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ARM device trees suck. ACPI for sure it's hell, but a DTB per device it's a damn disaster. U-Boot it's open, but it sucks at having to plug a damn USB-serial ca

by anthk 8mo ago

ARM device trees suck. ACPI for sure it's hell, but a DTB per device it's a damn disaster. U-Boot it's open, but it sucks at having to plug a damn USB-serial cable in 2026 in order to get a prompt. That should come builtin, and with an easy builting help or some text based menu.

M95D 8mo ago
It's either a DTB per device or a firmware blob per device. I'll take the open source device tree anytime!
- mjg59 8mo ago
  A DTB is a blob. Whether you have the source is a vendor decision, just like ACPI. There's no inherent difference here.
  - M95D 8mo ago
    You can convert a DTB blob back into source code: dtc -I dtb -O dts -o devicetree.dts blob.dtb Big, biiig, biiiiig difference! PS: You can also examine it directly as a directory tree in /sys/firmware/devicetree/*
    - mjg59 8mo ago
      You can convert ACPI bytecode back to source with iasl. No difference at all.
      - M95D 8mo ago
        Then you can load them in u-boot and there's no need for any ohter blob.
        mjg59 8mo ago
        Yes, and you can do this with ACPI as well. There's no difference between the inherent freedom of ACPI and Devicetree.