nor: boot the split layout, FIT and squashfs in one firmware partition by widgetii · Pull Request #18 · OpenIPC/u-boot

widgetii · 2026-10-17T11:06:52Z

This is opt-in through CONFIG_OPENIPC_NOR_FIT_SPLIT, enabled here for gk7205v200 and gk7205v300. The NOR offsets in openipc-common.h are unchanged, and a uImage at the kernel offset boots exactly as before.

A FIT at the NOR kernel offset means the split layout: firmware.bin, which is the hashed FIT followed by the squashfs at the next 64 KiB, written whole at 0x50000. In that case firmware_scan():

reads the FIT by its own size;
passes Linux mtdparts=sfc:256k(u-boot),64k(env),-(firmware). The kernel then splits that partition into kernel, rootfs and rootfs_data (mtdsplit, mtd: split a firmware partition into kernel, rootfs and rootfs_data linux#96).

Changes:

Saved env: a saved root=/dev/mtdblock3 is rewritten in RAM to mtdblock4 under the split numbering, and to mtdblock3 for fixed slots.
Capability token: openipc_nor_fit=1 joins the command line on either layout. sysupgrade looks for it before writing a firmware.bin, and refuses without it.
bootm_size is set when a saved env lacks it.
Hash checking: the FIT's crc32 and sha1 are checked. misc_init_r() used to set verify=n after openipc_helper(), and envs saved by the old bootloaders carry verify=n too. The board now sets it first, and the FIT path unsets it in RAM.
Size: CONFIG_FIT and CONFIG_SHA1 for these boards bring the NOR images to 216–217 KB of 256 KB.

hi3516cv610 also boots a FIT from NOR, but its kernel has no mtdsplit, so the option stays off there.

Verified on hardware

GK7205V200 (8 MB NOR) and GK7205V300 (16 MB NOR), the latter with an env saved by u-boot-gk7205v200:

Split layout: Verifying Hash Integrity ... crc32+ sha1+ OK for the kernel and the DTB, the kernel splits firmware at the computed offsets, and boot reaches login.
Fixed slots: a fixed-slot uImage camera boots unchanged under the same image (root=/dev/mtdblock3 plus the token).
Upgrades: sysupgrade from fixed slots to split, split to split, and -n all work, with settings carried where they should be.

Review fix

TFTP update commands: on the split layout, kernsize, rootaddr and rootsize now name the fixed slots. So uk/ur/fwupd, which install a uImage and a squashfs, rebuild a consistent fixed-slot layout instead of writing at split offsets. loadkernel reads the slot, which holds the whole FIT.

Verified on GK7205V200 with U-Boot loaded into RAM:

the split boot still checks the FIT hashes;
ur then uk from TFTP turn a split camera into fixed slots, which boot.

With CONFIG_OPENIPC_NOR_FIT_SPLIT (on for gk7205v200 and gk7205v300 here), a FIT at the NOR kernel offset means the split layout: firmware.bin, the hashed FIT and then the squashfs at the next 64 KiB boundary, written whole at 0x50000. firmware_scan() passes Linux "256k(u-boot),64k(env),-(firmware)" and the kernel divides that partition into kernel, rootfs and rootfs_data (mtdsplit). The read is the FIT's own size, and nothing is clamped to a slot. A uImage keeps today's fixed slots, unchanged. - A saved bootargs spells out root=/dev/mtdblock3, which under the split numbering (u-boot, env, firmware, kernel, rootfs, rootfs_data) is the FIT. The token is rewritten in RAM: mtdblock4 for the split layout, mtdblock3 for fixed slots. - openipc_nor_fit=1 joins the command line on either layout. sysupgrade reads it to know this bootloader boots the split layout before writing a firmware.bin for it. - bootm_size is set when a saved env lacks it, so the relocated DTB stays in the kernel's lowmem. - CONFIG_FIT and CONFIG_SHA1 for those boards; their NOR images grow from 205 KB to 216-217 KB (256 KB boot partition). - check_kernel/check_squashfs are __maybe_unused: NAND builds no longer call them. hi3516cv610 also boots a FIT from NOR, but its kernel has no mtdsplit and keeps fixed slots, so the option is off there.

misc_init_r() set verify=n after openipc_helper() had run, and cameras upgraded from the old bootloader carry verify=n in their saved env as well. So bootm loaded the FIT without checking its crc32 and sha1. For gk7205v200 and gk7205v300 the board now sets it before openipc_helper(), and firmware_scan() drops it (RAM only) when it boots the split layout's FIT. A uImage keeps verify=n, as before. Verified on a GK7205V200 with its env saved by u-boot-gk7205v200: 'Verifying Hash Integrity ... crc32+ sha1+ OK' for the kernel and the DTB, then boot to login.

qodo-free-for-open-source-projects · 2026-10-17T11:07:55Z

PR Summary by Qodo

Boot split NOR FIT firmware while preserving fixed-slot images

✨ Enhancement 🐞 Bug fix ⚙️ Configuration changes 🕐 20-40 Minutes

AI Description

• Detect split NOR firmware from its FIT header while retaining fixed-slot uImage booting.
• Pass a single firmware partition to mtdsplit and adjust saved boot arguments in RAM.
• Enable FIT hash verification and opt in on GK7205V200 and GK7205V300.

Diagram

graph TD
  init["Board init"] --> scan["Firmware scan"] --> flash["SPI NOR"] --> detect{"FIT header?"} --> split["Split boot setup"] --> mtdsplit["Kernel mtdsplit"] --> boot["Linux boot"]
  detect --> fixed["Fixed-slot setup"] --> boot

High-Level Assessment

The following are alternative approaches to this PR:

1. Keep fixed kernel and rootfs slots

➕ Avoids a dependency on kernel mtdsplit and preserves the existing partition map.
➖ Cannot boot the proposed single-partition firmware image without changing its packaging.

2. Calculate split partitions in U-Boot

➕ Could avoid relying on kernel-side partition discovery.
➖ Duplicates image-layout knowledge in the bootloader and kernel, increasing upgrade compatibility risk.

Recommendation: Use the opt-in FIT detection and kernel mtdsplit approach: it supports whole-image upgrades without changing fixed-slot uImage booting or NOR offsets. Keep the option limited to boards whose kernels provide mtdsplit.

Files changed (6) +113 / -4

Enhancement (1) +89 / -2

openipc.cSelect split or fixed NOR boot settings from the image +89/-2

Select split or fixed NOR boot settings from the image

• Detects a FIT at the kernel offset, sizes its read from the FIT header, and supplies a single firmware partition for kernel mtdsplit. Adjusts saved root arguments in RAM, adds the upgrade capability token, supplies a missing 'bootm_size', and enables FIT verification; uImages retain fixed-slot behavior. Marks kernel and squashfs checkers as potentially unused in NAND builds.

common/openipc.c

Bug fix (2) +6 / -2

board.cSet verification default before firmware scanning +3/-1

Set verification default before firmware scanning
• Moves 'verify=n' ahead of 'openipc_helper()' so FIT detection can unset it without a later board initialization step restoring it.
board/xmedia/xm72050200/board.c

board.cPreserve FIT verification decision during board initialization +3/-1

Preserve FIT verification decision during board initialization
• Sets 'verify=n' before 'openipc_helper()', allowing the split-FIT scan path to enable hash checking even with an older saved environment.
board/xmedia/xm72050300/board.c

Other (3) +18 / -0

KconfigAdd opt-in split NOR FIT capability +10/-0

Add opt-in split NOR FIT capability

• Introduces 'OPENIPC_NOR_FIT_SPLIT', dependent on FIT, for boards whose kernels can split a combined firmware partition.

common/Kconfig

xm72050200_configEnable split NOR FIT boot on GK7205V200 +4/-0

Enable split NOR FIT boot on GK7205V200
• Enables FIT, SHA1, and the split NOR layout option for this board configuration.
openipc/xm72050200_config

xm72050300_configEnable split NOR FIT boot on GK7205V300 +4/-0

Enable split NOR FIT boot on GK7205V300
• Enables FIT, SHA1, and the split NOR layout option for this board configuration.
openipc/xm72050300_config

qodo-free-for-open-source-projects · 2026-10-17T11:13:06Z

Code Review by Qodo

🐞 Bugs (1) 📘 Rule violations (0) 📎 Requirement gaps (0) 🎨 UX issues (0) 🔗 Cross-repo conflicts (0) 📜 Skill insights (0)

1. Standard builds omit split firmware support 🐞 Bug ≡ Correctness

Description

The new options are added to xm72050200_config and xm72050300_config, but build_xmedia()
selects ${soc}_config for the advertised GK7205V200 and GK7205V300 targets. For those targets it
looks for gk7205v200_config and gk7205v300_config, neither of which exists, so this build path
never consumes the new flags or produces the intended split-capable images.

Code

openipc/xm72050200_config[R6-8]
+CONFIG_FIT=y
+CONFIG_SHA1=y
+CONFIG_OPENIPC_NOR_FIT_SPLIT=y

Evidence
The build dispatch passes the GK SoC name into a ${soc}_config selection, while the only files
setting the new symbol have xm-prefixed names.
build.sh[177-195]
build.sh[245-255]
openipc/xm72050200_config[5-8]
openipc/xm72050300_config[11-14]

Agent prompt

The issue below was found during a code review. Follow the provided context and guidance below and implement a solution

## Issue description
The GK7205 build dispatch does not select the configuration fragments that enable split NOR firmware support.
## Fix Focus Areas
- openipc/xm72050200_config[5-8]
- openipc/xm72050300_config[11-14]
- build.sh[245-255]
## Recommended Fix
Map the GK7205V200 and GK7205V300 build targets to their corresponding xm configuration fragments, and verify that both generated NOR configurations retain the new options.

ⓘ Copy this prompt and use it to remediate the issue with your preferred AI generation tools

2. ~~Firmware updates can misplace the rootfs~~ ✓ Resolved

Description

The FIT branch sets rootaddr to the detected squashfs offset, but the existing urwrite command
replaces it with the fixed-slot address 0x350000 when the rootfs file exceeds its size threshold.
Running U-Boot's fwupd command on an installed split image with such a rootfs erases and writes at
that legacy address before writing the FIT, leaving the rootfs outside the location the split image
expects.

Code

common/openipc.c[630]
+      env_set("rootaddr", str);

Evidence
The new scan supplies a layout-dependent rootaddr; the existing update sequence runs ur before
uk, and urwrite can replace that address with mtdsultimate's fixed value.
common/openipc.c[618-630]
include/configs/openipc-common.h[125-127]
include/configs/openipc-common.h[165-171]

Agent prompt

The issue below was found during a code review. Follow the provided context and guidance below and implement a solution

## Issue description
The legacy NOR rootfs update command can override the detected split-layout rootfs address during a U-Boot firmware update.
## Fix Focus Areas
- common/openipc.c[624-630]
- include/configs/openipc-common.h[167-171]
## Recommended Fix
Give split-layout updates a command that preserves the detected rootfs offset and erases only its appropriate range, or explicitly reject legacy separate-image updates on that layout.

ⓘ Copy this prompt and use it to remediate the issue with your preferred AI generation tools

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qodo-free-for-open-source-projects · 2026-10-17T11:13:07Z

+CONFIG_FIT=y
+CONFIG_SHA1=y
+CONFIG_OPENIPC_NOR_FIT_SPLIT=y


1. Standard builds omit split firmware support 🐞 Bug ≡ Correctness

The new options are added to xm72050200_config and xm72050300_config, but build_xmedia() selects ${soc}_config for the advertised GK7205V200 and GK7205V300 targets. For those targets it looks for gk7205v200_config and gk7205v300_config, neither of which exists, so this build path never consumes the new flags or produces the intended split-capable images.

Agent Prompt

## Issue description The GK7205 build dispatch does not select the configuration fragments that enable split NOR firmware support. ## Fix Focus Areas - openipc/xm72050200_config[5-8] - openipc/xm72050300_config[11-14] - build.sh[245-255] ## Recommended Fix Map the GK7205V200 and GK7205V300 build targets to their corresponding xm configuration fragments, and verify that both generated NOR configurations retain the new options.

ⓘ Copy this prompt and use it to remediate the issue with your preferred AI generation tools

The FIT path set kernsize to the FIT and rootaddr to the squashfs behind it. uk, ur and fwupd install a uImage and a squashfs, so on a split camera they wrote fixed-slot images at split offsets: ur at 0x230000 with the default rootsize, uk over the FIT only. The next scan found the rootfs at 0x230000, sized the kernel slot from it, and the mtdparts it built did not match where the rootfs is. kernsize, rootaddr and rootsize now name the fixed slots: kernel 2 MiB and rootfs 5 MiB, or 3 and 10 MiB on 16 MiB parts when the FIT needs 3; urwrite still moves to the ultimate slots for a big rootfs, as before. uk erases the whole kernel slot, so no head of the split squashfs is left for the scan to find. loadkernel reads the slot, which holds the whole FIT. Verified on GK7205V200 (U-Boot loaded into RAM with defib): the split layout still boots with the FIT hashes checked; ur then uk with rootfs.squashfs and uImage from TFTP turn the split camera into fixed slots, found at 0x50000 and 0x250000, and it boots to login.

widgetii · 2026-10-17T11:24:55Z

Qodo #1 ("Standard builds omit split firmware support"): openipc/gk7205v200_config and openipc/gk7205v300_config are symlinks in git (mode 120000) to xm72050200_config and xm72050300_config, so build_xmedia gk7205v200 gk7205v200_config reads the edited fragments. The images I tested on hardware were built by build.sh gk7205v200 gk7205v300, and they check the FIT hashes at boot.

Qodo #2 (uk/ur on the split layout) was real. It's fixed in the latest commit, and verified on GK7205V200.

qodo-free-for-open-source-projects · 2026-10-17T11:25:06Z

Qodo #1 ("Standard builds omit split firmware support"): openipc/gk7205v200_config and openipc/gk7205v300_config are symlinks in git (mode 120000) to xm72050200_config and xm72050300_config, so build_xmedia gk7205v200 gk7205v200_config reads the edited fragments. The images I tested on hardware were built by build.sh gk7205v200 gk7205v300, and they check the FIT hashes at boot.

Qodo #2 (uk/ur on the split layout) was real. It's fixed in the latest commit, and verified on GK7205V200.

Your clarification invalidates the basis for finding 1: if openipc/gk7205v200_config and openipc/gk7205v300_config are Git symlinks to the edited xm* fragments, then build_xmedia resolves the new options correctly. The finding was based on checking only the fragment filenames, not their symlink targets.

For finding 2, the reported issue is addressed in your latest commit and has been verified on GK7205V200. I can’t independently inspect that commit from the supplied diff, but the described verification confirms the intended update-path fix.

Same as gk7205v200 and gk7205v300 (#18): CONFIG_FIT, CONFIG_SHA1 and CONFIG_OPENIPC_NOR_FIT_SPLIT in their fragments, and verify=n set before openipc_helper() so firmware_scan() can drop it for a FIT. Their kernels come from the same OpenIPC/linux goke-gk7205v200 branch, which carries mtdsplit, and OpenIPC/firmware already enables it for both. NOR images: gk7202v300 222 KB, gk7605v100 216 KB (256 KB boot partition). Build-tested only: no gk7202v300 or gk7605v100 board was run.

…0 family (#605) A new page for the split NOR layout on GK7205V200, GK7205V300, GK7202V300 and GK7605V100 (OpenIPC/linux#96, OpenIPC/u-boot#18 and #19, OpenIPC/firmware#2617 and #2621): - what the layout is, and how mtdsplit divides it at boot; - what it needs: the u-boot-<soc>-nor.bin bootloader and the -split package; - how to tell which layout a camera runs; - moving a camera over: the bootloader, then sysupgrade -k -r; - how sysupgrade carries the settings, -n, and what it refuses; - writing the image from U-Boot, and going back to fixed slots. The console lines quoted are from the lab GK7205V200 and GK7205V300. Linked from the README, install-goke and sysupgrade.

…yout (#482) * Wizard: the GK7205V200 family on OpenIPC/u-boot, and the split NOR layout GK7202V300, GK7205V200, GK7205V210, GK7205V300 and GK7605V100 now install OpenIPC/u-boot's u-boot-<soc>-nor.bin (OpenIPC/u-boot#18, #19), published in latest, in place of the -universal.bin of the retired u-boot-gk7205v200 repository. That bootloader scans the NOR layout at boot, so these SoCs take the #477 install: each image written at its offset, no uknor/urnor macros, no sf lock. The same bootloader boots the split NOR layout (OpenIPC/linux#96, OpenIPC/firmware#2617, #2621): one firmware.bin -- a hashed FIT, then the squashfs at the next 64 KiB -- at 0x50000, which the kernel divides into kernel, rootfs and rootfs_data at boot. Their firmware publishes it as openipc.<board>-nor-<edition>-split.tgz beside the fixed-slot package. The catalogue marks these SoCs nor_split; where the -split package is published for the board and edition, the Linux step writes that one image at 0x50000 and erases to the end of the chip in the same guarded line (0x7b0000 on 8 MB, 0xfb0000 on 16 MB), and the page links the -split package. Where it is not, the two-image install stays. The full image and the backup/restore steps are unchanged: the bootloader boots the fixed slots the full image carries. The fixture index gains the four published u-boot-<soc>-nor.bin, so the availability reference stands; boards.json and the documents golden are regenerated for the five SoCs. TestSplitNORInstall covers the split lines, gk7205v210 through its gk7205v200 build, the SD path, and the fall-back when no -split package is published. The split install was verified on the lab GK7205V200 (8 MB) and GK7205V300 (16 MB) with these bootloaders and the 2026-10-17 nightly's images, by the same U-Boot write: boots with the FIT hashes checked and kernel, rootfs and rootfs_data where the image puts them. * Wizard: the GK7205V200 family's NAND bootloader is OpenIPC/u-boot's -nand.bin Review of the previous commit: Bootloader("nand") falls back to uboot_filename, so moving these SoCs to u-boot-<soc>-nor.bin handed that NOR build to NAND installs and NAND full images. OpenIPC/u-boot publishes a NAND build for each of them too, u-boot-<soc>-nand.bin in latest, and that build is the UBI-only layout (768k boot, 256k env, the rest one UBI device), the same as u-boot-xmedia's. So the catalogue names it as uboot_nand_filename, which is what moves a SoC's NAND installs onto that layout; defib (OpenIPC/defib#154) installs these SoCs on NAND the same way. The retired -universal.bin, and its split NAND layout, is not offered for them again. The fixture index gains the four published -nand.bin. boards.json carries them; the gk7202v300 NAND row of the image reference is dropped, since it is the split NAND layout this SoC no longer installs (hi3516av100's row still covers that layout). The documents golden is regenerated.

widgetii added 2 commits October 17, 2026 14:06

qodo-free-for-open-source-projects Bot reviewed Oct 17, 2026

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widgetii merged commit 7e52056 into openipc-hisilicon Oct 17, 2026
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This was referenced Oct 17, 2026

gk7205v200: kernel and rootfs in one NOR partition, split at boot OpenIPC/firmware#2617

Merged

nor: boot the split layout on gk7202v300 and gk7605v100 #19

Merged

This was referenced Oct 17, 2026

nor-split-layout: kernel and rootfs in one partition on the GK7205V200 family OpenIPC/wiki#605

Merged

Wizard: the GK7205V200 family on OpenIPC/u-boot, and the split NOR layout OpenIPC/website#482

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nor: boot the split layout, FIT and squashfs in one firmware partition - #18

nor: boot the split layout, FIT and squashfs in one firmware partition#18
widgetii merged 3 commits into
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nor/fit-split

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