01-14-2016, 10:51 AM
(01-14-2016, 08:32 AM)Galileo Wrote: You're not surprised by the obvious fact that no-one before booted Linux on this thing?
No, I am not surprised that no one has booted Linux kernel+userspace on a device that is not yet available.
Quote: Not even Allwinner itself?
Allwinner makes SoCs for use with Android. Why should they try to boot a Linux userspace? I'll repeat myself again - Android = linux kernel. Getting a rootfs of your choice working is a matter of kludging it to support the older patched kernel we get from Allwinner.
Quote:That's just based on reading the IRC log for quite some time and getting the impression that the persons chatting there know what they're talking about. I would've thought that it's as easy as 'boot kernel and choose whatever rootfs you want'. But reading about trusted firmware, firmware/u-boot being 32-bit and containing 'nasty' patches, entering the kernel in EL3 mode (which seems to be forbidden) therefore violating the arm64 boot protocol preventing upstream kernels to boot... (and much other stuff I've no clue of) it doesn't look that good to me.
No, it is not as easy as that. For one, you need to have the board and few if any do. Secondly, certain things like the current systemd demand kernel > 3.7 so that needs to be fixed. None of this is point and click stuff. It isn't rocket surgery either unless there are especially nasty surprises, but it does take skill not all of the people who've applied for dev boards have.
ARMv8 has the trusted firmware feature, yes, but I've heard no reports of ARM goons showing up at devs' houses, pointing a gun at their heads and forcing them to use it. The idea that mainline Uboot is the paragon of excellence in software engineering and all vendors do is mess up its timeless elegance is nonsense. Uboot is ugly to begin with. I'm sure Allwinner made it uglier. The point is a linux kernel Allwinner provides boots with the uboot Allwinner provides. For initial support, that's all we need. Beyond that, sure enough, there (may) be dragons.
That particular issue with the arm boot protocol is just one of many that will prevent you from booting a mainline kernel. Even if it didn't exist, you'd need to either back out Allwinner's changes or rewrite them, forward port them and submit patches to mainline. That's a bunch of work and not quick by any means. As such, the funky boot stuff is not a blocker until everything else is resolved.
Quote:Especially that several people reported that the SDK from the Pine's wiki pages seems to be broken and no-one took care of...
You mean the BSP, surely. There's one guy who said he couldn't get it to compile. We know nothing about what that means precisely and the level of clue of the individual involved. The BSP could be broken, or his toolchain could be, or both. Perhaps there's a clue deficit involved. We just don't know.
I understand your anxiety. I agree that not everyone will get everything they want (mainline support, hw acceleration) all at once and right away. However, I caution against panicking because you've read something you half understand somewhere. If android runs, linux will run barring some miracle. It'll be an Allwinner uboot+kernel, but it'll run.
Linux will definitely NOT boot until someone with clue:
1. receives the board
2. puts in a bit of work
This is not surprising. Don't panic and make sure you know where your towel is. (HHGTTG)
-p