• "if at first you don't succeed, hide all evidence that you tried", but done wrong.
• v2 of all patches forced pushed, fixing stuff and adressing reviews below.
• v3 force pushed. rpi4b and uefi fixes. thanks for all the screenshots and tests!
• v4 force pushed. adding uefi-arm64 and uefi-x86 mainline kernel build (edge builds)
• v5 is here. many fixes for kernels, firmwares, etc. mainline kernel for rpi4b (edge builds)
  • avoid conflict between armbian-firmware and linux-firmware-raspi2 by removing the later.
  • use separate KERNELDIR for these 3 new kernels, until we're sure they're safe to mix.
• v6: many fixes. hopefully final version, pending test images for edge and current
• v7: small fixes. final version. I'd say ready for merge.

extensions framework (née "fragments")

• this should actually change nothing at this point, just add capabilities
• the framework is implemented in lib/extensions.sh
• the "if function x exists then call x" replaced with call_extension_method()
  • +inline documentation
  • +compatibility names

extensions framework; meta-extensions: auto-docs and sample extension gen

• 2 extensions dealing with extensibility itself
  • detect-unused-extensions: shows which extensions are enabled, but never called.
  • gen-sample-extension-docs: generates a sample empty extension & Markdown documentation for extensions

new extension methods and features via config variables in core Armbian

• SKIP_EXTERNAL_TOOLCHAINS=yes - does not download or use any linaro toolchains, only build host-installed ones
• SKIP_BOOTSPLASH=yes - does not patch kernel for splash file
• EXTRA_BSP_NAME=xyz - allows for BSP variants, useful for when extensions modify the BSP
• EXTRA_ROOTFS_MIB_SIZE=x - add x mib's to rootfs size, for use with very small images
• KERNEL_EXTRA_TARGETS - what extra targets to make kernel for, default to "modules dtbs"
• BOOTCONFIG=none - does not build nor install u-boot; also doesn't handle bootscripts et al
• unset KERNELSOURCE - does not build nor install kernel, nor build initrd, nor build nor install firmware
• ARMHF_ARCH=skip - does not add armhf to apt/dpkg, thus pure arm64
• SKIP_ARMBIAN_REPO=yes - results in armbian.list.disabled in the final image
• define APT_EXTRA_DIST_PARAMS with apt-cacher-ng options and use it for PACKAGE_LIST_INSTALL/REMOVE et al
• initial support for targeting x86/amd64 UEFI and BIOS
  • some do's/don'ts for x86/amd64, like a different UBUNTU_MIRROR default
  • GPT/EFI(ESP) partitions (fat, UEFISIZE=256 to enable, mount UEFI_MOUNT_POINT=/boot/efi, first on disk but ends
    up at $uefipart=15)
  • GPT/BIOS partitions (fat, BIOSSIZE=1 to enable, second on disk but ends up at partition 14)
  • UEFI_FS_LABEL="armbiefi" - to set the FAT label for the EFI partition, visible in Win/Mac
  • hard-requires gdisk package host-side
• add add_host_dependencies() extension method; fill EXTRA_BUILD_DEPS="pkg pkg2" to install to host before toolchains
  download
• add pre_prepare_partitions() extension method, for custom partition size calculations
• add create_partition_table() extension method, used to do full-custom partitioning if USE_HOOK_FOR_PARTITION=yes
• add post_create_partitions() extension method, mostly for easy debugging
• add post_write_sdcard() extension method, where you can also set SKIP_VERIFY=yes to skip sdcard verification
• add pre_install_kernel_debs() and post_install_kernel_debs() extension methods.
• multiple fixes to bsp to avoid spurious errors when files are not where it expects
• v4: detect update-initramfs failure and abort build with useful message if it does
• v4: show useful stacktrace in exit_with_error() and unmount_on_exit()
  • if ERROR_DEBUG_SHELL=yes, drop into a shell before unmounting/deleting everything, so we can inspect what went
    wrong
• v4: display a message before apt-get remove PACKAGE_LIST_BOARD_REMOVE packages, so any errors while removing are
  easy to understand
• v4: preserve kernel .config's dates when copying

extensions framework; refactor tool fetching/building into extensions

• a few examples of core refactoring using extensions
• sunxi-tools extension, enabled by 2 different sunxi family includes ("reuse" example)
• marvel-tools extension, enabled by 2 different mvebu family includes
• rkbin-tools extension, enabled by rockship64_common family include
• amlogic-fip/c2-blobs stuff refactored directly into meson64_common.inc ("single-use" example)
• removed the 'testings' fetch_from_repo completely since not used anywhere.

.wip's for UEFI arm64 and UEFI/BIOS x86 via new GRUB extension

• v3: added growroot-awareness to armbian-resize-filesystem
  • the partition-growing part of armbian-resize-filesystem does not deal correctly with the UEFI layout
  • growroot is installed on UEFI images by default, that handles growing partition during initramfs
  • now armbian-resize-filesystem handles resize2fs only, and works.
• v4: reworked UEFI board/family/include structure:
  • use Distro's linux-generic kernel only for current
  • edge now builds it's own pure-mainline 5.15.y kernel, for both x86 and arm64
    • .config taken from Ubuntu, probably needs tuning for EXTRAWIFI=yes et al
• v4: introduce SKIP_KERNEL_SYMLINK=yes, tested in builddeb
  • to avoid symlinking kernel; u-boot likes it, but grub and flash-kernel hates it
• v5: many fixes
• v7: more small fixes.

.wip for the RaspberryPi 4B via new flash-kernel extension

• this does not build it's own kernel "yet", but uses default linux-raspi kernel from Ubuntu
• flash-kernel is not really a bootloader
  • it just prepares kernel et al a FAT partition for booting by the RPi4b bootloader
  • flash-kernel is standard Debian package, but has only been tested on Ubuntu releases
• it is really only known-working since Hirsute release.
  • Debian's rpi kernel is armhf only, so out of scope here, at least until we add source-built kernels.
• v3: fixed focal rootfs build. untested.
• v3: better variable names, preparing for source-built kernel.
• v5: new edge build with mainline kernel.
• v6: many fixes and some hacks for packaging and layout, also firmware (using Ubuntu's)