Kernel to mainline on cubox-i4-pro

[mcloaked]

For a few years I have been running a tiny little (2"x2"x2") cubox-i4-pro cube headless media server with the original kernel which was on linux-imx6-3.14.79-3 kernel at its previous last update.

Since in the arch linux arm repos, there is a mainline kernel package - I thought I would try and update - and if it failed to boot after that so be it... it has been working solidly for several years though I now use an odroid-c2... so it was a tentative experimental boot, with little real expectation that it would update and then boot normally.

So running the update

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[root@cubox1 ~]# pacman -S linux-armv7-cubox
resolving dependencies...
looking for conflicting packages...
:: linux-armv7 and linux-imx6 are in conflict (linux). Remove linux-imx6? [y/N] y

Packages (3) linux-armv7-4.14.11-1 linux-imx6-3.14.79-3 [removal]
linux-armv7-cubox-4.14.11-1

Total Download Size: 50.85 MiB
Total Installed Size: 82.14 MiB
Net Upgrade Size: 49.06 MiB

:: Proceed with installation? [Y/n]
:: Retrieving packages...
linux-armv7-4.14.11-1... 45.1 MiB 699K/s 01:06 [############################] 100%
linux-armv7-cubox-4.1... 5.8 MiB 1154K/s 00:05 [############################] 100%
(2/2) checking keys in keyring [############################] 100%
(2/2) checking package integrity [############################] 100%
(2/2) loading package files [############################] 100%
(2/2) checking for file conflicts [############################] 100%
(3/3) checking available disk space [############################] 100%
:: Processing package changes...
(1/1) removing linux-imx6 [############################] 100%
(1/2) installing linux-armv7 [############################] 100%
>>> Updating module dependencies. Please wait ...
NOTE: Using this kernel requires an updated U-Boot!
Optional dependencies for linux-armv7
crda: to set the correct wireless channels of your country [installed]
(2/2) installing linux-armv7-cubox [############################] 100%
:: Running post-transaction hooks...
(1/2) Updating linux-armv7 initcpios
==> Building image from preset: /etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux-armv7.preset: 'default'
-> -k 4.14.11-1-ARCH -c /etc/mkinitcpio.conf -g /boot/initramfs-linux.img
==> Starting build: 4.14.11-1-ARCH
-> Running build hook: [base]
-> Running build hook: [udev]
-> Running build hook: [autodetect]
-> Running build hook: [modconf]
-> Running build hook: [block]
-> Running build hook: [filesystems]
-> Running build hook: [keyboard]
-> Running build hook: [fsck]
==> WARNING: No modules were added to the image. This is probably not what you want.
==> Creating gzip-compressed initcpio image: /boot/initramfs-linux.img
==> Image generation successful
(2/2) Arming ConditionNeedsUpdate...
')

I noted the line "NOTE: Using this kernel requires an updated U-Boot!" but ignored it as no new suitable replacement U-boot package version was seen in the repos!

Then rebooted, which did work, and I found I could ssh back in, and ran a few test commands:

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[root@cubox1 ~]# uname -r
4.14.11-1-ARCH
[root@cubox1 ~]# systemctl --failed
0 loaded units listed. Pass --all to see loaded but inactive units, too.
To show all installed unit files use 'systemctl list-unit-files'.
[root@cubox1 ~]# hwclock -r
2018-01-05 09:14:29.956183+0000
[root@cubox1 ~]# timedatectl
Local time: Fri 2018-01-05 09:14:38 GMT
Universal time: Fri 2018-01-05 09:14:38 UTC
RTC time: Fri 2018-01-05 09:14:39
Time zone: Europe/London (GMT, +0000)
System clock synchronized: yes
systemd-timesyncd.service active: no
RTC in local TZ: no
')

So it is all working on the mainline kernel - amazing!! I also found that the previous problems trying to read from the RTC were no longer a problem. So there is more life in this little box yet!

This also means that the patches coming in the 4.14.x and 4.15 series kernels to mitigate against the recently publicised Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities will be minimised with the mainline kernel replacing the original series 3 kernels since those may not get backported fixes for the new security vulnerabilities. So thank you so much to the maintainers for supporting ongoing development.