Pavel - I have been thinking about your point regarding copying the
(simple) nxboot_main and using it as a starting point for a more
sophisticated application. What *I* want is probably not want *others*
want and it could grow out of hand.
Let's leave it as is...so it covers the stdout/stderr/syslog/printf
output choices to me along with error recovery.
This discussion now only hinges on splashscreen which, from another
branch of this discussion, I think is looking more likely a better fit
in the kernel as part of the framebuffer registration, but will wait and
see how that bottoms out.
Thank you,
Tim.
On 27/03/2025 19:12, Tim Hardisty wrote:
Thanks for joining in the conversation Pavel.
I currently have my INIT_ENTRYPOINT set to the (new) fbcon
example app, so any stdout and stderr output appear on the
framebuffer LCD, and that then calls NXboot to load my app
from flash etc.
I want a splashscreen for, let's say, marketing/branding
purposes so you could argue it should be in my final App
(where it currently is) but Alan's interest in having a
NuttX logo as a feature for newcomers means I'm happy
to look at adding this....somewhere!
The behaviour or NXboot if it isn't able to boot the final
app straight away is another point I make. I could copy
nxboot_main and create my own version (as you suggest) but
that makes it non-std, hence suggesting modifying the
current NXboot to have the option to call a user error
task/app.
On 27/03/2025 18:11, Pavel Pisa wrote:
Hello Tim and Alan,
I think that splash screen should be separate component/
application in the NuttX Apps.
In the fact, for bigger system and more complex boot
process you can use NSH and script calling some
spash application which can setup frame buffer
and then register listener to the system log
and then it can call nxboot as separate application,
or even in background so you can keep some animation
going.
For Flash space reduced boot solution you can
set INIT_ENTRYPOINT to start some splash screen
application and it can have in its configuration
option what to do next. On a bigger systems it should
be exec to "nxboot_loader" on really small it can
be through direct call of nxboot_loader_main().
Or you can copy nxboot_main.c logic to more
sophisticated application which can provide
more logic what to do in the case of some failures,
which icon to show etc etc. Actual body of the NXboot
is in the other files and nxboot_main.c is in the
fact only a wrapper around
nxboot_perform_update(true)
info.path = CONFIG_NXBOOT_PRIMARY_SLOT_PATH;
info.header_size = CONFIG_NXBOOT_HEADER_SIZE;
return boardctl(BOARDIOC_BOOT_IMAGE, (uintptr_t)&info);
Best wishes,
Pavel
Pavel Pisa
e-mail:p...@cmp.felk.cvut.cz
Department of Control Engineering FEE CVUT
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On Thursday 27 of March 2025 14:15:47 Alan C. Assis wrote:
Hi Tim,
Yes, maybe it could be an option inside your fbcon app.
My initial thought was that having a nxlogo inside the kernel (like Linux)
could make it available for all boards that register a framebuffer.
But since using your fbcon with the NSH terminal on LCD, the users will see
the NuttX Logo in similar way was Linux users do.
BR,
Alan
On Thu, Mar 27, 2025 at 9:38 AM Tim Hardisty<timhardist...@gmail.com>
wrote:
I am still unsure about where a framebuffer splashscreen best "lives".
* If a framebuffer device is used for a given board, this would be
registered in a board bringup file. Or, at least, that's what my
board does. So a splashscreen could be done there - but is then not
a "generic" thing that any new user would see to get that warm and
fuzzy feeling that their first foray into the NuttX world was a
success...unless someone want's to go and add it to every single
board bringup in the repo that uses a framebuffer video driver?
* NXboot initially seemed logical to me, only in as much as it mimics
what U-boot does, but NXboot is, again, not something most use and
is not part of basic defconfigs for many, if any, boards? And NXboot
only hangs around for a short while unless there are issues .
* (newly added) FBCON still might be a good place as it is a good (I
hope!) starter example app for those using framebuffer video - it
allows NSH to work in its most basic form). Documentation could be
added to point people in the direction of this (where?).
* Leave it as a user app thing (where I have it now, via LVGL in my
"main" custom app.
On balance, I'm thinking FBCON.
Also:i f we wanted to do something "fancy" on multi-cpu architectures,
what are the relevant system calls to get the number of cores?
On 24/03/2025 19:38, Alan C. Assis wrote:
Hi Tim,
Yes, these suggestions make sense!
I think for NXBoot should be nice to have the option to disable
features that were used for minsh board profile:
#
# RTOS Features
#
CONFIG_DISABLE_SIGNALS=y
#
# Files and I/O
#
CONFIG_SDCLONE_DISABLE=y
CONFIG_NFILE_DESCRIPTORS=0
CONFIG_NFILE_STREAMS=0
#
# Device Drivers
#
CONFIG_DISABLE_POLL=y
#
# File system configuration
#
CONFIG_DISABLE_MOUNTPOINT=y
Disabling MOUNTPOINT will disable VFS support, it was necessary to be
able
to use less than 16KB Flash, but disabling it we lose the option to
create
device files at /dev.
Since the option to Disable those features was removed some time ago,
I'm not sure how complex it will be to reintroduce them.
BR,
Alan
On Mon, Mar 24, 2025 at 4:12 PM Tim Hardisty<timhardist...@gmail.com>
wrote:
I am just starting to use NXboot (having migrated from Uboot, then to
MCUboot, and finally settled on NXboot) and I'm wondering whether it
would benefit from some changes and/or enhancements now I've used all
three.
Thoughts, observations, suggestions welcomed.
In no particular order:
1. Uboot offers a splashscreen - is NXboot the right place for
similar,
or is it better as a core/kernel NuttX feature?
* Not everyone uses NXboot of course (probably only a few), and
a suggestion is that a nice (default) splashscreen that comes up early
gives new users a warm and fuzzy feeling. So a kernel feature I think?
2. NXboot uses syslog for info and error "messages". I would like to
provide some feedback to users since there can be a notable delay
if
NXBoot is doing it's stuff with flash, leaving the user not
knowing what's going on:
* My first thought was to clone NXboot and add my own printf's
but
that means the core app and my clone "core" will deviate over
time, and I would like to use as much "out of the box" NuttX
stuff as possible, as would others I imagine.
* But maybe the use of syslog is not necessarily right as,
strictly, NXboot is an app not kernel program? Should it have
printfs natively?
* syslog could be to file...but to access that and read it then
printf to stdout would be non-standard from within NXboot
itself, so back to me cloning it. Unless I've missed
something with syslog - in my case the console is no use as it's not
available to user, but a framebuffer display (FBCON app for stdout and
stderr) is.
3. What if it all goes horribly wrong and neither the primary,
secondary or recovery partitions have a valid image - the main
app goes rogue, for example?
* Adding options for recovery (e.g. "insert USB memory stick
now" or use TFTP or whatever - but that's arch and board specific so
not really suited to generic enhancement of NXBoot, and needs
printf's. Uboot has loads of script-type options as well as Kconfig
driven choices, but overall Uboot is slow and clunky
and
not suited - in my opinion - to embedded products.
* Or perhaps this can actually be easily done with scripts of
some
sort and it is simply outside of my experience?
* But perhaps some Kconfig choices based on other NuttX
features (TFTP, DFU etc) would be OK...but which. So...
* Rather than NXBoot simply exiting - which is pointless as
where does it exit to? - or having Kconfig choices of what to do,
perhaps there could just be Kconfig option to spawn an error-recovery
task in the event of a boot fail. So the core NXboot app allows for
recovery, but the implementation of the error task is personal choice
(but could have an example).
I'm willing to implement changes and enhancements - within reason lol
- so if there are other things it could benefit from add them to this
list and let's discuss :-)
TimH
