ArchLinux ARM for CubieTruck : any ideas ?

[WarheadsSE]

Hey maribu,

Can I make direct commentary about "your" work you accepted via pull request from one of your users?

1) nice of you to bother reporting these issues.
2) Of right, you didn't before this scathing chirp.
3) Mind fleshing those out so they can be addressed?

Don't worry, we understand you didn't pay that much attention, since you think its kmihelich's fault you can't get the headers to work, despite it being a PR from someone else in this thread. (did you install the headers package?)

Hi, WarheadsSE:

Regarding the headers, add these two lines to the package function of the headers package in the PKGBUILD to get it working:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '
mkdir -p "${pkgdir}/usr/src/linux-${_kernver}/arch/$KARCH/plat-sunxi/include"
cp -a arch/$KARCH/plat-sunxi/include "${pkgdir}/usr/src/linux-${_kernver}/arch/$KARCH/plat-sunxi/"
')

By the way: moscar did a pull request with a working package here: https://github.com/archlinuxarm/PKGBUILDs/pull/746

where he got this:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')kmihelich commented 13 days ago
I lost count of how many things you broke in the config just skimming it.
This whole PR is garbage. Submit again when some effort is used.

[fcarolo]

Just to provide some feedback on the updated uboot-* packages by moscar: after testing them on a cubieboard2 and a cubietruck, both seem to be working ok. I also left a similar note on the PR.

[WarheadsSE]

maribu,

You failed to see this then, https://github.com/archlinuxarm/PKGBUILDs/pull/757

So, yes, it came from moscar. Perhaps he missed this headers issue when he merged his changes with our format?

[fabian20]

My Cubietruck seems to be successfully booting with official repo kernel, but fails to load any form of display (neither VGA nor HDMI is working, regardless of what I am modifying in script.bin). Same is true for 3.4.79-1 kernel by moscar which was posted earlier in this thread.

Last fully working kernel was 3.4.75+ for me (also from moscars repo, if I recall correctly). A quick diff shows quite a lot of differences in kernel config between these two versions.

I am currently investigating this issue, has anybody had similar problems?

PS: Many thanks to you all for your great work bringing alarm to the cubietruck!

[maribu]

@fabian20:

If you're using a sd card, place this as uEnv.txt in the first (fat32) partition of your sdcard (at /boot/uEnv.txt in resultig system).
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '
root=/dev/mmcblk0p2
extraargs=console=tty0 rootwait panic=10 rootfstype=ext4 disp.screen0_output_type=3 disp.screen0_output_mode=EDID:1280x720p60 hdmi.audio=EDID:0
')
(double check that this code consists of only two lines, one starting with "root=..." the other with "extraargs=...")

This settings will set your HDMI output up to the preferred mode of your monitor, when your monitor supports EDID (which is most likely), otherwise it will fall back to 1280x720p60. If you want to use VGA instead, tweek both disp.* parameters according to this guide: http://linux-sunxi.org/Fex_Guide#disp_i ... figuration

Try theses packages:
- linux-cubietruck: http://ubuntuone.com/3btBoLepmIc3it1fI29WGN
- linux-cubietruck-headers: http://ubuntuone.com/6nQxD9Ta1dGeQ9Ftd9T3yW
- linux-cubietruck-firmware: http://ubuntuone.com/5B9czbUBgcHhaGMvfZiRnp
(PKGBUILD for all three: http://ubuntuone.com/2Vf1uQENxTiIbiPYWwUV2g)

Place this script.bin http://ubuntuone.com/7HfsZY491ujeFvDQUzYSqS as script.bin in the first partition of your sdcard (/boot/script.bin). (The sciprt file can be generated from this fex file: http://ubuntuone.com/113es4erZHlmQLXZjbazHn using fex2bin)

Use this u-boot.img http://ubuntuone.com/0WSNjbuzoYscgIay1Pq3dS and this spl file http://ubuntuone.com/5x2DZLgCyWUmJtMETZqDxn

You can burn spl and u-boot like this (replace "/dev/sdcard" with the path to your sdcard):
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '
dd if=sunxi-spl.bin of=/dev/sdcard bs=1024 seek=8
dd if=u-boot.img of=/dev/sdcard bs=1024 seek=40
')

(Both u-boot.img and spl file can be generated from this git repository https://github.com/linux-sunxi/u-boot-sunxi running "make cubietruck")

Regards,
maribu

[kmihelich]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('maribu', 'A')ctually I wouldn't have a problem with rewriting my part of the contributions to moscars package to better conform with the other alarm kernel packages, if kmihelich asked for it in a mature way, instead of insulting me.

[moscar]

I'm sorry for breaking whatever has been broken.

I have never used a display on my cubietruck so I never thought to test it when I reworked the package to be merged with linux-sun7i in alarm.

I assume the display work on this kernel: https://github.com/mikkeloscar/packages ... inux-sun7i

Maribu, could you tell me what you run on the display, do you have some WM/DE running? Then I could try to take a look at it.

[fabian20]

@maribu:

Thanks for your assistance!
I'm using a sd card with one partition for boot & rootfs and my U-Boot was built using moscars current pull request (uboot-cubietruck). The issue I experienced was independent from U-Boot version, script.bin and uEnv.txt entries (tried a lot of combinations, including U-Boot from HEAD of u-boot-sunxi, etc.)

I tried the linux-cubietruck packages you provided and they seem to work fine - VGA & HDMI output are fully working. In fact this is the first 3.4.79 kernel I could get display output on.
I didn't change anything about U-Boot, script.bin or uEnv.txt for this test and it appears you are using the exact same commit as in official repo PKGBUILD, so I guess my issue must be directly related to kernel config.

I diffed kernel configs, result can be found here: https://paste8.com/sxMQpO2Y ("config" being from linux-cubietruck src by maribu). I had no time to examine differences closely yet.

@moscar:

Regressions can happen all the time in development - especially with such a delicate task like merging kernel packages.
Are your packages from http://arch.moscar.net/armv7h/ up to date with your git repo? Because I already tried your prebuilt packages without success (meaning I had a fully booting system but no VGA/HDMI output at all, same as for current repo version).

Should I file an issue for my display problem on github?

[maribu]

Hi, moscar!

I'm running openbox started from lxdm with autologin. This works after reloading hdmi with the new kernel, but fbcon doesn't. Strange is that lxdm or xorg seems to "wait" for the output to work before starting. At least my keyboard shortcuts, which should work right after X has automatically started, do not work before I have reloaded hdmi over ssh.

If you would ask me to guess why fbcon does not work I would say that's because fbcon is compiled in kernel, but disp, disp_ump, ump and hdmi are compiled as module. Might be worth a try to compile fbcon as module also and load fbcon after setting up the output properly (by loading disp, disp_ump, ump and hdmi). But to be honest, I this really is an unqualified guess an I don't have an idea why fbcon does not work in contrast to X.

With my cubieboard I also had to struggle to get Display working. It turned out that the modules had to be loaded in the correct order (and fbcon is compiled as module in the cubieboard kernel). Usually you would think because a modules loads all dependencies first, the order wouldn't matter, but it really does on the cubieboard. I tried the same order using the new kernel on the cubietruck, but had no luck. This might also be about timing. For example it might work if hdmi module is loaded delayed.

Regards,
maribu