[Bug 2110301] Re: [SRU] Backport u-boot 2025.01-3 to Noble

[Dave Jones]

Responding to SRU team requests:

> 1. Re-upload noble with a version of 2025.01-0ubuntu0.24.04.1. This is
less than the current plucky version, and upgrades will be possible
without bumping the plucky version number.

I'll do this shortly.

> 2. Re-consider oracular. I understand that the current version string
becomes an issue for noble -> oracular upgrades. But, EOL is fast
approaching. Could we wait it out? Or is this needed sooner?

Oracular's EOL is scheduled for July 10th. We *could* wait until then
for the noble upload, but 24.04.3 is currently scheduled for August 7th,
so waiting until July 10th before the upload (and then potentially
waiting for SRU review, and validation after that) would probably leave
us rather uncomfortably close to August 7th, hence the desire to upload
this earlier.

I'd agree that this is basically a pointless upload for oracular, but
(other than waiting for July 10th) I don't see another way around it?
I'll re-upload for oracular with a similarly adjusted version number; if
we get to July 10th before SRU review, the oracular upload can just be
rejected.

> 3. Consider upgrades. I think we need to have the ability to block
upgrades on RVA20 hardware before/when this lands.

Documenting what was covered in the MM thread here: the blocking of
RVA20 upgraders is an issue for u-r-u which is now tracked in LP:
#2111715.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2110301

Title:
  [SRU] Backport u-boot 2025.01-3 to Noble

Status in u-boot package in Ubuntu:
  Invalid
Status in u-boot source package in Noble:
  Confirmed
Status in u-boot source package in Oracular:
  Confirmed
Status in u-boot source package in Plucky:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  [ Impact ]

  With the release of Ubuntu 25.04 (Plucky) we support new RISC-V
  hardware:

  * Pine64 Star64
  * DeepComputing FML13V01

  In the 25.10 cycle we will upgraded the ISA from RVA20 to presumably
  RVA23. This implies that hardware that is not RVA23 compliant will
  only be supported on 24.04 in the long term.

  We therefore need to backport the hardware support to 24.04. This
  includes:

  * U-Boot
  * Kernel 6.14 (already completed)

  With this SRU we will backport U-Boot 2025.01-3 to Noble.

  [ Test Plan ]

  For each $board:

  * DeepComputing FML13V01
  * Microchip Icicle Kit
  * Milk-V Mars
  * Pine64 Star64
  * StarFive VisionFive 2
  * SiFive Unmatched

  If the $board was originally supported on the affected $series:

  * Flash the pre-installed image from cdimage for the $series and $board combination
  * Boot the image
  * sudo apt install -t $series-proposed u-boot-$board (e.g. u-boot-starfive)
  * Note that flash-kernel should run during the u-boot upgrade
  * sudo reboot
  * Interrupt the boot sequence
  * echo $fdtfile (check that u-boot's fdtfile variable shows the value matching the board)
  * Exit to allow boot to continue
  * Check boot succeeds

  See the descriptions in the Ubuntu manual tests
  (https://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/) for the respective boards.

  If $board was *not* originally supported on the affected $series:

  * Build test image incorporating proposed version (this may require PPA usage); instructions for this omitted for brevity
  * Boot the image
  * echo $fdtfile (check that u-boot's fdtfile variable shows the value matching the board)
  * Exit to allow boot to continue
  * Check boot succeeds

  Check that booting via GRUB into Ubuntu works.

  [ Where problems could occur ]

  Updating the bootloader always carries the risk of breaking boot on
  user's machines. That said, a bootloader is necessarily a standalone
  binary (when running at boot time). The particular upstream version we
  are backporting is already in successful use in plucky, giving us a
  reasonable degree of confidence that this version is fundamentally
  sound.

  The backport in plucky's case simply incorporates changes to the
  debian/ directory which occurred after plucky's release (we sync'd
  from Debian's experimental branch during plucky).

  The backport for oracular and noble is an actual upstream version
  bump; the risk here is that the build acts differently (e.g. due to
  differences in the build dependencies). To guard against that, the
  test plan covers all potentially affected boards (for which we produce
  official images), not just those on which we hope to enable boot.

  [ Other Info ]

  N/A

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