Device tree

This page is mostly about Fairphone 5.

For postmarketOS on the Fairphone 5, the device tree is the set of DTS files—headed by qcm6490-fairphone-fp5.dts—that describe the phone’s hardware so the Linux kernel and pmOS can boot and enable components correctly. Most FP5 bring-up tasks (notably audio) involve updating these DTS definitions and rebuilding the kernel/image. ([postmarketOS Wiki][3])

A device tree (DT) is a data structure the Linux kernel reads at boot to learn what hardware exists in the device and how it is wired (buses, GPIOs, clocks, regulators, codecs, etc.). Phones don’t have discoverable buses like PCs, so the kernel relies on DT to bind the right drivers with the right parameters. In source form these files are .dts/.dtsi; at build time they compile into binary *.dtb. Linux Kernel Documentation