Flattened Image Trees: A Powerful Kernel uImage Format
summary
A Flattened Image Tree (FIT) replaces rigid uImage headers with a device-tree based ITB that embeds kernel, DTB, ramdisk and metadata; mkimage builds the ITB, U-Boot 2013-era bootm verifies embedded hashes and can load components by configuration. Demo uses kernel 3.8 and BeagleBone sources to produce a bootable ITB that boots in place and loads a recovery initramfs, and examples show multiple kernels and multiple signatures in one image. Current caveats: U-Boot crypto (SHA/signature) is slow and x86 support patches are still under review.
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chapters (9)
- 0:00Introduction
- 1:50Legacy image formats
- 5:50U-boot image format
- 9:43Multicomponent limitations
- 15:09Introduction to FIT
- 20:08FIT applications
- 23:26FIT demonstrations
- 30:06Advanced FIT use cases
- 35:08Future work and challenges
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