Fedora 27 on Pine64

[heatfanjohn]

Ugh, I just found out that there currently isn't any MALI GPU support in Fedora for the A64 chip ...

It's confusing to me on how to add that support to Fedora.  Too many new names for me: UMP, SimpleFB, LIMA Driver, MESA, LIMA-MESA ...

I'm not sure what's the best way to go.

This looks promising ...

https://developer.arm.com/products/softw...li-drivers

[CaptainZalo]

Ugh, I just found out that there currently isn't any MALI GPU support in Fedora for the A64 chip ...

It's confusing to me on how to add that support to Fedora.  Too many new names for me: UMP, SimpleFB, LIMA Driver, MESA, LIMA-MESA ...

I'm not sure what's the best way to go.

This looks promising ...

https://developer.arm.com/products/softw...li-drivers

This looks even more promising:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/boo...escription

The Bootlin guys are making Linux mainline drivers for the Allwinner VPUs. Expect magic to happen on the 64 bit cores in the next few months.

[decko]

Hi guys! Thanks for the information about fedora support for Pine64+. I'm trying to use it, but I can see some kernel messages on boot process, I can't get any video output for console. There's any way to change it and output things to hdmi instead of serial?

[heatfanjohn]

Hi guys! Thanks for the information about fedora support for Pine64+. I'm trying to use it, but I can see some kernel messages on boot process, I can't get any video output for console. There's any way to change it and output things to hdmi instead of serial?

As I understand it right now there isn't any Open Source support for the VPU (Mali) used in the A64 SoC.  Bootlin is working on getting Open Source support for the Mali VPU into the Linux kernel.  Support for the Allwinner A64 was a stretch goal for a Kickstarter campaign to add support for the Mali VPU to the Linux kernel.

That being said, I just reread Bootlin's 9/14 posting on their work and I appear to have been confused between VPU support and GPU support.  Their Kickstarter work was for VPU support which is for video processing.  For getting a Desktop to work we appear to need only GPU support which may already be possible.  See below from their posting:  https://bootlin.com/blog/allwinner-vpu-s...e-week-37/

Thomas Petazzonisays:
September 19, 2018 at 3:08 pm
Your Qt QML application is using OpenGL, which requires the GPU. Our project is about supporting the VPU, that helps with video decoding. Hence, unless your Qt QML application does video decoding+rendering, the VPU is totally useless for you.
However, your Qt QML application can already work with the mainline Linux kernel. We have done some integration of the Mali kernel drivers and we provide Mali userspace blobs that work with the upstream Linux kernel. See https://bootlin.com/blog/mali-opengl-support-on-allwinner-platforms-with-mainline-linux/ and https://bootlin.com/blog/more-opengl-binaries-for-the-mali-support-on-allwinner-platforms-with-mainline-linux/ for more details.

[decko]

Do I really need GPU acceleration to use basic video support on AllWinner SoC? I just wanted to see a basic console. But no problem. I just got my serial adapter to plug the Pine64+ and see whats happening on boot process.

Hi guys! Thanks for the information about fedora support for Pine64+. I'm trying to use it, but I can see some kernel messages on boot process, I can't get any video output for console. There's any way to change it and output things to hdmi instead of serial?

As I understand it right now there isn't any Open Source support for the VPU (Mali) used in the A64 SoC.  Bootlin is working on getting Open Source support for the Mali VPU into the Linux kernel.  Support for the Allwinner A64 was a stretch goal for a Kickstarter campaign to add support for the Mali VPU to the Linux kernel.

That being said, I just reread Bootlin's 9/14 posting on their work and I appear to have been confused between VPU support and GPU support.  Their Kickstarter work was for VPU support which is for video processing.  For getting a Desktop to work we appear to need only GPU support which may already be possible.  See below from their posting:  https://bootlin.com/blog/allwinner-vpu-s...e-week-37/

Thomas Petazzonisays:
September 19, 2018 at 3:08 pm
Your Qt QML application is using OpenGL, which requires the GPU. Our project is about supporting the VPU, that helps with video decoding. Hence, unless your Qt QML application does video decoding+rendering, the VPU is totally useless for you.
However, your Qt QML application can already work with the mainline Linux kernel. We have done some integration of the Mali kernel drivers and we provide Mali userspace blobs that work with the upstream Linux kernel. See https://bootlin.com/blog/mali-opengl-support-on-allwinner-platforms-with-mainline-linux/ and https://bootlin.com/blog/more-opengl-binaries-for-the-mali-support-on-allwinner-platforms-with-mainline-linux/ for more details.

[heatfanjohn]

Do I really need GPU acceleration to use basic video support on AllWinner SoC? I just wanted to see a basic console. But no problem. I just got my serial adapter to plug the Pine64+ and see whats happening on boot process.

The serial adapter to the UART is the way to go to see the console.  As it stands now there is no video driver for the Pine64+ Mali GPU in the standard Linux kernel.  There is no `/dev/fb0` frame buffer device.

I've been able to build the Mali kernel module for Fedora 28, but the module won't load because the GPU isn't in the Linux DTB for the Pine64+.
I'm now trying to figure out how to add that to DTB for the A64 chip.

Although, now I'm reading that this driver just produces the `/dev/mali` device.  All I'm trying to do is to get the HDMI port and X11 to work.

[heatfanjohn]

I feel like I've been on a fool's errand trying to get the GPU to work on my Pine A64+, however, it is true that you learn more when things don't work than when they do.  I've successfully built and loaded a kernel module on Fedora.  I've also successfully modified and built a custom Device Tree Blob from the Linux source.  However, getting a desktop (Wayland) to run on my Pine A64+ has been more challenging and more involved.  My stumbling block now is getting a DRM (Direct Rending Manager) driver to load and work on my device.  The "standard" sun4i-drm driver requires much more than just a GPU node in the DTB.

I've gotten close, but still no "cigar".  

The good news is that support for the GPU and HDMI on the A64 chip appears to be on the horizon and specifically in Linux Kernel 4.20 which should be actively being worked on since 4.19 just got released.

Hopefully I can get my hands on a stable 4.20 release to play with soon.

[S265]

Hi. Is it possible to do a remote login on a newly installed fedora Minimal ? I can see the network led lights functioning as if the network is functional. However I do not have a UART cable.
Alternatively I guess I could try to edit appropriate files on the sd card that may allow me to log in. Is it possible to set up ssh with a login that will enable me to get into the system? This may go against the normal fedora install procedure - so may not be possible. Any ideas? My router is showing its network address.

[heatfanjohn]

Hi. Is it possible to do a remote login on a newly installed fedora Minimal ? I can see the network led lights functioning as if the network is functional. However I do not have a UART cable.
Alternatively I guess I could try to edit appropriate files on the sd card that may allow me to log in. Is it possible to set up ssh with a login that will enable me to get into the system? This may go against the normal fedora install procedure - so may not be possible. Any ideas? My router is showing its network address.

I don't recall doing anything to setup DHCP on eth0, I believe that DHCP is enabled by default.

Although thinking about it now I don't remember if I had to do anything to enable SSH and how I changed or removed the password from root.  I do have a FTDI USB UART cable so I'm able to get access to the console, however I probably mounted the SD card on a Linux machine and put no password on root in /etc/shadow.

Then once I was able to login I created a userid for me and put a password on root.