PROPOSAL: clear out the user config when we suspect the user is trying to recover from applying the wrong config

Problem

Users might initialize a board with the wrong firmware, which will populate their user config with partially/totally incorrect settings for their board, and then when they apply the right firmware, nothing is fixed because all the wrong settings are already in their user config.

Solution

(via jfedor:)

Preemptively nuke the user config if it appears that the user configuration is from a different board than the currently booting firmware. (e.g. by checking boardConfig in protobuf vs. the board config definition). In the above example, this would nuke the incorrect user config when applying the right firmware, and then repopulate the user config with the right settings.

Do you plan to work on this feature yourself?

I could, but not yet; I think this could use a bit more discussion/thinking about, but the problem and general solution make sense to me.

Start by locating the firmware boot path, the protobuf boardConfig, and the current board config definition. Trace how user configuration is loaded and compare the board identities before deciding when it is safe to clear the stored configuration. Done means a configuration from a different board is detected, cleared, and repopulated from the currently applied firmware.