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| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/devel/devel.rst | 1 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/devel/project-ideas.rst | 174 |
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diff --git a/Documentation/devel/devel.rst b/Documentation/devel/devel.rst index f703c3bf27..39070074ca 100644 --- a/Documentation/devel/devel.rst +++ b/Documentation/devel/devel.rst @@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ Contents: porting background-execution + project-ideas * :ref:`search` * :ref:`genindex` diff --git a/Documentation/devel/project-ideas.rst b/Documentation/devel/project-ideas.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..f27e4d5406 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/devel/project-ideas.rst @@ -0,0 +1,174 @@ +##################### +barebox Project Ideas +##################### + +This section collects ideas to improve barebox and should serve as a pool +of ideas for people who want to enter the field of firmware development +but need some guidance what to work on. + +These tasks can be adopted as part of programs like Google Summer of Code +or by motivated individuals outside such programs. + +If you find a project interesting and would like to work on it, reach out +to the :ref:`mailing list <feedback>` and we can together +try to figure out whether you are a good match for the project. + +This list can be edited and extended by sending patches to the mailing list. +Other interesting ideas: Support for new file systems (EROFS, extfat, btrfs). +Switch device framework (currently scripts write into a ``/dev/switch`` file +to configure passthrough), Improvements for barebox-efi (e.g. as a coreboot +payload), ... etc. + +Address static analyzer feedback for barebox +============================================ + +Skills: C + +barebox is automatically tested using Synopsys' free "Coverity Scan" service. +The static analyzer has so far identified 191 possible defects at +https://scan.coverity.com/projects/barebox + +There is a number of false positives there, but it already helped us +find actual regressions, e.g. 610720857348 ("fs: ext4: fix bogus behavior +on failure to read ext4 block"). + +To make this service more useful, the project would involve categorizing +reported issues and handling them as appropriate: Mark them as not applicable +if false positive or provide patches to fix real issues. + +This project does not require dedicated hardware. QEMU or barebox built +to run under Linux (sandbox) may be used. + +Update barebox networking stack for IPv6 support +================================================ + +Skills: C, Networking + +The barebox network stack is mainly used for TFTP and NFSv3 (over UDP) boot. +Most embedded systems barebox runs on aren't deployed to IPv6 networks yet, +so it's the right time now to future-proof and learn more about networking +internals. One major complication with IPv6 support is neighbor discovery +protocols that require networking to be possible "in the background". +barebox' recent improvements of resource sharing and cooperative scheduling +makes it possible to integrate an IPv6 stack, e.g. lwIP. + +There are also community patches to integrate a TCP stack into barebox. +These can be evaluated as time allows. + +This project does not require dedicated hardware. QEMU or barebox built +to run under Linux (sandbox) may be used. + +Improving barebox test coverage +=============================== + +Skills: C + +barebox is normally tested end-to-end as part of a deployed system. +More selftests/emulated tests would reduce the round trip time for testing +and thus enable more widely tested patches. A framework has been recently +merged to enable this: + + * Selftest similar to the kernel can be registered and run. These + directly interface with C-Code. + * Labgrid tests: These boot barebox in a virtual machine or on real + hardware and use the shell to test barebox behaviors. + +This project will focus on improving the testing coverage by writing more +tests for barebox functionality and by fuzzing the parsers available in +barebox, with special consideration to the FIT parser, which is used in +secure booting setups. + +This project does not require dedicated hardware. QEMU or barebox built +to run under Linux (sandbox) may be used. + +Porting barebox to new hardware +=============================== + +Skills: C, low-level affinity + +While Linux and Linux userspace can be quite generic with respect to the +hardware it runs on, the bucket needs to stop somewhere: barebox needs +detailed knowledge of the hardware to initialize it and to pass this +along information to Linux. In this project, familiarity with barebox +and a new unsupported SoC will be established with the goal of porting +barebox to run on it. Prospective developers can suggest suitable +hardware (boards/SoCs) they are interested in. Preference is for +hardware, which is generally available and has more open documentation. + +The goal is to have enough support to run barebox on the board, set up +RAM and load a kernel from non-volatile storage and boot it. + +If time allows (because most drivers are already available in barebox), +new drivers can be ported to enable not only running Linux on the board, +but bareDOOM as well. + +This project requires embedded hardware with preferably an ARM SoC, as +these have the widest barebox support, but other architectures are ok +as well. + +Improve barebox RISC-V support +============================== + +Skills: C, RISC-V interest, low-level affinity + +barebox supports a number of both soft and hardRISC-V targets, +e.g.: BeagleV, HiFive, LiteX and the QEMU/TinyEMU Virt machine. + +Unlike e.g. ARM and MIPS, RISC-V support is still in its formative +stage, so much opportunity in implementing the gritty details: + + - Physical memory protection in M-Mode to trap access violations + - MMU support in S-Mode to trap access violations + - Improve barebox support for multiple harts (hardware threads) + +This project does not require dedicated hardware. QEMU can be used. + +Improve barebox I/O performance +=============================== + +Skills: C, low-level affinity + +On a normal modern system, booting may involve mounting and traversing +a file system, which employs caching for directory entries and sits +on top of a block device which caches blocks previously read from the +hardware driver, often by means of DMA. There are a number of improvements +possible to increase throughput of barebox I/O: + + - Support for higher MMC speed modes: The maximum currently supported + is 50/52 MHz and no DDR. + - More efficient erase: Communication protocols like Android Fastboot + encode large blocks of zeros specially. MMCs with erase-to-zero + capability could perform such erases in the background instead + of having to write big chunks of zeros. + - Block layer block sizes: There is a fixed block size used for + caching, which is meant to be a good compromise for read + and write performance. This may not be optimal for all devices + and can be revisited. + +This project requires embedded hardware with SD/eMMC that is supported +by a barebox media card interface (MCI) driver. + +Improve JSBarebox, the barebox web demo +======================================= + +Skills: C (Basics), Javascript/Web-assembly, Browser-Profiling + +While Linux and Linux userspace can be quite generic with respect to the +hardware it runs on, the bucket needs to stop somewhere: barebox needs +detailed knowledge of the hardware to initialize it and to pass this +along information to Linux. JSBarebox removes the hurdle of porting +barebox to a new board, for new users who are only interested in +trying it out: The browser runs Tinyemu, a virtual machine in which +barebox executes as if on real hardware and the user can manipulate the +(virtual) hardware from the barebox shell and learn about barebox +conveniences: barebox.org/jsbarebox/ + +The project is about streamlining this demo: CPU usage currently is +quite high and teaching barebox to idle the CPU (as we do on sandbox) +didn't help. This needs to be analyzed with the profiling tools +provided with modern browsers. The remainder of the project can then +focus on improving the jsbarebox tutorial. e.g. by adding new +peripherals to the virtual machine. + +This project does not require dedicated hardware. The development +machine need only support a recent browser. |