Linux Kernel 4.18.8

[tuxd3v]

Hello Dukla2000,

The fan only will start to be noisy if you put on it, pwms like 200+(above 220 starts to be noisier)
But, it depends on the fan..with bigger CFM values, more noise and vibration..

[Yoast]

The corresponding value (CONFIG_NR_CPUS=4) can be found via menuconfig under Kernel Features --> Maximum number of CPUs.

I will change this to 6, recompile and see what happens.

Mine is 64 - never seen the message .

Then again, as I am aiming for small kernel, may as well reduce to 8 in case it makes any difference.

I think that a value higher than the actual number of cores is no problem (and you will not see a message). But if it's lower then clipping occurs (as you can see in the message) and maybe some of the cores will not be used. There were a couple of call traces in the boot log as well and they disappeared when I changed this value to 6.

[ahare]

I have found the issue with not being able to boot from EMMC. The EMMC driver enables a mode CQE, by going into the sdhci-og-arasan.c in drivers/mmc/host and changing the lines (about line no 802):

sdhci_arasan->has_cqe = true;
host->mmc->caps2 |= MMC_CAP2_CQE | MMC_CAP2_CQE_DCMD;

to
sdhci_arasan->has_cqe = false;
// host->mmc->caps2 |= MMC_CAP2_CQE | MMC_CAP2_CQE_DCMD;

rebuilding the kernel and now it will boot from the EMMC. I do however stop getting the serial input functioning but can see the output of the boot process.

All this is using the 4.18.9 kernel from the above git repository.

I will be looking further at the serial input and the PCIE issues as I am trying to get a PCIE splitter and 2 dell PCIE raid cards working on the system.

[dukla2000]

How is your stability/temps at 2/1.5GHz? My plex server sure could use that extra gear.

OK - got my new heatsink - will post details in the heatsink thread. But more importantly it is an improvement from Pine64 30mm job  - now running 2.1/1.5GHz with no throttling running sbc-bench -T 70 at ambient 23C. (In the past days since you asked have not noticed any issues when running at 2.1 - but also spend reasonable time running stock 4.4.138 kernel to get sound.)

Code:

# ./sbc-bench.sh -T 70
Thermal efficiency test using /sys/devices/virtual/thermal/thermal_zone0/temp

Installing needed tools. This may take some time... Done.
Checking cpufreq OPP... Done
Heating SoC from current 70°C to 70°C. This may take some time... Done.
Executing cpuminer. This will take 5 minutes... Done.

sbc-bench v0.6.1 Pine64 RockPro64 (Sat, 29 Sep 2018 14:31:44 +0100)

Distributor ID:    Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS
Release:    18.04
Codename:    bionic
Architecture:    arm64

/usr/bin/gcc (Ubuntu/Linaro 7.3.0-16ubuntu3) 7.3.0

Uptime: 14:31:44 up 1 min,  1 user,  load average: 0.19, 0.06, 0.02

Linux 4.18.9 (rpro64.dukla.net)     09/29/18     _aarch64_    (6 CPU)

avg-cpu:  %user   %nice %system %iowait  %steal   %idle
           1.67    0.00    2.51    0.30    0.00   95.51

Device             tps    kB_read/s    kB_wrtn/s    kB_read    kB_wrtn
nvme0n1         136.23      2643.02       230.84     158740      13864
mmcblk0           5.63       127.19         0.00       7639          0

              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:           1.9G        129M        1.6G         17M        196M        1.7G
Swap:          2.0G          0B        2.0G

Filename                Type        Size    Used    Priority
/swapfile                                  file        2097148    0    -2

##########################################################################

Checking cpufreq OPP for cpu0-cpu3:

Cpufreq OPP: 1512    Measured: 1504.943/1504.820/1505.329
Cpufreq OPP: 1416    Measured: 1409.762/1409.901/1409.562
Cpufreq OPP: 1200    Measured: 1194.862/1194.834/1195.000
Cpufreq OPP: 1008    Measured: 1003.258/1003.831/1003.270
Cpufreq OPP:  816    Measured: 812.231/812.181/812.151
Cpufreq OPP:  600    Measured: 596.831/596.744/596.872
Cpufreq OPP:  408    Measured: 405.117/405.122/405.161

Checking cpufreq OPP for cpu4-cpu5:

Cpufreq OPP: 2108    Measured: 2082.738/2082.738/2083.190
Cpufreq OPP: 1800    Measured: 1795.726/1795.706/1795.746
Cpufreq OPP: 1608    Measured: 1604.221/1604.082/1604.361
Cpufreq OPP: 1416    Measured: 1412.538/1412.446/1412.677
Cpufreq OPP: 1200    Measured: 1196.897/1196.994/1197.119
Cpufreq OPP: 1008    Measured: 1005.406/1005.663/1005.394
Cpufreq OPP:  816    Measured: 813.681/813.621/813.771
Cpufreq OPP:  600    Measured: 598.046/597.904/597.810
Cpufreq OPP:  408    Measured: 406.094/406.138/406.114

##########################################################################

** cpuminer-multi 1.3.3 by tpruvot@github **
BTC donation address: 1FhDPLPpw18X4srecguG3MxJYe4a1JsZnd (tpruvot)

[2018-09-29 14:41:35] 6 miner threads started, using 'scrypt' algorithm.
[2018-09-29 14:41:35] CPU #4: 2.45 kH/s
[2018-09-29 14:41:35] CPU #5: 2.46 kH/s
[2018-09-29 14:41:35] CPU #0: 1.47 kH/s
[2018-09-29 14:41:35] CPU #3: 1.48 kH/s
[2018-09-29 14:41:35] CPU #2: 1.43 kH/s
[2018-09-29 14:41:35] CPU #1: 1.42 kH/s
[2018-09-29 14:41:40] Total: 10.73 kH/s
....
[2018-09-29 14:46:25] CPU #2: 1.49 kH/s
[2018-09-29 14:46:25] CPU #4: 2.46 kH/s
[2018-09-29 14:46:25] CPU #0: 1.49 kH/s
[2018-09-29 14:46:25] CPU #1: 1.43 kH/s
[2018-09-29 14:46:25] CPU #3: 1.49 kH/s
[2018-09-29 14:46:25] CPU #5: 2.46 kH/s
[2018-09-29 14:46:25] Total: 10.81 kH/s
[2018-09-29 14:46:30] Total: 10.78 kH/s

Total Scores: 10.82,10.81,10.80,10.79,10.78,10.77,10.76,10.73

##########################################################################

System health while heating up the SoC:

Time       big.LITTLE   load %cpu %sys %usr %nice %io %irq   Temp
14:31:56: 2088/1512MHz  0.22   6%   2%   3%   0%   0%   0%  42.8°C
....
14:41:12: 2088/1512MHz  6.26 100%   0%  99%   0%   0%   0%  70.6°C
14:41:23: 2088/1512MHz  6.22 100%   0%  99%   0%   0%   0%  71.1°C

System health while running cpuminer:

Time       big.LITTLE   load %cpu %sys %usr %nice %io %irq   Temp
14:41:36: 2088/1512MHz  6.25  89%   0%  89%   0%   0%   0%  61.2°C
14:41:48: 2088/1512MHz  6.21 100%   0%  99%   0%   0%   0%  70.6°C
14:41:59: 2088/1512MHz  6.26 100%   0%  99%   0%   0%   0%  71.1°C
14:42:11: 2088/1512MHz  6.34 100%   0%  99%   0%   0%   0%  71.1°C
14:42:22: 2088/1512MHz  6.28 100%   0%  99%   0%   0%   0%  71.1°C
14:42:34: 2088/1512MHz  6.24 100%   0%  99%   0%   0%   0%  71.1°C
14:42:45: 2088/1512MHz  6.20 100%   0%  99%   0%   0%   0%  71.7°C
14:42:57: 2088/1512MHz  6.30 100%   0%  99%   0%   0%   0%  71.7°C
14:43:09: 2088/1512MHz  6.25 100%   0%  99%   0%   0%   0%  71.1°C
14:43:20: 2088/1512MHz  6.21 100%   0%  99%   0%   0%   0%  71.7°C
14:43:32: 2088/1512MHz  6.23 100%   0%  99%   0%   0%   0%  71.7°C
14:43:44: 2088/1512MHz  6.20 100%   0%  99%   0%   0%   0%  71.7°C
14:43:55: 2088/1512MHz  6.17 100%   0%  99%   0%   0%   0%  71.7°C
14:44:07: 2088/1512MHz  6.20 100%   0%  99%   0%   0%   0%  72.2°C
14:44:19: 2088/1512MHz  6.17  99%   0%  99%   0%   0%   0%  71.7°C
14:44:30: 2088/1512MHz  6.14 100%   0%  99%   0%   0%   0%  71.7°C
14:44:42: 2088/1512MHz  6.18 100%   0%  99%   0%   0%   0%  71.7°C
14:44:54: 2088/1512MHz  6.15  99%   0%  99%   0%   0%   0%  71.7°C
14:45:05: 2088/1512MHz  6.13 100%   0%  99%   0%   0%   0%  71.7°C
14:45:17: 2088/1512MHz  6.16 100%   0%  99%   0%   0%   0%  71.7°C
14:45:29: 2088/1512MHz  6.14 100%   0%  99%   0%   0%   0%  72.2°C
14:45:40: 2088/1512MHz  6.12 100%   0%  99%   0%   0%   0%  72.2°C
14:45:52: 2088/1512MHz  6.23 100%   0%  99%   0%   0%   0%  72.2°C
14:46:04: 2088/1512MHz  6.19 100%   0%  99%   0%   0%   0%  72.2°C
14:46:15: 2088/1512MHz  6.16 100%   0%  99%   0%   0%   0%  72.2°C
14:46:27: 2088/1512MHz  6.26 100%   0%  99%   0%   0%   0%  72.8°C

PS - @ddimension - many thanks for 4.18.10 update. BTW I am no expert but do things very differently to your README:
1) unzip
2) restore a .config
3) edit dts and dtsi as appropriate
4) make -j6 bindeb-pkg
5) cd ..
6) dpkg -i linux-image...

Which also means I can remove with dpkg -r or synaptic

[Takenover83]

@dukla2000
Thats the same way I install/remove kernels.

Edit: Any chance of getting the zram module set as default on these kernels? Myself having the 2GB board find it essential. Come to think of it... I think all the configuration was done on my fresh installs of ayufan's distro's. Just was missing the module.

[battlenut]

So, I am still very new to this whole command line thing. How would I go about installing this new kernel to my rockpro64 and rock64. what are the commands or better yet where can I go to research these said commands?

[dukla2000]

Any chance of getting the zram module set as default on these kernels? Myself having the 2GB board find it essential. Come to think of it... I think all the configuration was done on my fresh installs of ayufan's distro's. Just was missing the module.

I tried to get zram to work and eventually gave up. Have just done a plain old swapfile the old fashioned way in my /etc/fstab - but as it is on my NVMe drive figure reasonable compromise for me as I "save" the CPU cycles needed for zram.

So, I am still very new to this whole command line thing. How would I go about installing this new kernel to my rockpro64 and rock64. what are the commands or better yet where can I go to research these said commands?

There are (as always on Linux) a million ways to do this. Until 2 weeks ago I had never compiled a kernel despite swapping to Linux nearly 15 years ago and trying a couple of times. Nevertheless it really is, now, that easy. My steps below are just 1 way that works for me, I don't claim any particular benefit over any other way.

To cause an argument let me assume the starting point is an Ayufan 0.7.9 image on an SDcard in your RockPro64. And that you want to get the current 4.18 kernel as described in this thread running.

First observation: the way Ayufan has set things up you will be able to toggle between the 4.4.x kernel in his 0.7.9 image and your 4.18.y image as long as you can edit a text file on your SDcard on another Linux PC so you should not "brick" anything.

Second observation - everything below you can search www and find other pages/advice/embellishments if you want.

1) Create a working directory: if you start a terminal session (Open a terminal using your menu system - probably under system tools) you are most likely to be the user rock64 in your home directory (which is /home/rock64/). If you type

Code:

mkdir bin

you will create a new subdirectory called bin.

2) Download some Linux source code. As per the assumptions the simplest way to do this is to go to ddimension github page
click the big green clone or download button and select the "download zip" option at the bottom. Save the file to the bin directory you created in step 1.

3) We need to install some software - p7zip to unzip the file you just downloaded as well as some prerequisites to get the compile and build environment to work. I hope the following is complete - if you get any errors in later steps it will be most likely because of something missing here! First we are going to update/upgrade all the software you already have, then we will install the new stuff. type (or copy/paste) the following 4 lines 1 at a time - enter your password (possibly still rock64?) when asked after the first line:

Code:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install p7zip
sudo apt-get install build-essential libncurses-dev bison flex libssl-dev fakeroot pkg-config

4) OK - assuming you still have your terminal window open type

Code:

cd bin
ls -l

The ls command lists the files in the current directory - you should see linux-mainline-kernel-rockchip.zip from step 2. Type

Code:

unzip linux-mainline-kernel-rockchip.zip

and you should have a couple of minutes of excitement while all the source files are unzipped.

5) Still at your terminal type

Code:

cd linux-mainline-kernel-rockchip
cp rockpro64.config .config

The second command copied a default RockPro64 config file to your config file (that happens to be a hidden file which is why it has a . in front of the filename!) This is where there is a huge amount of room for alchemy: the contents of your config file determine the capabilities of your new kernel. Quite frankly for your first compile that is all pretty irrelevant - I just wanted to compile a kernel and get it to load and so that is all these instructions try to do. You can always come back later and "improve" your config file: beware there are numerous parameters, most of which can cause your kernel to be useless if you get them wrong. So take playing options in your config file slowly. If you come back later to this step make menuconfig is the way I play with mine! To kick off your kernel compile type

Code:

make -j6 bindeb-pkg

And go for lunch. First time I typed this on my RockPro64 it took about 55 minutes (and I have decent cooling so no thermal throttling, and  a rather fast NVMe drive - if you really are on an SDcard it will be worse!) Now it takes me just under 25 minutes - it is some help I am running at 2.1/1.5GHz, also the first change I would recommend to your config file is to disable debug_info which disables the building of all the debug options and saves a huge amount of compile time.

6) When your compile has finished, type

Code:

cd ..
sudo dpkg -i linux-image-4.18.10_4.18.10-1_arm64.deb
reboot

And if by a miracle all went well you will install your new kernel, your machine will reboot and load the new kernel! Hopefully by now you are familiar with tab autocomplete options on the commandline, so in fact above if you type sudo dpkg -i linux-i then push the tab key you should autocomplete with the correct filename (because by next week it will be 4.18.11 etc).

Now, if something goes wrong or you want to revert to your 4.4 kernel for whatever reason simply edit your /boot/extconfig/extconfig.conf file and set a default - my current file is below, the default line I think needs to be the first line and is what you have to add. The names of the labels can be freely abbreviated from what you find - just make sure whatever you put on line 1 matches a later label in the file. Otherwise the first label becomes the actual default!

Code:

default kernel-4.18.10

timeout 10
menu title select kernel

label kernel-4.18.10
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz-4.18.10
    initrd /boot/initrd.img-4.18.10
    devicetreedir /boot/dtbs/4.18.10
    append rw panic=10 init=/sbin/init coherent_pool=1M ethaddr=${ethaddr} eth1addr=${eth1addr} serial=${serial#} cgroup_enable=cpuset cgroup_memory=1 cgroup_enable=memory swapaccount=1 root=LABEL=MySM961 rootwait rootfstype=ext4

label kernel-4.4.154
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz-4.4.154-1105-rockchip-ayufan-g5d9fbef9cfa0
    initrd /boot/initrd.img-4.4.154-1105-rockchip-ayufan-g5d9fbef9cfa0
    devicetreedir /boot/dtbs/4.4.154-1105-rockchip-ayufan-g5d9fbef9cfa0
    append rw panic=10 init=/sbin/init coherent_pool=1M ethaddr=${ethaddr} eth1addr=${eth1addr} serial=${serial#} cgroup_enable=cpuset cgroup_memory=1 cgroup_enable=memory swapaccount=1 root=LABEL=MySM961 rootwait rootfstype=ext4

label kernel-4.4.132-1075-rockchip-ayufan-ga83beded8524
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz-4.4.132-1075-rockchip-ayufan-ga83beded8524
    initrd /boot/initrd.img-4.4.132-1075-rockchip-ayufan-ga83beded8524
    devicetreedir /boot/dtbs/4.4.132-1075-rockchip-ayufan-ga83beded8524
    append rw panic=10 init=/sbin/init coherent_pool=1M ethaddr=${ethaddr} eth1addr=${eth1addr} serial=${serial#} cgroup_enable=cpuset cgroup_memory=1 cgroup_enable=memory swapaccount=1 root=LABEL=MySM961 rootwait rootfstype=ext4

Have fun.

Please let me know how you go: if these instructions are coherent enough I will put them in a tutorial.

[battlenut]

Thanks. Gotta go to work now, will attempt this when I get off work.