ArchLinux ARM for CubieTruck : any ideas ?

[moscar]

@fabian20

Don't rely on my packages in arch.moscar.net/armv7h right now. I have not updated them since the merge into alarm repo. If you look in github, I actually removed the linux-sun7i package from my repo because I didn't wanna maintain it there when it was already merged into alarm.

@maribu

That sounds "interesting" I will have a look at it later this week. Let us know if you figure out anymore before I do.

[fabian20]

@moscar

Okay - if it helps you identify this issue, I could try and build a kernel from your (former) git repo to see if that works.

[WarheadsSE]

@maribu

The display module load order is an issue with every Mali400 device I have used. This should be a simple addition as
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '
$ cat /etc/modules-load.d/mali.conf
disp
disp_ump
ump
hdmi
fbcon
')

[Tangente]

This isn't really the right thread but at the best one to tell you I think.
I experience the following issue on cubieboard 2 that the 3.4.79 kernel simple breaks the whole boot, no systemd output.
The new 28-Feb-2014 sun7i image in the alarm http repo doesn't boot any more aswell when I format my sd as described. Then I formatted my SD in boot/root partition-style. Of course I can't update my kernel like this with pacman but I mounted the boot partition and manually overwrited the kernel-files which bricked it again.

-I tried everything several times any guess what to do?

-The cubian linux-sun7i-3.4.79 build fromcubian propably works, do you think we can just extract them like I did the manual kernel update as I described earlier in this post? The cubian-update tool could be ported to archlinux which basically updates all the stuff like kernel and uboot without the distro-specific package manager.


Tangente

[moscar]

Hello Tangente

What does your uEnv.txt look like?

Do you have serial? If so, that will most likely indicate what is happening.

[kmihelich]

I've updated the rootfs tarball for sun7i, and it's on the mirrors now. This incorporates all the latest kernel and U-Boot changes, and is verified to boot fine with networking working.

[kmihelich]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tangente', 'T')he cubian-update tool could be ported to archlinux which basically updates all the stuff like kernel and uboot without the distro-specific package manager.

[fabian20]

@moscar

I have successfully built a kernel from your github repo tree (https://github.com/mikkeloscar/packages/tree/7a93dc6b4b32fe292ece8886f72e363fd052fcb1/linux-sun7i) - and it appears that you were right, this one works flawless on my cubietruck. So the display regression must have been introduced during your merge with the official alarm repo kernel package.

[moscar]

@fabian2

Have you tried what WarheadSE suggested?

$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '$ cat /etc/modules-load.d/mali.conf
disp
disp_ump
ump
hdmi
fbcon')

I haven't had time to test anything myself yet.

[fabian20]

@ moscar

I just tried WarheadSEs suggestion on official repo kernel (3.4.79-3) without luck. I'm getting no VGA/HDMI output at all, regardless of uEnv entries or module load order.

EDIT:
I compared kernel configs before and after merging with alarm repo and found the following, potentially relevant changes:

Before merge:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'CONFIG_VIDEO_SUNXI_CEDAR=m
CONFIG_VIDEO_DECODER_SUNXI=m
[..]
CONFIG_FB_SUNXI=y
CONFIG_FB_SUNXI_RESERVED_MEM=y
CONFIG_FB_SUNXI_UMP=y
CONFIG_FB_SUNXI_LCD=y
CONFIG_FB_SUNXI_HDMI=y
CONFIG_HDMI_CEC=m')

After merge:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'CONFIG_VIDEO_SUNXI_CEDAR=y
CONFIG_VIDEO_DECODER_SUNXI=y
[..]
CONFIG_FB_SUNXI=m
CONFIG_FB_SUNXI_RESERVED_MEM=y
CONFIG_FB_SUNXI_UMP=y
CONFIG_FB_SUNXI_LCD=m
CONFIG_FB_SUNXI_HDMI=m
# CONFIG_HDMI_CEC is not set')

I am currently trying to build alarm repo kernel with only the above mentioned config changes reverted, I'll let you know how it goes.

EDIT 2:

After my changes the kernel runs flawless on my Cubietruck with VGA & HDMI working properly. I submitted a pull request for this: https://github.com/archlinuxarm/PKGBUILDs/pull/766