Re: [GIT PULL] ~RISC-V~Starfive devicetrees fixes for v7.0-rc6

[Heinrich Schuchardt]

On 3/26/26 16:14, Conor Dooley wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 26, 2026 at 07:36:07AM -0700, E Shattow wrote:
> > On 3/26/26 04:13, Conor Dooley wrote:
> > > Hey folks,
> > >
> > > Please pull a small fixes PR.
> > >
> > > Cheers,
> > > Conor.
> > >
> > > The following changes since commit 0528a348b04b327a4611e29589beb4c9ae81304a:
> > >
> > >    cache: ax45mp: Fix device node reference leak in ax45mp_cache_init() (2026-02-06 19:54:40 +0000)
> > >
> > > are available in the Git repository at:
> > >
> > >    https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/conor/linux.git/ tags/riscv-dt-fixes-for-v7.0-rc6
> > >
> > > for you to fetch changes up to 305f2865bd034146b2eebc77c27fc50d8d79778d:
> > >
> > >    riscv: dts: starfive: jh7110-common: fix jh7110 SoC boot from SD-card. (2026-03-19 16:00:13 +0000)
> > >
> > > ----------------------------------------------------------------
> > > RISC-V devicetrees fixes for v7.0-rc6
> > >
> > > Starfive:
> > > Two fixes for the SD cards on the Mars CM Lite.
> > >
> > > Signed-off-by: Conor Dooley <conor.dooley@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > >
> > > ----------------------------------------------------------------
> > > Heinrich Schuchardt (1):
> > >        riscv: dts: starfive: Milk-V Mars CM Lite broken-cd
> > >
> > > Ilya Sorochan (1):
> > >        riscv: dts: starfive: jh7110-common: fix jh7110 SoC boot from SD-card.
> > >
> > >   arch/riscv/boot/dts/starfive/jh7110-common.dtsi           | 1 +
> > >   arch/riscv/boot/dts/starfive/jh7110-milkv-marscm-lite.dts | 2 +-
>
> > To be clear the "riscv: dts: starfive: jh7110-common: fix jh7110 SoC
> > boot from SD-card." commit does not affect Linux whatsoever, there is no
> > problem to boot Linux from SD Card impacted by having or not having this
> > commit. This also is not common, so should not be in jh7110-common, as
> > more JH-7110 SoC products by-the-numbers have transistor logic replacing
> > this signal selection to the StarFive loader in BootROM and so
> > precluding this from functioning.
>
> All the patch does is tell bootloaders what stage of the boot they
> should should pay attention to the node, and the link was to a big
> mechanical deletion, with a reasonable comment from someone that
> has a track record.
>
> > This ignores the wider discussion about StarFive both deprecating this
> > capability (for Secondary Program Loader i.e. U-Boot SPL) of StarFive
> > Loader in JH-7110 BootROM loading from SD Card being deprecated
> > officially in the latest StarFive JH-7110 Technical Reference Manual and
> > StarFive JH-7110 Boot User Guide documentation, and the ongoing GPL
> > non-compliance by StarFive for use of GPL 2.0+ code in the JH-7110
> > BootROM; the latter being important if we want to accurately attempt to
> > support this deprecated feature set as a community (even when ignoring
> > for the moment this copyright license non-compliance).
>
> I'm sorry, but I have only a passing familiarity with your work there
> (as in, I have seen you talk about it on IRC and paid no attention), and
> there's no way I would have associated it with this change.
> I definitely was not ignoring a wider conversation by merging this
> patch, I was not aware this was controversial at all!
>
> > I have done an ~80%+ analysis on Ghidra decompilation of the JH-7110
> > BootROM, and openly invite anyone that would like to help get this
> > effort to 100% is welcome to so that we may publish and refer to this
> > for technical competence. I do not object to the community supporting
> > this deprecated capability if there is any real documentation not based
> > on rumors and memes; but no one has offered to do take a moment to do
> > this most basic of fact finding. Evidently the StarFive maintainer(s)
> > have refused to support this, GPL non-compliance persists and only a
> > rough description from Hal has been written to the U-Boot developer mail
> > list that does not match my analysis, all while complaining about the
> > capability not being supported going forward.
> >
> > I object to this PR it is NAK from me on the basis of stuffing this in
> > sideways without technical justification or review. Also I do object to

Concerning technical justification it is clear:

Distro images have been supplied with U-Boot on SD-card for years and 
the recent work in Linux and U-Boot broke booting them. This needs to be 
fixed.

> The technical justification seemed to me to be multiple people saying "we
> need this added so that u-boot can use the sd-card". The patch has been
> on the list for over three weeks at this point, so there was definitely
> opportunity to comment on it. I don't think I have been unreasonable
> here. If current U-Boot needs it, then I'd still like to have it merged.
> If you work pulls through and this becomes no-longer required, then I'd
> be happy to take it back out again.
>
> > "riscv: dts: starfive: Milk-V Mars CM Lite broken-cd" as this goes the
> > wrong way around, it does not describe the hardware; if some external
> > carrier boards cannot deal with the capability of the Mars CM
> > system-on-module having card detect line then that should be dealt with
> > as a dtbo per-carrier board and not be replaced in the dts by a
> > broken-cd, although at least we had this discussion and Conor made a
> > decision with all the facts and discussion available.

As my patch points out the CD line is broken because it does not conform 
to the standard established by Raspberry.

E. we know that by chance you have found a base board that ignores the 
standard.

Your patch 4cce8b2503ab5 made my standard compliant baseboard unusable. 
My patch in the pull request does not stop your board from booting but 
re-enables mine.

Best regards

Heinrich