Re: [PATCH v2 04/10] binman: Add support for externally provided Linux kernel blob

Hi Simon,

On Tue, Aug 4, 2026 at 5:02 PM Simon Glass <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Hi Alexey,
>
> On 2026-07-31T17:10:44, Alexey Charkov <[email protected]> wrote:
> > binman: Add support for externally provided Linux kernel blob
> >
> > Add an simple named Linux kernel blob type to binman, activated by the
> > "LINUX_KERNEL" make variable. No processing is done on the passed blob.
> >
> > Signed-off-by: Alexey Charkov <[email protected]>
> >
> > Makefile                           |  1 +
> >  tools/binman/etype/linux_kernel.py | 22 ++++++++++++++++++++++
> >  tools/binman/missing-blob-help     |  5 +++++
> >  3 files changed, 28 insertions(+)
>
> > diff --git a/tools/binman/etype/linux_kernel.py b/tools/binman/etype/linux_kernel.py
> > @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
> > +class Entry_linux_kernel(Entry_blob_named_by_arg):
> > +    """Linux kernel image blob
> > +
> > +    Properties / Entry arguments:
> > +        - linux-kernel-path: Filename of file to read into entry. This is
> > +            typically an uncompressed ARM64 Image.
> > +
> > +    This entry allows binman FIT templates to consume a kernel provided via
> > +    make variable, similar to how BL31 is passed to atf-bl31.
> > +    """
>
> Please drop the ARM64-specific wording - this etype has no arch
> dependency and can hold a zImage, Image.gz, vmlinux.bin etc. Something
> like 'This is typically a Linux kernel image such as Image, Image.gz
> or zImage' reads better and matches the style of atf_bl31.py, which
> just describes what the blob is rather than how the FIT template
> consumes it.

Fair enough, will reword, thanks!

> > diff --git a/tools/binman/missing-blob-help b/tools/binman/missing-blob-help
> > @@ -32,6 +32,11 @@ If CONFIG_WDT_K3_RTI_LOAD_FW is enabled, a firmware image is needed for
> > +linux-kernel:
> > +A Linux kernel image is required to build a Falcon mode FIT image, which
> > +lets SPL start the OS directly instead of U-Boot proper. Build with
> > +LINUX_KERNEL=/path/to/Image, or disable Falcon mode image generation.
>
> This ties the generic linux-kernel blob to Falcon mode, but the etype
> itself is not Falcon-specific - a user could reference it from any
> FIT. Please reword to describe the blob generically ('A Linux kernel
> image is needed by a FIT that embeds one …') and then mention Falcon
> mode as the typical use case.

Sounds good, will reword.

Best regards,
Alexey