Which board is the most upstream friendly?

[dongcarl]

Wondering which Olimex board is the most friendly to upstream distro ISOs? (e.g. Debian's arm ISOs)

I understand that the A20-OLinuXino-LIME2 is being used in production by quite a few companies, but I also understand that there are major differences with regards to upstream compatibility between the different models of the LIME2. So that's why I'm asking. Would also like to know about the different versions of A20-OLinuXino-LIME (which one is most compatible with upstream? which one is most used in production?)

Would like recommendations for models I should try out. Cheers!

[JohnS]

That sounds a bit like you want stable and bleeding edge.

Choose one

For stable, use Olimex builds.

For bleeding edge, be comfortable that things that were working get broken then fixed then broken then fixed etc.  New features/drivers break old things, as do typos etc.  It's normal but if you want working stable builds these are not for you.

If you're comfortable with some pain, maybe figure out the boards supported by the last few upstream builds (pick a time frame, 1 year?) and grab one or more of the boards which seem supported on a consistent basis.

(Obviously, join lots of forums, MLs, etc.)

If you want a stable build based on something newer than Olimex provide you may have to create it and test thoroughly.  You'll be popular if you report problems, especially with fixes

John

[dongcarl]

Thanks for the context John!

Let me rephrase what you're saying to make sure I'm understanding correctly: on the software side, if I use stock distro images, there's no guarantee as things get fixed and broken and unbroken over time. However, if I use Olimex's images, since the entire goal is to work with Olimex boards, there's more of an guarantee that it will work. Is that correct?


I think the main thing I want right now is specific model/revision recommendations (perhaps in the A20-OLinuXino-LIME{,2} series), with the goal being boards with the most upstreamed drivers/patches, or in other words, deviates the least from what's upstream. Perhaps that's a weird goal, but I remember learning that one of the LIME2 revisions/models was quite good in that regard.

[JohnS]

Yes, if you want a build where everything is probably working because it was actually tested in practice on a real board then an Olimex build is what I'd use.

Things that get broken are e.g. because people are adding new things or fixing things but accidentally damage something or fail to add the change to some part that turns out to need it.  (It's quite tough, as the vendor BSP stuff is rushed, inconsistent, badly documented or undocumented, etc.  But they do make stunning CPUs at low cost!  Also, they're not trying to make you & me happy with boards - they want to sell us a phone or TV box or such & for that thing to work adequately the day it's unboxed.  The good news is that these chips are used in millions of things so feel likely to be around for many years.  Look back at some of the other makers' CPUs from a few years ago and... where are they now?  No viable market share.)

Just my 2c, though!

John

[LubOlimex]

If you don't need hardware video acceleration you can use any Olimex A20 or A64 board with mainline. All hardware works fine except for the video acceleration which is hard to get properly working with mainline without using binary blobs.

[dongcarl]

If you don't need hardware video acceleration you can use any Olimex A20 or A64 board with mainline. All hardware works fine except for the video acceleration which is hard to get properly working with mainline without using binary blobs.

Oh that's wonderful news... I'm guessing I'll need hardware video acceleration if I'm going to use one of the LCDs you guys sell?

Also, does booting from eMMC or NAND work?

[LubOlimex]

Depends on what you need the display for. For simple use, hardware acceleration is not strictly required, but for more heavy-duty tasks it might be need. Like playing 1080p videos for example. But if you wish to play only videos you can use the LibreElec/KODI images that we release, they have such acceleration enabled.

With mainline Ubuntu and Debian images booting from eMMC works fine; you can forget about hardware acceleration or booting from NAND. But the software is completely (100% open-source) and binary blob free.

You can use the legacy Debian 3.4.x images that we also provide - they have hardware acceleration and booting from NAND available.

[dongcarl]

For simple use, hardware acceleration is not strictly required, but for more heavy-duty tasks it might be need. Like playing 1080p videos for example.

Huh... Does this mean that if I use the LCD as just console output, I probably won't need the acceleration?

[LubOlimex]

Yeah, console works fine. You are good to use the latest u-boots and kernels if you don't play HD videos.

[dongcarl]

Yeah, console works fine. You are good to use the latest u-boots and kernels if you don't play HD videos.

I see that the Pioneer-FreedomBox-HSK is using LIME2 revision G2, is there any tangible difference in upstream friendliness between the G2 and K (the latest)?