RE: [PATCH v2] Add a module for retrieving SMBIOS information

[Rajat Jain]

Hello,

> > 1) We have a board that boots Linux and this board itself can be plugged
> into one of different chassis types. We need to pass different parameters to
> the kernel based on the "CHASSIS_TYPE" information that is passed by the
> bios in the DMI / SMBIOS tables.

Actually, I had simplified the problem statement, to avoid complicating the 
discussion. Basically, we have enhanced the grub with a "devicetree" command 
that supplies a flattened device tree to the kernel (just like u-boot or others 
do in embedded world).

http://www.denx.de/wiki/view/DULG/LinuxFDTBlob

However, we need to pass different flattened device tree to the kernel based on 
different CHASSIS_TYPE. (because different chassis have different hardware 
components, slots etc that need to be handled differently).

> >
> 
> Whups ... somehow stripped all the cc's on my original reply.
> 
> why isn't 1) already in the kernel itself?

I hope my problem statement clarification above makes it clearer. However, I 
think the problem is more generic - essentially depending on the current 
machine type, we may have to do different things on different platforms, such 
as:
* Loading different kernels / initrd / device tree etc.
* Passing different kernel parameters for:
        - different root fs mount points (root=/dev/sda[a/b/c/d]......)
        - enabling disabling different kernel features / drivers / subsystem 
(pci=[nocrs/use_crs]...)
        - etc.

Thanks,

Rajat 



> -----Original Message-----
> From: Prarit Bhargava [mailto:address@hidden
> Sent: Monday, February 09, 2015 4:44 AM
> To: David Michael
> Cc: address@hidden; Leif Lindholm; Andrei Borzenkov; Rajat Jain; Sanjay
> Jain; Raghuraman Thirumalairajan; Stu Grossman
> Subject: Re: [PATCH v2] Add a module for retrieving SMBIOS information
> 
> On 02/08/2015 01:54 PM, David Michael wrote:
> > The following are two use cases from Rajat Jain <address@hidden>:
> >
> > 1) We have a board that boots Linux and this board itself can be plugged
> into one of different chassis types. We need to pass different parameters to
> the kernel based on the "CHASSIS_TYPE" information that is passed by the
> bios in the DMI / SMBIOS tables.
> >
> 
> Whups ... somehow stripped all the cc's on my original reply.
> 
> why isn't 1) already in the kernel itself?
> 
> P.