U-Boot Meetup, Report

The event started with a wonderful set of flash cards on the screen about the various U-Boot facts. Then there is a quick walkthrough of agenda, clarification on what is a meetup and what is not by Babu, followed by introduction to U-Boot by Deepak. This is to level out the knowledge across the experienced and newbies in the group. The talk covers the basics of U-Boot, code hierarchy and the purpose.

The next talk was by Babu on "U-Boot Boot Flow". The session covered the different boot methods for an embedded Linux target, the resources required for U-Boot, the information needed by the Linux Kernel from U-Boot. There was also a flow diagram depicting the various files and functions that the sequence takes in a typical boot flow. People were interactive through out the session, after questions the group broke out for networking tea, sponsored by Zilogic Systems. Lot of connections made along the bites of biscuits and sips of tea.

The group gathered back for "U-Boot Device Model" talk by Deepak. This addressed the need for device model and the usage of device classes. He explained how the devices are categorized by different modes of operation, by which the classes are derived. He then touched some of the APIs in drivers to make sure how things are connected with respect to device model.

There were a few lightning talks planned and one of the slots was available, which is filled by Balamanikandan from Visteon. The first lightning talk was by Joses Paul, about the "U-Boot Sandbox". The talk threw light on the new feature of U-Boot, the Sandbox. He explained what is it, where it is used and how to build and use it.

"Adding a command to U-Boot", a lightning talk was done by the duo, Muthukumar and Lakshmanan. Muthukumar explained the steps involved in adding the command to the source code. Files like Makefile, c source and the command structure were discussed. A quick demo on the same was done by Lakshmanan.

Rengaraj did a lightning talk on "U-Boot for Flashing OS". The talk covered how applications are flashed in a microcontroller and how U-Boot is used for flashing operating system. He shared his experience in flashing the zigbee module.

A Lightning talk on "Secure boot in U-Boot" was by Balamanikandan. He shared his project experience on how to achieve a secured boot using U-Boot. He explained the mechanisms like key validation in the time boot to avoid insecure access to the resources in the system. The scenarios by which the system can be tampered, etc. With that, the group broke out for discussions and a group photo.

Thanks to all people for participating!