[ECOS] Re: Why is IPv6 in RedBoot not possible?

[Grant Edwards <grant dot b dot edwards at gmail dot com>]

On 2012-01-24, Andrew Lunn <andrew@lunn.ch> wrote:

>>>I realize it might be a fair amount of work to implement some sort of
>>>IPv6 support in RedBoot, but I'm wondering what would make it "not
>>>possible".
>> 
>> Adding IPv6 to RedBoot is not impossible, but it will require a large
>> amount of work, certainly requiring changes to all the existing code
>> as well as adding additional support.  Andrew's "not possible" was
>> most likely an expression of how involved this might be.
>
> Hee, this was such a long time ago.

IPv6 isn't exactly taking off like a rocket. :)

> Maybe it was referring to the original poster adding the FreeBSD
> stack to his configuration and expecting RedBoot to use it.

Yes, the poster to which you were replying was clearly pretty lost.  I
wondered if "not possible" was meant in the context of his approach.

> You might be able to steal ideas and code from uIP. I forget what
> license it uses.
>
> Or, depending on what you actually need from the boot loader, it
> might be possible to swap to uboot, which seems to have some patches
> floating around for IPv6 support.

We require TCP support, which is UBoot doesn't have.  My guess was
that it would be easier to add IPv6 to RedBoot than TCP to UBoot, but
that might be wrong.

The other option is to change our firmware update process and our main
eCos app so that the firmware update can be done via the eCos app
that's using the full-up kernel with IPv6 support.  I've got a fairly
good idea how much work is involved in that, and I'm starting to
suspect it would be easier than adding ipv6 support to RedBoot
(especially if DHCPv6 and router advertisement support are needed) or
adding TCP support to UBoot.

-- 
Grant Edwards               grant.b.edwards        Yow! I need to discuss
                                  at               BUY-BACK PROVISIONS
                              gmail.com            with at least six studio
                                                   SLEAZEBALLS!!


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