barebox-bringup utility

barebox-bringup utility

[Sascha Hauer]

Hi,

Claude Code struggles to to bring up barebox properly with
labgrid-pytest and running barebox on real hardware with the barebox
integrated pytest infrastructure is also not easy as there are several
assumptions about QEMU in it. I thought letting Claude write a small
python tool to start barebox in QEMU. It turned out to be useful for
interactive usage as well, so here it is:

https://github.com/saschahauer/barebox-bringup

It makes starting barebox as easy as:

barebox-bringup -c ~/test/arm/imx6s-riotboard.yaml
barebox-bringup -c test/arm/virt@multi_v7_defconfig.yaml

It will open a console which captures the barebox output from the start.
The tool has options to capture to a log file and to accept input from a
fifo.

At least with real hardware the closest I could get was:

labgrid-client -c ~/test/arm/imx6s-riotboard.yaml -s barebox console

This loses output though, as the console is only started after barebox
has already started, so I usually had running a permanent console on
another terminal.

Maybe there are ways to improve the barebox pytest or to improve labgrid
itself, but in the meantime somebody might find this useful as well.

Sascha

-- 
Pengutronix e.K.                           |                             |
Steuerwalder Str. 21                       | http://www.pengutronix.de/  |
31137 Hildesheim, Germany                  | Phone: +49-5121-206917-0    |
Amtsgericht Hildesheim, HRA 2686           | Fax:   +49-5121-206917-5555 |

Re: barebox-bringup utility

[Ahmad Fatoum]

Hello Sascha,

On 1/5/26 3:08 PM, Sascha Hauer wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Claude Code struggles to to bring up barebox properly with
> labgrid-pytest and running barebox on real hardware with the barebox
> integrated pytest infrastructure is also not easy as there are several
> assumptions about QEMU in it.

We have a container to address this.

> I thought letting Claude write a small
> python tool to start barebox in QEMU. It turned out to be useful for
> interactive usage as well, so here it is:
> 
> https://github.com/saschahauer/barebox-bringup
> 
> It makes starting barebox as easy as:
> 
> barebox-bringup -c ~/test/arm/imx6s-riotboard.yaml
> barebox-bringup -c test/arm/virt@multi_v7_defconfig.yaml

Does

./scripts/container.sh pytest --interactive \
	--lg-env test/arm/virt@multi_v8_defconfig.yaml

not work for you?
> It will open a console which captures the barebox output from the start.
> The tool has options to capture to a log file

This can be achieved with --lg-log when using pytest.

> and to accept input from a
> fifo.

Untested, but should be possible with mkfifo and redirection?

> At least with real hardware the closest I could get was:
> 
> labgrid-client -c ~/test/arm/imx6s-riotboard.yaml -s barebox console

By the way, I think we should start adding YAMLs for real hardware as
well into the repository.

> This loses output though, as the console is only started after barebox
> has already started, so I usually had running a permanent console on
> another terminal.
> 
> Maybe there are ways to improve the barebox pytest or to improve labgrid
> itself, but in the meantime somebody might find this useful as well.

I already rewrote my perl tool in python, so it's more approachable to
others. It would be cool if missing features are implemented there, so
everyone can use it.

Cheers,
Ahmad

> 
> Sascha
> 


-- 
Pengutronix e.K.                  |                             |
Steuerwalder Str. 21              | http://www.pengutronix.de/  |
31137 Hildesheim, Germany         | Phone: +49-5121-206917-0    |
Amtsgericht Hildesheim, HRA 2686  | Fax:   +49-5121-206917-5555 |

Re: barebox-bringup utility

[Sascha Hauer]

On Mon, Jan 05, 2026 at 03:40:55PM +0100, Ahmad Fatoum wrote:
> Hello Sascha,
> 
> On 1/5/26 3:08 PM, Sascha Hauer wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > Claude Code struggles to to bring up barebox properly with
> > labgrid-pytest and running barebox on real hardware with the barebox
> > integrated pytest infrastructure is also not easy as there are several
> > assumptions about QEMU in it.
> 
> We have a container to address this.
> 
> > I thought letting Claude write a small
> > python tool to start barebox in QEMU. It turned out to be useful for
> > interactive usage as well, so here it is:
> > 
> > https://github.com/saschahauer/barebox-bringup
> > 
> > It makes starting barebox as easy as:
> > 
> > barebox-bringup -c ~/test/arm/imx6s-riotboard.yaml
> > barebox-bringup -c test/arm/virt@multi_v7_defconfig.yaml
> 
> Does
> 
> ./scripts/container.sh pytest --interactive \
> 	--lg-env test/arm/virt@multi_v8_defconfig.yaml
> 
> not work for you?

No, I don't have podman installed.

However, labgrid-pytest --lg-env test/arm/virt@multi_v8_defconfig.yaml
--interactive works

> > It will open a console which captures the barebox output from the start.
> > The tool has options to capture to a log file
> 
> This can be achieved with --lg-log when using pytest.

With --lg-log a logfile is created, but it's empty.
With output redirection to a file I get pytest output, but not the console.
Maybe that's different when using ./scripts/container.sh instead of
labgrid-pytest.

> 
> > and to accept input from a
> > fifo.
> 
> Untested, but should be possible with mkfifo and redirection?

Likely, yes.

> 
> > At least with real hardware the closest I could get was:
> > 
> > labgrid-client -c ~/test/arm/imx6s-riotboard.yaml -s barebox console
> 
> By the way, I think we should start adding YAMLs for real hardware as
> well into the repository.

How do we accomplish this? The YAML files contain many site specific
details, like RemotePlace name, coordinator_address, which PowerDriver,
wether to use a USB loader, SD-MUX or JTAG for bringup. There's not much
left that is generic.

Sascha

-- 
Pengutronix e.K.                           |                             |
Steuerwalder Str. 21                       | http://www.pengutronix.de/  |
31137 Hildesheim, Germany                  | Phone: +49-5121-206917-0    |
Amtsgericht Hildesheim, HRA 2686           | Fax:   +49-5121-206917-5555 |