[Q] devicetree overlays

From: Sven Van Asbroeck
Date: Thu Apr 16 2020 - 10:47:31 EST


Pantelis, Frank,

A quick question about the state of devicetree overlays. There don't seem to
be many in-kernel overlay users (rcar and fpga only?). Does it make sense for
new projects to use them?

My situation is this: I have hardware which consists of several modules.
Knowledge about the type and location of these modules is located in an
on-board eeprom.

So now I need to assemble a devicetree, by puzzling various 'blobs' together.
This could be done in the bootloader, but also by a rcar-like driver, which
queries the eeprom and inserts devicetree fragments/overlays into a live kernel.

A couple of questions:
- are devicetree overlays here to stay? (given that there are 2 in-kernel users)
- does it make sense to solve the modular devicetree problem in a rcar-like
fashion?
- is there perhaps a more canonical / idiomatic way to solve this?

Sven