[MinnowBoard] [edk2] [EDK2][MNW2]: Problem building MinnowMAX firmware 0.77 on Windows.

[Krau, Michael P]

Thank you Bruce,

I appreciate your prompt and well considered response.

For the de-synch issue, we are looking at a couple of  possible solutions.  Your suggestion of setting up another site/mechanism for access to the non-validated binaries is actually one of them.  What we are hoping to do is have things such that the binaries can be updated in a repository as they change, and when a revision gets validated (per an official release of an working image) that revision gets tagged as such.  The concern is not as much to control access to the non-validated versions (they travel with a EULA that is designed to protect the IP rights of the originator – no reverse engineering, that kind of thing).  But that using non-validated versions is playing in uncharted waters.  We do basic smoke and raw function testing before submitting them, but there are cases that don’t get tested until the full validation pass.

There would be disclaimers to that effect, but we really want to be as open as possible with our efforts and the community.

Also, this would relieve us of those zip file distributions (which no one really likes).  Though of course we would still provide final validated product images in zip files for people who want the latest firmware, and do not have the time, means, or inclination to build for themselves.  But that is a separate class of deliverable.

I agree about the bug tracking, and one of the items on the list is to establish (re-establish) bug tracking on the Open community site. This is a necessary and useful tool.

Thank you,


Michael Krau

From: B Cran [mailto:bruce.cran at gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, March 04, 2015 11:57 AM
To: edk2-devel at lists.sourceforge.net
Cc: MinnowBoard Development and Community Discussion
Subject: Re: [edk2] [MinnowBoard] [EDK2][MNW2]: Problem building MinnowMAX firmware 0.77 on Windows.

On Wed, Mar 4, 2015 at 7:25 PM, Krau, Michael P <michael.p.krau at intel.com<mailto:michael.p.krau at intel.com>> wrote:
Our development around MinnowBoard MAX are now centered on the Open Source community site.  The BSD content for MinnowBoard MAX is being developed from the open source repository (including the platform specific packages – Vlv2DeviceRefCodePkg and Vlv2TbltDevicePkg ).   So the development team is working directly to the sources on the open site.  This was established at the insistence of keeping the development open to the community.

I do like this, because with other open source projects which are maintained by a company I've seen the public code sometimes being several weeks behind what the developers are working with on the company's servers, and so you don't know if a bug has already been fixed or not.

To make matters more difficult, that site (firmware.intel.com<http://firmware.intel.com>) has rules that files are not posted until they have been through a complete validation cycle.  So, while we are moving at one speed on the Open Source site, the binary files are held to a different speed/cadence.   In the case of this time period, there have been changes in the binaries, which come back to the problems when using the tip of the Open sources and the old files.


I presume this couldn't be sidestepped by someone at Intel (or otherwise) setting up a server on (e.g.) Amazon AWS, even if there was a requirement for users to register on that site to get access to unvalidated binaries?

As an aside, there is an effort underway to improve this binary distribution de-synch problem and make other requested improvements. As  part of this effort we would be grateful to hear of where the process is failing, and how we can make improvements.

As I've mentioned elsewhere, personally I think the edk2 project (and, in turn MNW2) is a bit too big now for a single mailing list to handle discussions, bug reports and review requests/feedback - and would like to see the addition of at least a public replacement for the old bug tracker that was lost with the sourceforge changes last year.  I'd be happy to host it, but so far haven't seen much interest.

--
Bruce Cran
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