Cubieboard anyone?

[rvalles]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('andre', 'I') am still looking at getting X working.
There is a package in AUR, xf86-video-mali, which appears to be broken.
It depends on mali400, which only contains binaries, but no headers, and during build <ump/ump.h> is missing.
( using https://github.com/linux-sunxi/libump it builds )
However, it builds it's own xorg-server-mali replacing teh xorg-mali, resulting in ABI conflicts.

This also brings me to take another look at my guide, what to do with the libraries from the hardware pack? As they are in mali400, and libump comes from the git repository mentioned above.

[rvalles]

... It was a matter of loading a couple kernel modules: lcd and hdmi, in this order.

Apparently the cubie hwpack doesn't have those builtin, which is very inconvenient.

[maribu]

Hi, there!

Has anyone a 1GB cubieboard and access to the whole RAM?

I have updated the script.bin with the cubieboard (not the 512MB version) and I still get:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'free -m
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 307 41 266 0 6 22
-/+ buffers/cache: 12 294
Swap: 0 0 0')

My Cubieboard is running the linux-sun4i 3.0.57-1 kernel.

I also have Problems with display output. My DVI monitor (can display 1920x1080@60Hz) is connected via a HDMI->DVI cable. With my Raspberry Pi I also had problems with my monitor, as it does not provide any EDID info at all. The problem could be solved on the Pi by configuring it to read EDID data from a file instead of the display.

I had a look at http://linux-sunxi.org/Fex_Guide#12.1_.5Bdisp_init.5D. My [disp_init] section of my fex file looks like this:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '[disp_init]
disp_init_enable = 1
disp_mode = 0
screen0_output_type = 3
screen0_output_mode = 5
screen1_output_type = 1
screen1_output_mode = 4
fb0_framebuffer_num = 2
fb0_format = 10
fb0_pixel_sequence = 0
fb0_scaler_mode_enable = 0
fb1_framebuffer_num = 2
fb1_format = 10
fb1_pixel_sequence = 0
fb1_scaler_mode_enable = 0
lcd0_bright = 197
lcd1_bright = 197
lcd0_screen_bright = 50
lcd0_screen_contrast = 50
lcd0_screen_saturation = 57
lcd0_screen_hue = 50
lcd1_screen_bright = 50
lcd1_screen_contrast = 50
lcd1_screen_saturation = 57
lcd1_screen_hue = 50')

I tried both "screen0_output_mode = 5" (720p@60) and "screen0_output_mode = 10" (1080p@60). After doing so and updating the script.bin ("fex2bin myconf.fex > /boo/script.bin" as root) I can get a signal with loading the modules lcd fist and after it hdmi. But on both modes (720p and 1080p) my Display is not able to handle the signal.

Anyone an idea?

Regards,
Maribu

[WarheadsSE]

memory wise, check your uboot/spl

non-EDID hdmi? IDK

[maribu]

Thank you very much, WarheadSE!

Today is the first time I used uboot, so I'm a total noob at it. You pointed me in the right direction. With the correct SPL I get full memory

About the monitor: It's not a HDMI monitor, but a DVI. Problem regrading EDID of DVI monitors seem more common than expectet: http://blog.komeil.com/2008/06/fixing-edid-dvi-monitors-no-signal.html

But I think the missing EDID date is not the problem, as the video modes are set manually. I gues the problem is that my monitor simply does not support the video modes the cubieboard uses. On my Raspberry Pi I also could not use 1080p60 in CEA format, instead I had to use 1080p60 in DMT format.

It looks like I have to buy a VGA extension board or hope that some update brings support for DVI video modes.

Regards,
Maribu

[andre]

On earlier hwpacks I had trouble with my DVI monitor as well.
Also, the CubieBoard doesn't seem to select a compatible resoltion when auto-selecting through the edid.

For example I am using "disp.screen0_output_type=3 disp.screen0_output_mode=1280x1024p60"

However, my monitor complained resolution being 1282x1026. Someone on IRC said this was because the CubieBoard was also sending audio data, and I should add "hdmi.audio=EDID:0", but I haven't tested this yet.

[maribu]

Hey, Andre!

Thanks for that hint. This does help, as I now get a valid resolution. Still I do get a black image (but now a correct 1080p@60Hz signal my crappy DVI can handle).

With this information I also got berryboot working (with valid signal AND an image). I guess it's still something with the kernel why I get a black image.

Does anyone else uses the stock linux-sun4i kernel? If so, any luck so far with hdmi output?

Btw: I find it easier to set the module parameter via "/etc/modprobe.d" rather than using uEnv.txt for that. This way you have only to reload (modprobe -r ..., modprobe ...) the module and not to reboot the cubieboard to see what happens with new values.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'cat /etc/modprobe.d/resolution.conf
options disp screen0_output_type=3
options disp screen0_output_mode=1920x1080p60
options hdmi audio=EDID:0')

Regards,
Maribu

[maribu]

Ok, I now can confirm that the video output does work with stock kernel:

If I start X with xf86-video-fbdev driver, I do get an output. I guess I simply have to configure Arch to display tty's on the framebuffer. But I have absolutely no idea how to do that. Shouldn't be fbcon be compiled in kernel and there I always get a console?

I also got the xf86-video-mali working (using the package form AUR).

I placed this as /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/99-mali.conf:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'Section "Device"
Identifier "Mali FBDEV"
Driver "mali"
Option "fbdev" "/dev/fb0"
Option "DRI2" "true"
Option "DRI2" "true"
Option "DRI2_PAGE_FLIP" "true"
Option "DRI2_WAIT_VSYNC" "false"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Mali Screen"
Device "Mali FBDEV"
DefaultDepth 24
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection')

First the driver didn't work for me because I had forgotten load "mali" and "mali-drm" modules. But with these loaded, X worked fine. But with driver my keyboard layout changed to us (I use xfce4 and configured my layout there). As xf86-video-mali seems to be currently just as fast as fbdev, I switched back to fbdev and have a working keyboard layout this way. (The problem may be in my configuration (/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/99-mali.conf) and not in the driver)

I tried to use a USB wireless device which I got working perfectly on the Raspberry Pi (also running Arch) using the carl9170. This driver is in contrast to the stock kernel from the Pi not included in linux-sun4i. Sadly the kernel configuration is set to"CONFIG_CFG80211=y" , but "CONFIG_CFG80211=m" would be needed for compiling carl9170.

I'll rebuild the linux-sun4i with cfg80211 and carl configured to be build as module. Let's see if I can get wireless network working on my cubieboard.

Regards,
Maribu

[maribu]

Guess who's posting this on the cubieboard via WLAN? If someone also needs a kernel with cfg80211 compiled as module, I would share my package.

Regards,
Maribu

[maribu]

Btw: I also compiled leds-sunxi as module and know I can control the to leds. Have a look here: http://linux-sunxi.org/Cubieboard/Programming/StatusLEDs. Very interesting is the section at the bottom: I now see access to my sdcard via the LED.

I will try to write an udev rule, so I can grant access to all users in the group LED.

Regards,
Maribu