ODROID C2 mainline kernel

[pogojotz]

I recently got a C2 and was bewildered that the kernel was still in version 3.14. A lot of coredumps about unknown syscalls like 279, 285 and so on showed up. I came across this[1] topic, where summers suggests to use uboot-odroid-c2-mainline with the linux-aarch64 mainline kernel. I tried it and after the first two boots failed it seems to run pretty well (although not thoroughly tested).
Can someone roughly tell me what I am missing out, when using the mainline kernel? Hardkernel added some drivers and patches to their kernel, did some of those get integrated into the mainline already?

[1] https://archlinuxarm.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=65&t=12878

[summers]

The folks at BayLibre have been busy mainlining meson features as documented at http://linux-meson.com/doku.php.

How it compares to the 3.14 kernel I can't say, as I moved to mainline some time ago. For me though the system seems to run fine, but I don't use my C2 in anger. Most complaints you hear are things like usb port working, or the hdmi working - and my C2 has never had either a usb device of hdmi plugged in - so I'm maybe not the best person to comment.

If you check on the hardkernel forum though, people seem fairly unhappy with mainline kernel - I don't know how to judge that.

[pogojotz]

Thanks for the reply summers. The support for the S905 seems indeed already fairly good according to your posted link. I had no problems using the C2 with HDMI and USB keyboard plugged. HD youtube videos ran with roughly the same amount of stuttering as with the previous kernel.

Hardkernel recently released an Ubuntu 18.04 image with a 3.16 kernel. Will that kernel be integrated into alarm or do the developers wait for the full 4.xx port? Is there a discussion going on? I couldn't find anything.

[summers]

Well I'm not a Arm Arch developer - so am not in a position to say.

However general approach used for most targets is to encourage folks to move to mainline kernel, and mainline u-boot. It makes maintenance of the numerous targets fair easier - as update automatically roll out.

What really changed arm was the device tree, it mean that kernels didn't have to be compiled for specific hardware targets; instead the kernel could be general with a very precise description of the hardware in the device tree.

So if you asked me, I'd say don't hold your breath for an update of the 3.16 kernel in arm arch - it isn't where most attention is these days.

Just my 2p worth btw, other people may well disagree.

[thatchunkylad1989]

I tried to use the mainline kernel and was getting a green screen, I could SSH into it though but couldn't use it. couldn't test further than that.
3.14 is old and not supported. 3.16 is also old but supported.

I wish there was a way to use 4.xx and have no green screen.