May 2026 - Concept - U-Boot List

[PATCH 00/13] bootstd: bls: Scan every partition; Ubuntu autoinstall via BLS
by Simon Glass 07 May '26

07 May '26

From: Simon Glass <sjg(a)chromium.org> The Boot Loader Specification places loader/entries/*.conf on the ESP or XBOOTLDR partition, and bootmeth_bls relies on the iterator's BLS-target carve-out to reach those even when not marked bootable. In practice, however, distros that drive entries through kernel-install write to whichever partition holds /boot, which on common Ubuntu/Debian layouts is the ext4 rootfs. Two consequences follow today: efi-x86_app64 overrides bootcmd to "bootflow scan -lpb" so the scan reaches non-BLS-target data partitions on hybrid ISOs, and the Ubuntu autoinstall path writes BLS entries onto the ESP rather than the rootfs. Patch 1 reverts the bootcmd override. Patch 2 sets BOOTMETHF_ANY_PART on bootmeth_bls so the iterator hands it every partition, with a partition-size filter so ext4 probes do not run on raw single-LBA slots (e.g. ChromeOS kernel partitions). Patch 3 honours --kernel in the grub-cfg parser. Patch 4 wires BLS into future kernel updates: the autoinstall path writes BLS entries directly to the ESP (kernel-install never works inside curtin's chroot anyway, because /boot/efi is a plain directory there), while the interactive path drops a first-boot systemd unit that runs kernel-install from the real installed system. Entries land on the ESP for autoinstall so the bootflow iterator's per-partition advance picks BLS up before the EFI bootmeth chain-loads our own BOOTX64.EFI fallback into a loop. Patches 5-11 cover further Ubuntu autoinstall script work: unattended autoinstall mode (5), planting u-boot.efi on the target ESP (6), and a small cleanup pass (7-11). Patch 12 adds a new CI test, test_distro_ubuntu_iso_install, that runs an unattended Ubuntu install through U-Boot + BLS under QEMU + OVMF and verifies the installed system boots back into U-Boot. Patch 13 wires it into the sjg-lab-slow gitlab-ci stage. Docs in doc/usage/bls.rst, doc/develop/bootstd/bls.rst, doc/develop/bootstd/overview.rst and doc/usage/os/ubuntu-live.rst are updated to match. The end-to-end CI test passes (4m46 on sjg-lab-slow). Simon Glass (13): Revert "configs: efi-x86_app64: Scan all partitions at autoboot" bootmeth: bls: Scan every partition for entries scripts: ubuntu: Honour --kernel in grub-cfg parser scripts: ubuntu: Wire BLS into future kernel updates scripts: ubuntu: Add unattended autoinstall mode scripts: ubuntu: Install U-Boot on target ESP scripts: ubuntu: Drop __future__ annotations import scripts: ubuntu: Refer readers to the noble release dir scripts: ubuntu: Use command.run() in hash_password() scripts: ubuntu: Lift BLS-setup magic strings scripts: ubuntu: Use Args:/Returns: docstrings throughout test/py: distro: Add test_distro_ubuntu_iso_install gitlab-ci: Add sjg-lab-slow stage and Ubuntu install job .gitlab-ci.yml | 37 +++ boot/bootmeth_bls.c | 24 +- configs/efi-x86_app64_defconfig | 1 - doc/develop/bootstd/bls.rst | 34 ++- doc/develop/bootstd/overview.rst | 11 +- doc/usage/bls.rst | 46 +++- doc/usage/os/ubuntu-live.rst | 195 +++++++++++---- scripts/ubuntu-iso-to-uboot.py | 415 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-- test/py/tests/test_distro.py | 53 ++++ 9 files changed, 730 insertions(+), 86 deletions(-) --- base-commit: 6aab88b82cfb744689466b02c7a6a7bc663f2e90 branch: fsf -- 2.43.0

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[PATCH 0/6] patman: Concurrent DB access and per-series review worktrees
by Simon Glass 06 May '26

06 May '26

From: Simon Glass <sjg(a)chromium.org> This series tackles two long-standing rough edges in patman. The first three commits make .patman.db safe to share across processes: - WAL journalling and a 30-second busy timeout so concurrent readers do not block each other and brief writer contention is invisible. - A PATMAN_DB_DIR override so a single 'main' database can be reached from any worktree or unrelated repo. - An advisory file lock around the schema migration loop so two patman invocations launched against an out-of-date database do not race on the next ALTER TABLE. The remaining three move AI-assisted reviews off the user's main checkout. New gitutil helpers (ensure_worktree, remove_worktree) create or reset a worktree at a given path; patman uses them to run each review in <main>/.git/patman/worktrees/<branch>. The user's main tree is no longer touched, so Ctrl-C cannot leave it dirty, untracked build artefacts cannot leak in or out, and a second patman command can run in the same checkout while a review is in progress. The worktree is dropped automatically when the review completes, and on 'series rm'/'series archive' for the failed-or-abandoned cases. Simon Glass (6): u_boot_pylib: Add worktree helpers for branch-aware worktrees patman: Enable WAL mode for concurrent database access patman: Allow overriding the database directory with PATMAN_DB_DIR patman: Serialise schema migrations across processes patman: Run reviews in a per-series git worktree patman: Clean up review worktrees on series rm and archive tools/patman/cser_helper.py | 22 ++++- tools/patman/cseries.py | 10 +++ tools/patman/database.py | 21 ++++- tools/patman/patman.rst | 21 +++++ tools/patman/review.py | 149 +++++++++++++++------------------- tools/patman/test_cseries.py | 14 ++-- tools/u_boot_pylib/gitutil.py | 53 ++++++++++++ 7 files changed, 195 insertions(+), 95 deletions(-) --- base-commit: 02c56996ee464c41650a2f8a5e1c9b7efb524db8 branch: patk -- 2.43.0

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[PATCH 00/29] patman: Review-flow improvements and shared helpers
by Simon Glass 01 May '26

01 May '26

From: Simon Glass <sjg(a)chromium.org> This series gathers patman and buildman improvements with a focus on the AI-assisted review flow. u_boot_pylib gains a few foundations: run_interactive() for PTY-aware command capture (used by git send-email), a way to inspect claude-agent output, and a set of gitutil wrappers (count_revs, diff_stat, ref_exists, current_branch, checkout_branch, stash_save, stash_pop) that take a working-tree path through subprocess cwd. review.py is then migrated so all of its git access goes through gitutil and all of its patchwork access goes through patchwork.py: it no longer assembles 'git ...' argv lists or builds patchwork URLs by hand. The 'patman review' command grows several user-facing flags and behaviours. -s/--series and -S/--series-title replace -l/-t to make room for new patch-level flags; -i, -p, and -P select a subset of patches, a single patch by Patchwork ID, or a single patch by title. -b/--base-branch lets the user override the base branch, and the auto-detection now falls back to master when next is empty -- the post-release window where next has just been merged in. The apply step stashes untracked files before checking out the review branch, and aborts cleanly when the agent applies fewer commits than the cover letter promises. 'patman series find' searches the local database by subject fragment. Smaller touches round things out: a colour-coded review state in 'series info' with optional patch-number filtering, detection of series accepted upstream during 'series gather', hiding review series from the default 'series ls', a -d short for --create-drafts, a handful of AI-prompt refinements (diff headers, single quotes for code tokens, no reconstructed quoted diff lines), and buildman now hiding the 'Boards not built' summary by default. Unit tests accompany the new u_boot_pylib helpers and the base-branch auto-detection, and the documentation in patman.rst is brought up to date with all of the above. Simon Glass (29): buildman: Hide 'Boards not built' by default u_boot_pylib: Add run_interactive() for PTY commands u_boot_pylib: Add a way to inspect agent output u_boot_pylib: Add gitutil helpers for repo-aware git operations patman: Use gitutil helpers in review.py patman: Use patchwork.py for all HTTP access in review.py patman: Handle email-mismatch warning from checkpatch patman: Fix patchwork search for titles containing '+' patman: Add review display and colour to series info patman: Use run_interactive() for git send-email patman: Detect when a series is accepted upstream patman: Refine review prompts and fix review handling patman: Add -d short option for --create-drafts patman: Hide review series from default listing patman: Record workflow entry when reviewing a series patman: Let the apply agent edit files for manual fixups patman: Abort review on partial or interrupted apply patman: Rename review series flags to '-s/-S' patman: Allow reviewing specific patches in a series patman: Add 'series find' to search by subject fragment patman: Place base-commit before signature in cover letter patman: Stash untracked files before reviewing patman: Force diff headers in every review comment patman: Tell the agent never to reconstruct quoted diff lines patman: Keep code quotes out of the cover-letter review patman: Use single quotes for all quoted tokens in reviews patman: Allow choosing the review base branch patman: Clarify the 'series not in database' error path patman: Document review behaviours added in this series tools/buildman/builder.py | 3 +- tools/buildman/buildman.rst | 5 + tools/buildman/cmdline.py | 3 + tools/buildman/control.py | 3 +- tools/buildman/func_test.py | 2 +- tools/buildman/outcome.py | 1 + tools/buildman/resulthandler.py | 3 +- tools/buildman/test.py | 12 +- tools/buildman/test_builder.py | 3 +- tools/buildman/worker.py | 3 +- tools/patman/__main__.py | 3 +- tools/patman/checkpatch.py | 1 + tools/patman/cmdline.py | 37 ++- tools/patman/control.py | 8 +- tools/patman/cser_helper.py | 43 ++++ tools/patman/cseries.py | 202 +++++++++++---- tools/patman/database.py | 79 +++++- tools/patman/func_test.py | 35 +-- tools/patman/patchstream.py | 56 ++++- tools/patman/patchwork.py | 51 +++- tools/patman/patman.rst | 79 +++++- tools/patman/review.py | 379 ++++++++++++++++++++++------- tools/patman/test_cseries.py | 201 ++++++++++++--- tools/patman/workflow.py | 19 ++ tools/u_boot_pylib/__main__.py | 4 +- tools/u_boot_pylib/claude.py | 8 + tools/u_boot_pylib/command.py | 51 ++++ tools/u_boot_pylib/gitutil.py | 117 ++++++++- tools/u_boot_pylib/test_command.py | 58 +++++ tools/u_boot_pylib/test_gitutil.py | 122 ++++++++++ 30 files changed, 1349 insertions(+), 242 deletions(-) create mode 100644 tools/u_boot_pylib/test_command.py create mode 100644 tools/u_boot_pylib/test_gitutil.py --- base-commit: 47ac06e6993c1bcb1d47a83a1fa014532e9bacad branch: patj -- 2.43.0

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