diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'doc/develop/cedit.rst')
-rw-r--r-- | doc/develop/cedit.rst | 169 |
1 files changed, 169 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/doc/develop/cedit.rst b/doc/develop/cedit.rst new file mode 100644 index 00000000000..63dff9d3f14 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/develop/cedit.rst @@ -0,0 +1,169 @@ +.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0+ + +Configuration Editor +==================== + +Introduction +------------ + +U-Boot provides a configuration editor which allows settings to be changed in +a GUI or text environment. + + +This feature is still in development and has a number of limitations. For +example, cedit only supports menu items (there is no numeric or text entry), +provides no support for colour text and does not support scrolling. Still it is +possible to use it for simple applications. + + +Overview +-------- + +The configuration editor makes use of :doc:`expo` to build a description of the +configuration screens and allow user to interact with it. + +To create a single-scene cedit for your application: + +#. Design the scene, i.e. the objects that need to be present and what their + possible values are + +#. Enter this in .dts format + +#. Create a header file containing the IDs + +#. Run the 'expo.py' tool to generate a .dtb file containing the layout, which + can be used by U-Boot + +#. Use the :doc:`../usage/cmd/cedit` to create the cedit, read the settings, + present the cedit to the user and save the settings afterwards. + +Each of these is described in a separate section. See :ref:`expo_example` for +an example file. + + +Design a scene +-------------- + +Using a piece of paper or a drawing tool, lay out the objects you want in your +scene. Typically you will use the default layout engine, which simply puts items +one after the other from top to bottom. So use a single column and show the +prompt and value for each object. + +For menu items, show one of the values, but keep in mind what else you need. + + +Create an expo-format file +-------------------------- + +The description is in the form of a devicetree file, as documented at +:ref:`expo_format`. Since everything in an expo has an ID number (an integer +greater than 1) the description is written terms of these IDs. They each have +an enum value. which is typically taken care of by the `expo.py` tool. + +The expo should have a `scenes` node with a named scene as a subnode. Within the +scene, add properties for the scene, then a subnode for each object in the +scene. + +All object nodes require an `id` value and a `type` property. Other properties +depend on the type. For example, a menu has a `title` and an `item-label` list +proving the text for the menu items, as well as an `item-id` list providing the +ID of each menu item, so it can be selected. + +Text properties may have two variants. For example `title` specifies the title +of a menu, but you can instead use `title-id` to specify the string ID to use as +the title. String are defined in a separate area, common to the whole expo, +which contains a subnode for each string. Within that subnode are the ID and the +`value` (i.e. the text). For now only English is supported, but in future it may +be possible to append a language identifier to provide other values (e.g. +'value-es' for Spanish). + + +Create an ID header-file +------------------------ + +Expo needs to know the integer value to use for every ID referenced in your +expo-format file. For example, if you have defined a `cpu-speed` node with an +id of `ID_CPU_SPEED`, then Expo needs to know the value of `ID_CPU_SPEED`. + +When you write C code to use the expo, you may need to know the IDs. For +example, to find which value the user selected in `cpu-speed` menu, you must +use the `ID_CPU_SPEED` ID. The ID is the only way to refer to anything in Expo. + +Since we need a shared set of IDs, it is best to have a header file containing +them. Expo supports doing this with an enum, where every ID is listed in the +enum:: + + enum { + ZERO, + + ID_PROMPT, + + ID_SCENE1, + ID_SCENE1_TITLE, + ... + }; + +The C compiler can parse this directly. The `expo.py` tool parses it for expo. + +Create a header file containing every ID mentioned in your expo. Try to group +related things together. + + +Build the expo layout +--------------------- + +Use the `expo.py` tool to build a .dtb for your expo:: + + ./tools/expo.py -e expo_ids.h -l expo_layout.dts -o expo.dtb + +This uses the enum in the provided header file to get the ID numbers, grabs +the `.dts` file, inserts the ID numbers and then uses the devicetree compiler to +build a `.dtb` file. + +If you get an error:: + + Devicetree compiler error: + Error: <stdin>:9.19-20 syntax error + FATAL ERROR: Unable to parse input tree + +that means that something is wrong with your syntax, or perhaps you have an ID +in the `.dts` file that is not mentioned in your enum. Check both files and try +again. + + +Use the command interface +------------------------- + +See the :doc:`../usage/cmd/cedit` command for information on available commands. +Typically you will use `cedit load` to load the `.dtb` file and `cedit run` to +let the user interact with it. + + +Multiple scenes +--------------- + +Expo supports multiple scenes but has no pre-determined way of moving between +them. You could use selection of a menu item as a signal to change the scene, +but this is not currently implemented in the cedit code (see `cedit_run()`). + + +Themes +------ + +The configuration editor uses simple expo themes. The theme is read from +`/bootstd/cedit-theme` in the devicetree. + + +Reading and writing settings +---------------------------- + +Cedit provides several options for persistent settings: + +- Writing an FDT file to a filesystem +- Writing to U-Boot's environment variables, which are then typically stored in + a persistent manner +- Writing to CMOS RAM registers (common on x86 machines) + +For now, reading and writing settings is not automatic. See the +:doc:`../usage/cmd/cedit` for how to do this on the command line or in a +script. |