08-04-2016, 07:12 AM
If you're using the "stable" kernel, then that is true mainline, which has very little support for the A64 SoC. It'll boot, but absolutely none of the interfaces other than UART will work. Apritzel's a64-v5 tree (found on the Pine mainline kernel page you linked) has support for Ethernet in conjunction with the aforementioned firmware image. The tree I suggested, Icenowy's a64-usb, adds on functioning USB (on the bottom port. Top one is USB OTG which no one has tackled yet...) to that.
The DTB (Device Tree Blob) files, just like you said, describe the devices and where/how to control them. You could try to use the ones that come with the firmware, but I've had issues from reusing old DTBs with new kernels. Since you can build them at the same time as you build the kernel, there's really no reason to not use your own.
On this firmware version, the kernel goes on the root directory. If we were working with a BSP kernel-based image, we'd put it in /boot.
Technically, you can set the boot script to look for the rootfs on any partition. However, when I did that, I got a checksum error from uboot. So I just ended up going along with the default p5. If you manage to get it to boot with a different partition set, I'd definitely love to know!
I'm not a believer either; was just making a joke. Though you should know that if you do not pray to the lord and savior Linus Torvalds in hopes of him blessing a kernel compile, It's bound to fail!
If you're going to be doing kernel work on the Pine or any other embedded/SBC system, you should really get a UART adapter. They're cheap and unbelievably useful...
The DTB (Device Tree Blob) files, just like you said, describe the devices and where/how to control them. You could try to use the ones that come with the firmware, but I've had issues from reusing old DTBs with new kernels. Since you can build them at the same time as you build the kernel, there's really no reason to not use your own.
On this firmware version, the kernel goes on the root directory. If we were working with a BSP kernel-based image, we'd put it in /boot.
Technically, you can set the boot script to look for the rootfs on any partition. However, when I did that, I got a checksum error from uboot. So I just ended up going along with the default p5. If you manage to get it to boot with a different partition set, I'd definitely love to know!
I'm not a believer either; was just making a joke. Though you should know that if you do not pray to the lord and savior Linus Torvalds in hopes of him blessing a kernel compile, It's bound to fail!
If you're going to be doing kernel work on the Pine or any other embedded/SBC system, you should really get a UART adapter. They're cheap and unbelievably useful...
Community administrator and sysadmin for PINE64
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(Translation: If something breaks on the website, forum, or chat network, I'm a good person to yell at about it)
