Challenges in Device Tree Sync - kernel, Zephyr, U-boot, System DT
summary
Work on AM625/TDA4VM shows a real gap: Linux, U-Boot and Zephyr each keep their own device-tree view for the same hardware (4x A53, R5, M4), resulting in two separate dtsi files for the same peripheral, duplicated nodes and mismatched bindings. The pipeline uses DTC and libfdt, U-Boot overlays and binman for images, and Zephyr’s generator that emits C headers; imports from kernel DT into U-Boot already work. Proposal: use lopper / system-devicetree to canonicalize kernel DT and generate per-ecosystem personalities — reduces duplication but uncovers licensing and R5/32-bit nuances that still need fixing.
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chapters (10)
- 0:00Introduction and background
- 1:45What is Device Tree
- 3:31Heterogeneous systems challenges
- 5:20Linux Device Tree schema
- 8:16U-Boot and Device Tree integration
- 11:50Zephyr and Device Tree adoption
- 15:25Pros and cons of Device Tree
- 18:58Device Tree limitations in Linux
- 21:06System Device Tree proposal
- 24:43Potential solutions and future
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