+- PINE64 (https://forum.pine64.org)
+-- Forum: PINE A64(+) (https://forum.pine64.org/forumdisplay.php?fid=4)
+--- Forum: Linux on Pine A64(+) (https://forum.pine64.org/forumdisplay.php?fid=6)
+---- Forum: Ubuntu (https://forum.pine64.org/forumdisplay.php?fid=27)
+---- Thread: (ARCHIVED) Ubuntu Xenial Image (BSP Kernel) (/showthread.php?tid=376)
RE: Ubuntu Xenial Image (BSP Kernel) - longsleep - 03-10-2016
(03-10-2016, 08:04 AM)Tommy_2Tall Wrote: Ubuntu, even if in this limited form, is one of the things I'd like to test on my Pine64(+, 2GB) once I get it.
Why do you think it is limited? It not really is, you can do everything with it what is possible with Ubuntu on arm64 platform.
(03-10-2016, 08:04 AM)Tommy_2Tall Wrote: Would it be possible to get this Xenial image going at 720P rather than 1080P?
Would that require an entirely new image to be built or is it something that could be reconfigured once it is up and running on a 1080P HDMI screen?
Well, the resolution is set from the device tree and thus cannot be changed without rebuilding it. It should be possible to modify the device tree in U-Boot before booting the Kernel and switch to a different resolution based on boot environment settings or similar.
RE: Ubuntu Xenial Image (BSP Kernel) - umiddelb - 03-10-2016
(03-10-2016, 01:37 PM)longsleep Wrote:(03-10-2016, 08:04 AM)Tommy_2Tall Wrote: Ubuntu, even if in this limited form, is one of the things I'd like to test on my Pine64(+, 2GB) once I get it.
Why do you think it is limited? It not really is, you can do everything with it what is possible with Ubuntu on arm64 platform.
(03-10-2016, 08:04 AM)Tommy_2Tall Wrote: Would it be possible to get this Xenial image going at 720P rather than 1080P?
Would that require an entirely new image to be built or is it something that could be reconfigured once it is up and running on a 1080P HDMI screen?
Well, the resolution is set from the device tree and thus cannot be changed without rebuilding it. It should be possible to modify the device tree in U-Boot before booting the Kernel and switch to a different resolution based on boot environment settings or similar.
... or just tell U-boot to load a different dtb (to be noted in uEnv.txt).
RE: Ubuntu Xenial Image (BSP Kernel) - Tommy_2Tall - 03-11-2016
(03-10-2016, 01:37 PM)longsleep Wrote:(03-10-2016, 08:04 AM)Tommy_2Tall Wrote: Ubuntu, even if in this limited form, is one of the things I'd like to test on my Pine64(+, 2GB) once I get it.
Why do you think it is limited? It not really is, you can do everything with it what is possible with Ubuntu on arm64 platform.
(03-10-2016, 08:04 AM)Tommy_2Tall Wrote: Would it be possible to get this Xenial image going at 720P rather than 1080P?
Would that require an entirely new image to be built or is it something that could be reconfigured once it is up and running on a 1080P HDMI screen?
Well, the resolution is set from the device tree and thus cannot be changed without rebuilding it. It should be possible to modify the device tree in U-Boot before booting the Kernel and switch to a different resolution based on boot environment settings or similar.
Sorry for being unclear and possibly implying (even though that's not what I meant) that the result of your work would be "limited" in functionality.
It wasn't meant as a "barely functional" grade, more like "I see potential problems down the line" kind of thing.
I was thinking about that whole business with "relying on Allwinner's old BSP with missing sourcefiles" and the need for an Android workaround (or has that been sorted out?).
I can't claim that I've read everything about the recent Linux development for Pine but I have gotten the impression that there are still some obstacles in the way of getting a proper (/maintainable and easily patched) kernel based on a more recent Linux mainline kernel and a more straightforward booting/image-packing approach than faking an Android image to boot a "normal" Linux installation?
In terms of functionality though, it seems like a LOT of it is already in place. Just as you mentioned.
Hardware accelerated graphics and stuff like that would be nice but it's certainly not a dealbreaker for me and hopefully that will be solved later on.
Regarding the 720P question,have I understood it correctly that it should be achieved either by:
compiling a slightly different image from scratch (probably above my head) which would then boot into 720P by default
or
applying some configuration changes in the uEnv.txt config-file, add a second version of the existing device tree and rebooting the Pine (which would make the kernel boot with a slightly modified device tree)?
Sounds like the uEnv.txt is an "easier" approach for a Linux-noob like me?
But I am assuming that the uEnv.txt and device tree (.dtb file?) are easily accesible and that the "slightly modified .dtb" part isn't that hard if someone writes a how-to.
Is there any chance at all to make the SoC perform some sort of "auto-detect" sequence (try 1080P, if that fails try 720P instead) or is that sort of thing just a boot-time single shot kind of deal implied by the SoC?
Since it wasn't mentioned as a viable option by you guys I assume that once you're booted up you can't just change the HDMI mode on the fly?
Thanks for the swift responses from both of you (Simon and Uli) :-D
PS.
I got curious, did some research and learned a quite a lot about the (U-)boot process ( Get more out of "Das U Boot" - The shortcut ) and what options are available by editing eEnv.txt/boot.ini or with an interactive U-boot session (BT serial module connected to GPIO UART pins?).
RE: Ubuntu Xenial Image (BSP Kernel) - mane - 03-11-2016
I've tested the ethernet capabilities and find out that download speed is ok (~820Mb/s) but upload speed stops at ~140Mb/s. I don't know if that's an hardware issue or just a something related to software/driver.
Is someone able to test their PINE64 in order to see if the behaviour is different please?
RE: Ubuntu Xenial Image (BSP Kernel) - Andrew2 - 03-11-2016
(03-11-2016, 02:42 PM)mane Wrote: I've tested the ethernet capabilities and find out that download speed is ok (~820Mb/s) but upload speed stops at ~140Mb/s. I don't know if that's an hardware issue or just a something related to software/driver.
Is someone able to test their PINE64 in order to see if the behaviour is different please?
Please have a look at the results I got: https://github.com/longsleep/build-pine64-image/issues/5 (quick&dirty test since I felt no need to dig deeper at this stage)
There are many reasons for different GbE speed measurements the most underestimated the test methodology itself. Therefore please elaborate a bit how and what you've measured.
RE: Ubuntu Xenial Image (BSP Kernel) - mane - 03-11-2016
(03-11-2016, 03:02 PM)Andrew2 Wrote:(03-11-2016, 02:42 PM)mane Wrote: I've tested the ethernet capabilities and find out that download speed is ok (~820Mb/s) but upload speed stops at ~140Mb/s. I don't know if that's an hardware issue or just a something related to software/driver.
Is someone able to test their PINE64 in order to see if the behaviour is different please?
Please have a look at the results I got: https://github.com/longsleep/build-pine64-image/issues/5 (quick&dirty test since I felt no need to dig deeper at this stage)
There are many reasons for different GbE speed measurements the most underestimated the test methodology itself. Therefore please elaborate a bit how and what you've measured.
Oh I see, well, nothing we can do at this stage
RE: Ubuntu Xenial Image (BSP Kernel) - longsleep - 03-12-2016
(03-11-2016, 05:25 AM)Tommy_2Tall Wrote: I was thinking about that whole business with "relying on Allwinner's old BSP with missing sourcefiles" and the need for an Android workaround (or has that been sorted out?).
Yes - though this is always the case (after all it is an Allwinner SoC). The situation can improve when community members put countless hours into reverse engineering proprietary code and improving the little what was made available. Mainlining Kernel support for A64 was started by @apritzel and i got rid out the Android booting by backporting from mainline U-Boot. See http://linux-sunxi.org/Linux_mainlining_effort for the past, current and upcoming work by the linux-sunxi community. You can help even when you are not a developer by gathering details and information about things and updating the wiki.
(03-11-2016, 05:25 AM)Tommy_2Tall Wrote: I can't claim that I've read everything about the recent Linux development for Pine but I have gotten the impression that there are still some obstacles in the way of getting a proper (/maintainable and easily patched) kernel based on a more recent Linux mainline kernel and a more straightforward booting/image-packing approach than faking an Android image to boot a "normal" Linux installation?
This depends what you expect. It is perfectly fine to use the Pine64 as server to build cheap clusters for arm and arm64 workloads. Other things which involve the even more proprietary things like accelerated graphics or video decoding will only happen if someone puts countless hours into figuring things out. Best approach is to join #linux-sunxi in IRC on freenode.net and offer help.
(03-11-2016, 05:25 AM)Tommy_2Tall Wrote: Regarding the 720P question,have I understood it correctly that it should be achieved either by:
compiling a slightly different image from scratch (probably above my head) which would then boot into 720P by default
or
applying some configuration changes in the uEnv.txt config-file, add a second version of the existing device tree and rebooting the Pine (which would make the kernel boot with a slightly modified device tree)?
Sounds like the uEnv.txt is an "easier" approach for a Linux-noob like me?
But I am assuming that the uEnv.txt and device tree (.dtb file?) are easily accesible and that the "slightly modified .dtb" part isn't that hard if someone writes a how-to.
Yes. Both are easily accessable. Though this is not something i will spend time on. If anyone comes up with a good patch set to the default U-Boot environment for this i will be happy to merge it.
(03-11-2016, 05:25 AM)Tommy_2Tall Wrote: Is there any chance at all to make the SoC perform some sort of "auto-detect" sequence (try 1080P, if that fails try 720P instead) or is that sort of thing just a boot-time single shot kind of deal implied by the SoC?
Since it wasn't mentioned as a viable option by you guys I assume that once you're booted up you can't just change the HDMI mode on the fly?
Probably yes. Install the fbset command which can do that. Parameters are not user friendly though, but with some efford it is easy to figure out. I did not try though and it might not behave properly
RE: Ubuntu Xenial Image (BSP Kernel) - patrickhwood - 03-12-2016
(03-11-2016, 02:42 PM)mane Wrote: I've tested the ethernet capabilities and find out that download speed is ok (~820Mb/s) but upload speed stops at ~140Mb/s. I don't know if that's an hardware issue or just a something related to software/driver.
Is someone able to test their PINE64 in order to see if the behaviour is different please?
See also this: http://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=293&pid=3070#pid3070
RE: Ubuntu Xenial Image (BSP Kernel) - Terra854 - 03-19-2016
Full ubuntu image (with Unity desktop environment) coming soon.
(For some reason, i can't embed images to this forum...)
EDIT: And by the way, it seems that connection to my Pine64 via ssh is hanging randomly. Is there a bug in the system (router is functioning normally)?
EDIT 2: Looks like my Ubuntu system is stuck in a login loop after installing the desktop environment... anyone knows how to fix it?
RE: Ubuntu Xenial Image (BSP Kernel) - longsleep - 03-20-2016
A new Ubuntu Xenial image was released which supports all 3 models of the Pine64 (512MB, 1GB, 2GB). The model is selected based on DRAM size in U-Boot and the correct device tree (plus or no plus) is loaded accordingly. Of course this image also contains all the other changes from my U-Boot and Kernel releases.
Get 20160320-1 from https://www.stdin.xyz/downloads/people/longsleep/pine64-images/ubuntu/
As always, for a list of changes and full details see the first post in this thread.