From e4c81bcca59e94c71f7acf48c060da827afeb15a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Christian Walter Date: Thu, 23 Apr 2020 13:17:00 +0200 Subject: documentation: Add documentation ideas for season of docs Let's gather some documentation ideas for the season of docs. I reused the project ideas style (thanks Patrick). Feel free to add yourself as a mentor here. Also if you have more ideas, please add them to the document. Change-Id: I72221cbd53b99cdc946109753cf72af9c865a1e5 Signed-off-by: Christian Walter Reviewed-on: https://review.coreboot.org/c/coreboot/+/40662 Reviewed-by: Patrick Rudolph Tested-by: build bot (Jenkins) --- Documentation/contributing/documentation_ideas.md | 173 ++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 173 insertions(+) create mode 100644 Documentation/contributing/documentation_ideas.md (limited to 'Documentation/contributing') diff --git a/Documentation/contributing/documentation_ideas.md b/Documentation/contributing/documentation_ideas.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..54b3efa5bc --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/contributing/documentation_ideas.md @@ -0,0 +1,173 @@ +# Documentation Ideas + +This section collects ideas to improve the coreboot documentation and +should serve as a pool of ideas for people who want to improve the current +documentation status of coreboot. + +The main purpose of this document is to gather documentation ideas for technical +writers of the seasons of docs. Nevertheless anyone who wants to help improving +the current documentation situation can take one of the projects. + +Each entry should outline what would be done, the benefit it brings +to the project, the pre-requisites, both in knowledge and parts. They +should also list people interested in supporting people who want to work +on them. + +## Restructure Existing Documentation + +The goal is to improve the user experience and structure the documentation more +logically. The current situation makes it very hard for beginners, but also for +experienced developers to find anything in the coreboot documentation. + +One possible approach to restructure the documentation is to split it up such +that we divide the group of users into: + +* (End-)users +Most probably users which _just_ want to use coreboot as fast as possible. This +section should include guidelines on how to build coreboot, how to flash coreboot +and also which hardware is currently supported. + +* Developers +This section should more focus on the developer side-of-view. This section would +include how to get started developing coreboot, explaining the basic concepts of +coreboot and also give guideance on how to proceed after the first steps. + +* Knowledge area +This section is very tighlight coupled to the developer section and might be merged +into it. The _Knowledge area_ can give a technical deep dive on various drivers, +technologies, etc. + +* Community area +This section gives some room for the community: Youtube channels, conferences, +meetups, forums, chat, etc. + +A [first approach](https://review.coreboot.org/c/coreboot/+/40327) has already been made here and might be a basis for the work. +Most of the documentation is already there, but scattered around the documentation +folder. + +### Requirements +* Understanding on how a different groups of users might use the documentation area +* Basic understanding of how coreboot works (Can be worked out _on-the-fly_) + +### Mentors +* christian.walter@9elements.com +* TBD + +## Update Howto/Guides + +An important part to involve new people in the project, either as developer or +as enduser, are guides and how-to's. There are already some guides which need +to be updated to work, and could also be extended to multiple platforms, like +Fedora or Arch-Linux. Also guidance for setting up coreboot with a Windows +environment would be helpful. + +In addition, the vboot guidance needs an update/extensions, that the security +features within coreboot can be used by non-technical people. + +For developers, how to debug coreboot and various debugging techniques need +documentation. + +### Requirements +* Knowledge of virtual machines, how to install different OSs and set up the + toolchain on different operating systems +* Knowledge of debugging tools like gdb + +### Mentors +* christian.walter@9elements.com +* TBD + +## How to Support a New Board + +coreboot benefits from running on as many platforms as possible. Therefore we +want to encourage new developers on porting existing hardware to coreboot. +Guidance for those new developers need to be made such that they are able to +take the first steps supporting new mainboards, when the SoC support already +exists. There should be a 'how-to' guide for this. Also what are common problems +and how to solve those. + +### Requirements +* Knowledge of how to add support for a new mainboard in coreboot + +### Mentors +* christian.walter@9elements.com +* TBD + +## Payloads + +The current documentation of the payloads is not very effective. There should be +more detailed documentation on the payloads that can be selected via the make +menuconfig within coreboot. Also the use-cases should be described in more +detail: When to use which payload? What are the benefits of using payload X over +Y in a specific use-case ? + +In addition it should be made clear how additional functionality e.g. extend +LinuxBoot with more commands, can be achieved. + +### Requirements +* Basic knowledge of the supported payloads like SeaBIOS, TinanoCore, LinuxBoot, + GRUB, Linux, ... + + +### Mentors +* christian.walter@9elements.com +* TBD + + +## coreboot Util Documentation + +coreboot inherits a variaty of utilities. The current documentation only +provides a "one-liner" as an explanation. The list of util should be updated +with a more detailed explanation where possible. Also more "in-depths" +explanations should be added with examples if possible. + +### Requirements +* coreboot utilities + +### Mentors +* christian.walter@9elements.com +* TBD + + +## CBMEM Developer Guide + +CBMEM is the API that provides memory buffers for the use at OS runtime. It's a +core component and thus should be documented. Dos, don'ts and pitfalls when +using CBMEM. This "in-depth" guide is clearly for developers. + +### Requirements +* Deep understanding of coreboot's internals + +### Mentors +* TBD +* TBD + + +## CBFS Developer Guide + +CBFS is the in-flash filesystem that is used by coreboot. It's a core component +and thus should be documented. Update the existing CBFS.txt that still shows +version 1 of the implementation. A [first approach](https://review.coreboot.org/c/coreboot/+/33663/2) +has been made here. +This "in-depth" guide is clearly for developers. + +### Requirements +* Deep understanding of coreboot's internals + +### Mentors +* TBD +* TBD + + +## Region API Developer Guide + +The region API is used by coreboot when dealing with memory mapped objects that +can be split into chunks. It's a core component and thus should be documented. +This "in-depth" guide is clearly for developers. + +### Requirements +* Deep understanding of coreboot's internals + +### Mentors +* TBD +* TBD + -- cgit v1.2.3