi <koen at dominion.thruhere.net> wrote:
>
> Op 30 aug. 2011, om 18:46 heeft Jason Kridner het volgende geschreven:
>
>> On Mon, Aug 29, 2011 at 7:08 PM, Joel A Fernandes <agnel.joel at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> On Mon, Aug 29, 2011 at 4:03 PM, Jason Kridner <jkridner at beagleboard.org> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> This script is BSP specific and shouldn't live in the OE-core layer.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The only issue is this script is used from within the IMAGE_CMD_sdimg
>>>>>> code which lives in OE-core (meta/classes/image_types.
>>>>>
>>>>> classes shouldn't be calling external scripts
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Is the right approach to add parameters to the IMAGE_CMD_sdimg class
>>>> such that it can be used generically to produce SD card images,
>>>> instead of trying to move this to meta-ti?  Should it perhaps be a bit
>>>> closer to what is being done by the Linaro image tools [1]?
>>>>
>>>> [1] https://wiki.linaro.org/Source/ImageBuilding
>>>>
>>>
>>> Don't the Linaro scripts need to run on the target?
>>
>> No.
>>
>>> Does it fit well
>>> with OE(-core) ?
>>
>> I don't know, but I hoped that others would comment to help figure it
>> out.  I think it is a common challenge not just for ARM architectures.
>> I'm not sure if the approach is general enough or not, but it does go
>> beyond the BeagleBoard.
>>
>> My primary concerns about leaving it in the BSP are:
>> 1) that there is some room for non-BeagleBoard specific optimizations
>> to the card layout and
>> 2) there may be improvements to the tools that make it easier to
>> create images for systems with different boot requirements.
>>
>> Also, I think we might want to move to an ext3 partition only in the
>> future or other such layout optimizations.  I'd like that to be
>> something that can be parameterized by the BSP.
>
> I think you're missing the point:
>
> The *script* needs to go into the BSP, you are free to extend the bbclasses with code to deal with sd cards internally in OE-core.
>
>

I think there are 2 threads to this discussion. One talks about mkcard
script (which I think Koen is asking to move to BSP), and the other is
the IMAGE_CMD_sdimg variable from image_types.bbclass which holds the
code to create the image (which Jason is referring to).

I am dropping mkcard script as it requires root access (due to kparted
and device mapper), instead I'm just using loop and avoiding device
mapper.

As for the IMAGE_CMD_sdimg , I'm thinking a clean way is to extend
image_types.bbclass from within the BSP layer (which I think Koen also
is suggesting).

Maybe I'm just summarizing what everyone is saying, but just making
sure everyone is on the same page.

Thanks,
Joel