arm-netbook December 2013

arm-netbook@lists.phcomp.co.uk

28 participants
28 discussions

upstreaming the fex for the eoma
by Marco Martin 16 Dec '13

16 Dec '13

Hi all, I would like to upstream the script.fex file (or the files?) for the eoma68 into https://github.com/linux-sunxi/sunxi-boards my fex at the moment is: https://github.com/notmart/sunxi-boards/blob/master/sys_config/a20/eoma68_a… that seems to work correctly. however I'll forward some comments on it that were made on the linux-sunxi irc channel (oliv3r that i think he maintains the sunxi-boards repo): it has enabled several things that aren't available on the improv (wifi, touchscreen on i2c.so, enabled cameras) basically boils down to try to do a fex file that catches all the possible feature boards vs one fex file per feature board. Not knowing a lot about this in particular I can pretty much just refer what i was told and let you guys decide how we want the fex file, or the multiple fex files that would end up in that repository (at least i think it makes sense to put everything in that place) Cheers, Marco Martin

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Writing efficient C on ARM
by Alain Williams 16 Dec '13

16 Dec '13

I just came across this that might be of interest: http://www.davespace.co.uk/arm/efficient-c-for-arm/ -- Alain Williams Linux/GNU Consultant - Mail systems, Web sites, Networking, Programmer, IT Lecturer. +44 (0) 787 668 0256 http://www.phcomp.co.uk/ Parliament Hill Computers Ltd. Registration Information: http://www.phcomp.co.uk/contact.php #include <std_disclaimer.h>

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backlog
by Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton 15 Dec '13

15 Dec '13

apologies, i'm aware i have a backlog of messages on arm-netbooks to attend to, which is unusual (almost unheard-of) in the past 18 years i've been working on software-libre projects. if there's anything hugely urgent please do raise it again in summary form. thanks for understanding, l.

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A bare image for booting from NAND
by Marco Martin 13 Dec '13

13 Dec '13

Hi all, so this is the first outcome of my quest for booting from the nand, and i tought it would be nice (and useful for others) to share: http://makeplaylive.com/~notmart/Improv/eoma68-A20-nand-bare.raw.bz2 This is a dd of the nand in the following situation: * it has two partitions: "boot" 16 megabytes long and "root" that is everything else * "root" only contains /lib/modules, all the rest is empty (nicely zero-ed, so it compresses nicely) * Boot0 and Boot1 come from https://github.com/hno/allwinner-boot , revision d29c34b , modified to *not* search for a "boot" partition starting with "ANDROID!" magic. An open issue here is that version will need to be GPL'd (latest and gpl revision won't work, i suspect is for a different kind of hardware) * U-boot comes from https://github.com/linux-sunxi/u-boot-sunxi/tree/lichee-dev-a20 , default boot arguments modified in sun7i.h * the kernel uImage and modules, as well as script.bin come from my Mer OBS repository: https://build.merproject.org/project/show?project=home%3Anotmart%3Anemo%3Ad… this image can just be dd-ed on /dev/nand then the kernel will boot. It won't do much else because there isn't any root filesystem, but that's kinda the point, this image can be used as a start for any distributin image Cheers, Marco Martin

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Re: [Arm-netbook] Flashing the NAND
by Marco Martin 13 Dec '13

13 Dec '13

On Wednesday 11 December 2013, you wrote: > There is one more thing that may be relevant for you. The old r3p0 > version of the mali blob can't fully utilize both pixel processors > of the Mali400 MP2. So the performance is not optimal on Allwinner A20. > It is possible to upgrade to a newer version r3p2-01rel2 of the blob to > get better performance, but I was not very sure about it without a good > justification (like somebody having a real use for OpenGL ES and > able/willing to report bugs): > http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.hardware.netbook.arm.sunxi/4676 > Also blobs are a temporary placeholder solution until we get free > open source drivers. Investing extra efforts into getting blobs > running may be counter productive at this moment. I tried to use it once, but i got an unresolved symbol. I think is the one you mentioned there: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/linux-sunxi/zx4gwC1QyMc/h_mFGeL6nzMJ is that preload hack still necessary? Cheers, Marco Martin

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Re: [Arm-netbook] Auto-discard notification
by luke.leighton 13 Dec '13

13 Dec '13

hi oliver, thanks for your support here. we'll get there. will have to see about FOSDEM. regarding linux-sunxi: what pissed me off was two things. the first was that i wasn't even told it was happening, wasn't consulted, and found out *months* after it had been set up. the second is that the decision was taken to use non-free proprietary hosting services when, if i *had* been consulted, i would have been able to point people in the direction of several the highly-experienced software libre sysadmins i know who would have immediately said "yes" if anyone had bothered to ask them if they could add domain names, mailing lists, or any number of software libre packages, and they would have helped run them at zero financial cost, because that's what these highly-experienced people do already, for dozens of custom project, and have done now for decades ... but you know this already: i've mentioned it a number of times. so, to repeat: if you would like me to be directly involved in the linux-sunxi community, *stop* using google's proprietary mailing list. subscribe it as a one-way archive if you want, and subscribe gmane.org as well to it (like arm-netbooks is) so that people can use a web browser to post and still maintain thread continuity. also i will not submit patches via github: i revoked my account on it because again that is a non-free proprietary service. so you neither have a means for me to notify the sunxi community of patches, nor do you have a means for me to push patches _to_ the sunxi community, because you didn't consult or involve me in the creation of the sunxi community and chose to use proprietary software services for quotes convenience quotes. if that's useful to you to continue to maintain that situation, please continue to do so - nobody, least of all i, will tell you what to do. i will however advise you each time this comes up what the consequences are of the decision that was made, and the consequences are that you will have to work harder and harder to keep track. l. On Sat, Dec 7, 2013 at 11:25 AM, <arm-netbook-bounces(a)lists.phcomp.co.uk> wrote: > The attached message has been automatically discarded. > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: Oliver Schinagl <oliver+list(a)schinagl.nl> > To: Linux on small ARM machines <arm-netbook(a)lists.phcomp.co.uk> > Cc: > Date: Sat, 07 Dec 2013 12:23:31 +0100 > Subject: Re: Flashing the NAND > Hey list, > > On 06-12-13 21:52, luke.leighton wrote: >> >> replies brief, fell off bicycle, damaged shoulder. > > Ouch, you always do have bad luck :( Hope you get well soon! >> >> >> On Fri, Dec 6, 2013 at 5:30 PM, Aaron J. Seigo <aseigo(a)kde.org> wrote: >>> >>> On Friday, December 6, 2013 14:55:43 luke.leighton wrote: >>>> >>>> On Fri, Dec 6, 2013 at 1:20 PM, Aaron J. Seigo <aseigo(a)kde.org> wrote: >>>>> >>>>> On Friday, December 6, 2013 12:44:42 luke.leighton wrote: >>>>> >>>>> knowledge is being generated and then *thrown away*. >>>> >>>> >>>> not when i'm doing it. i document everything as i'm going along, >>>> because i've done this a number of times. it does however begin to >>> >>> >>> I know you try to do this, but it isn’t producing results useful to others. >> >> >> notes needed. info good. not enough collaboration. too early. >> >>>> try my patience to have to follow up pretty much every single message >>>> to arm-netbooks with "could you please put that on the wiki”. >>> >>> >>> That’s because the wiki is not useful. If it were, people would be using it. >> >> >> no product. beyond most people to be honest. i'm motivated, but not >> paid. others: no motivation, nor any pay. result: no long-term >> contributions! lots of people help along the way though. really >> really grateful. >> >>> In part this is because there is no “the wiki”: there is the wiki on rhombus- >>> tech.net which starts with "Welcome to Rhombus Tech, a CIC company”, there is >>> elinux.org which a wonderful maze of relevant and not-relevant information and >>> there is the linux-sunxi.org wiki. >> >> >> sunxi went off did their own thing. > > Without trying to step on any toes, I'll firstly even say, Luke you know I think you are doing a great and admirable thing, but let me at least explain or clarify a little here. > > When I joined linux-sunxi, well I joined the arm-netbook IRC first, I didn't even know about the EOMA86. Or at least didn't know how/if it related to sunxi. I was looking for A10 information as I recently got a tablet with that SoC and was looking for a mediacenter for a while. The XBMC A10 thread actually triggered me and even bought a Pivos first (I sold it) because it was initially said the AMLogic was the best solution available (still no bootloader/VPU driver do they?). > > So while I got there after the 'split' but it makes perfect sense to be fair. > > EOMA86 is a project about this awesome board, with any chip on it. The first produced choice is the A[12]0. Linux-sunxi is just about these SoC's, development for them and not really about EOMA86. I'd almost go as far as to say it's more about the olimex and cubietech boards (they sent out dev-boards to the devs) now. > > So while I know you are a little sad about the split and the way it went (I wasn't there, but know it was in no way intended to be against you or the project) don't be. It's evolution if anything and if anything we should work closer together. > > On that note, will EOMA86 be at FSODEM 2014? > > Oliver >> >> >>> We should discuss all this during the future irc meeting, starting by defining >>> what our needs are as a group, what our expectations are, cataloging our >>> current assets and then creating process that may work for us to move us >>> forward. >> >> >> good idea. you're good at that. i have a different style. >> >>>>> "would people be open to having one with the goal of improving this >>>>> situation?” >>>> >>>> >>>> yes! >>> >>> >>> ok, cool. for you, evenings (UTC) and weekends work better than daytime, >>> correct? >> >> >> yes. >> >>> i’m thinking of something in early January to get this started ... >> >> >> great. >> >>> -- >>> Aaron J. Seigo >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> arm-netbook mailing list arm-netbook(a)lists.phcomp.co.uk >>> http://lists.phcomp.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/arm-netbook >>> Send large attachments to arm-netbook(a)files.phcomp.co.uk >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> arm-netbook mailing list arm-netbook(a)lists.phcomp.co.uk >> http://lists.phcomp.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/arm-netbook >> Send large attachments to arm-netbook(a)files.phcomp.co.uk >> > > >

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Flashing the NAND
by Marco Martin 13 Dec '13

13 Dec '13

Hi all, I have an A20 based eoma68 card. I have now an image based on the Mer distribution that can boot and runs fine from the microSD card (following http://rhombus-tech.net/allwinner/a20/boot/ and http://www.gplsquared.com/eoma_boot/eoma_boot.html) but the next necessary step is to flash a booting image to the internal NAND of the eoma68 (and in the end make an image that can be installed by default from the factory). I understand there have been some progress (I see drivers for it in https://github.com/linux-sunxi/linux-sunxi/tree/wip/linux-sunxi-3.4/cubiebo… but nothing that looks like it shows up in /dev?) I was wondering what is the procedure for it? did anybody managed to obtain a booting linux distribution from the nand? (seems a proprietary windows application is needed for the flashing?) Cheers, Marco Martin

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Component sourcing guided trip to China
by joem 11 Dec '13

11 Dec '13

Hi Luke, Aaron, Chris, Neil, The company I work for is expanding and I'm in Far East sourcing components. If you come to Hong Kong on 2nd week of February with a China Visa I can take you on component sourcing shopping trip to Seg Electronics Market in Shenzhen and the electronics and metal markets in Guanzhou. SEG is so big, it need at least 5 days to crawl through all the factory shops. Guanzhou markets about two days. Absolute eye opener for all things that happen. Every conceivable types of components, modules, in all sizes, and items you have not yet seen are to be found there. Normally I buy samples and send them by post so that I don't weighed down. The factory that I'm seeing can arrange all that. (Anyone involved in deep end of manufacturing is welcome to tag along.)

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How best to get touch working on EOMA?
by joem 10 Dec '13

10 Dec '13

How best to get touch working on EOMA? I'm thinking may be a better bet is to have a mouse like generic USB gadget built. Then you would connect the resistive or capacitive panel to it, and it would convert the signals to standard mouse signals. I've got touch signals being picked up by the drivers cubie but need to run some software to get it to cooperate with X - so a bit fiddly even if touch pins are available. EOMA doesn't have the touch pins brought out, so having such a modular unit could benefit EOMAs and other similar boards.

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EOMA lapdock
by freebirds＠fastmail.fm 10 Dec '13

10 Dec '13

There has been much discussion on creating an EOMA laptop. In the meanwhile, an EOMA lapdock can be created by connecting an Improv board to a lapdock. A lapdock does not work well on a lap though. A lapdock needs to be on a desk or table. With a slight movement of my lap, the touchpad and keyboard freeze on my second Atrix lapdock while connected to a raspi. Sometimes pushing the Blackberry 900 Y splitter data cable tigher onto the lapdock's USB plug fixes the problem. Other times, it does not and sometimes causes shut down. I returned my first Atrix lapdock because slightly moving my lap caused the monitor to turn red and buzzing. I had to keep pushing the HDMI adapter tighter on the lapdock's HDMI plug. Matthew Ritchie manufactured custom HDMI and USB cables to insert inside an lapdock to replace the lapdock's plugs. I do not know whether his cables solves the wiggle problem. I watched videos on disassemblying a lapdock, but haven't tried it. There are four models of lapdocks. The 100 lapdock cannot be opened without breaking it. matthewjohnritchie(a)gmail.com http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=59033&p=443285&hilit… -- http://www.fastmail.fm - Choose from over 50 domains or use your own

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arm-netbook December 2013