Will 3.2 kernels force us to upgrade uboot?

[davygravy]

This makes it look more official: we might be SOL if the 3.2 regression is indeed handled as "really just a latent bug in uboot".
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.por ... cus=151172

Is anyone game to apply the L2cache disable patch?

It looks like it may become a necessary upgrade if users want to use the mainline kernel inthe future.

[WarheadsSE]

Yeah.. this could be interesting.

[davygravy]

I'm hoping it doesn't amount to a game of chicken to see who will blink (ehhrrrm, I mean, patch) first... W Denx & the Ubooters vs Linus T & Kernel Maestros.

Just could be better than the SuperBowl or WorldCup.

[kmihelich]

So, if I understand right.. we either disable the PATCH_PHYS_VIRT or upgrade u-boot? If so it seems to me we should just adjust the kernel.. fixing u-boots across the board isn't really an ideal circumstance.

[cyberic]

Is there a performance enhancement when PATCH_PHYS_VIRT is enabled?

[davygravy]

I now have a u-boot.kwb that I've flashed into two of my Dockstars... they work perfectly (AFAICT), conform to the footprint that Jeff Doozan set down (in terms of environment and values).

I've tested serial, netconsole, flashing, tftpboot, loading u-boot into SDRAM, and even running both the CloudEngines PogoPlug software on them (again, following Jeff's setup) and Jeff's Rescue System. All seem to work just fine - I've been testing/checking for the last 3 days.

At it boots stock Debian 3.2 kernels (without the weird EMBEDDED config option ), since it has the DisableL2Cache patch applied to the source (2011.12 stable uboot).

If any ALARM folks (that already have JTAG experience, just in case) are interested in testing it, please ping me back.

http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?3,6965,7081#msg-7081

[kmihelich]

Possible to get Jeff to sign-off or whatever and make it the default in the install-mtd0.sh script? It's easy to tell people to just run that again to update U-Boot.

[davygravy]

That would make sense. Has anyone you know of contacted him lately?

[kmihelich]

Nope, he doesn't show up around these parts. Figured since you're on his forum you might be able to get his attention.

[davygravy]

Just an FYI ... I did eventually talk w/ Jeff about this, and in the not too distant future the current u-boot.mtd0.kwb binaries will most likely be replaced with newer ones. Ideally, I'd rather build them from the uboot2012.06 stable issue, once it is released.

Until then, if you want to upgrade your u-boot to one that has the cache's disabled at boot, this thread shows the HowTo's and supplies interim replacements (which certainly will work as permanent replacements).
http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?3,6965