[IMAGE] A13(-WIFI) Debian (now Ubuntu) + xfce flashable (Updated: 08 Mar: R18)

[jwischka]

I know there is an option for a boot image in the kernel compile, but I'm not quite sure how to make that work. I'll have to look at the other, but it's not the highest priority at the moment, so may be for a future release.

[maurosk]

Ok, tnx jwischka, you are very available!! The boot splash isn't priority i know, but is very beautifull .
You think is difficult implement the output on VGA of the boot sequence?

[jwischka]

Ok, tnx jwischka, you are very available!! The boot splash isn't priority i know, but is very beautifull .
You think is difficult implement the output on VGA of the boot sequence?

Dunno... Haven't tried to do it yet .

[maurosk]

Ok, tnx a lot for your time

[drspastic]

Sorry all - have been travelling and just got back in yesterday.

was cedar enabled on the r10 release? is there a command line way to varify this and/or test it? would it help performance to allocate more ram to it at startup?

I'm not sure. You can check the dmesg log and look for something taking 80MB of memory - if so, it should be activated.

Hi jwischka , thank you for the modification on -boot's, boot delay to zero. I want to used relase R10 which is on debian but i don't know where to make this modification to boot delay. Is this a script.bin modification ?

Thank you

If you have a serial console, stop the boot (in u-boot) and type:

setenv bootdelay 0
saveenv

[90168.410000] Normal free:3056kB min:2884kB low:3604kB high:4324kB active_anon:83920kB inactive_anon:86332kB active_file:153544kB inactive_file:123604kB unevictable:0kB isolated(anon):40kB isolated(file):4kB present:520192kB mlocked:0kB dirty:5968kB writeback:0kB mapped:74508kB shmem:4972kB slab_reclaimable:15784kB slab_unreclaimable:6400kB kernel_stack:1512kB pagetables:2652kB unstable:0kB bounce:0kB writeback_tmp:0kB pages_scanned:28 all_unreclaimable? no

86332kB, 83920kB, 74508kB... theres a few things about 80m. honestly im not sure what to look for.
i think i will need to do something about this (r10) kernel as i just realised that the sun4igpio is not (as far as i can tell) included, and i dont know how to proceed. i need to get those gpio working to do some control interfacing.

i just compiled thelinkbox repeater control software and was about to brainstorm how to adapt it to switch the radio transmitter on at the right moment when i realised gpio dont work at all.

(i reserve the right to have been stupid again and missed something obvious)

[jwischka]

Yeah, that's not the part you need. GPIO is broker in R10, so that's a given, and fixable. I'll post a new kernel and instructions on how to install it when I can, but it will probably be tomorrow morning (eastern time, USA).

Hopefully that will knock out both your problems in one move.

Sorry all - have been travelling and just got back in yesterday.

was cedar enabled on the r10 release? is there a command line way to varify this and/or test it? would it help performance to allocate more ram to it at startup?

I'm not sure. You can check the dmesg log and look for something taking 80MB of memory - if so, it should be activated.

Hi jwischka , thank you for the modification on -boot's, boot delay to zero. I want to used relase R10 which is on debian but i don't know where to make this modification to boot delay. Is this a script.bin modification ?

Thank you

If you have a serial console, stop the boot (in u-boot) and type:

setenv bootdelay 0
saveenv

[90168.410000] Normal free:3056kB min:2884kB low:3604kB high:4324kB active_anon:83920kB inactive_anon:86332kB active_file:153544kB inactive_file:123604kB unevictable:0kB isolated(anon):40kB isolated(file):4kB present:520192kB mlocked:0kB dirty:5968kB writeback:0kB mapped:74508kB shmem:4972kB slab_reclaimable:15784kB slab_unreclaimable:6400kB kernel_stack:1512kB pagetables:2652kB unstable:0kB bounce:0kB writeback_tmp:0kB pages_scanned:28 all_unreclaimable? no

86332kB, 83920kB, 74508kB... theres a few things about 80m. honestly im not sure what to look for.
i think i will need to do something about this (r10) kernel as i just realised that the sun4igpio is not (as far as i can tell) included, and i dont know how to proceed. i need to get those gpio working to do some control interfacing.

i just compiled thelinkbox repeater control software and was about to brainstorm how to adapt it to switch the radio transmitter on at the right moment when i realised gpio dont work at all.

(i reserve the right to have been stupid again and missed something obvious)

[drspastic]

thats great. im now going through the guide to compiling kernel to make sdcard just for practice. headbanging stuff. you sure have some patience. i need to get myself to the point where i can understand what you have done and sort things out myself instead of bothering you every other day.
i will be sitting at the screen waiting for your next output. definitely try and write a guide if you get time.

[nvd]

Are you sure that MALI and CEDAR are needed?

I have disabled them and am still getting the VGA output and more free RAM.
Since, MAIL and CEDAR implementations are yet to be "found out", there is no need to add their drivers support.

[jwischka]

Are you sure that MALI and CEDAR are needed?

I have disabled them and am still getting the VGA output and more free RAM.
Since, MAIL and CEDAR implementations are yet to be "found out", there is no need to add their drivers support.

They may not be needed for basic output, but there may be some benefit in video performance over not having the drivers installed. Full hardware acceleration has not been implemented yet, AFAIK, but what level of performance boost there is ... is unknown.

thats great. im now going through the guide to compiling kernel to make sdcard just for practice. headbanging stuff. you sure have some patience. i need to get myself to the point where i can understand what you have done and sort things out myself instead of bothering you every other day.
i will be sitting at the screen waiting for your next output. definitely try and write a guide if you get time.

You can download an R13 video kernel here. It should have GPIO support, and CEDAR/Mali are enabled.

To install, unzip/tar the files to a folder. You'll need to copy the directory to your /lib/modules folder, and then you'll need to mount the first partition on the card and copy the new uImage over:

sudo su
cp -a 3.4.24-jwischka-3.4-video-20130127-R13+ /lib/modules/
mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /mnt
cp uImage /mnt
sync
umount /mnt
reboot

After that you should be on R13 - "uname -a" will confirm.

As far as compiling the kernel... where are you getting stuck? If there's a part of the other guides that's unclear I can try to improve them by focusing on it.

You had mentioned in a message compiling a new kernel on the board itself. I'm not really sure that's something you want to do, for a couple of reasons. 1) the source code is large (~1GB), which means you're going to eat up a large portion (possibly) of your card. 2) compile times, even on my laptop (Core i5, SSD, plenty of ram) are on the order of 10+ minutes, meaning a compile on the board itself would be ... well, long. and 3) compiling on an SD card in general isn't the best idea, due to the disc wear.

In the kernel file, I've included my config file. Just copy config-video to .config in the directory where your source code is and type "make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabi- uImage and it should build the same kernel file you downloaded (assuming your source is up to date, and you've made the changes for the i2c bus...)

Let me know where you're getting stuck, and I'll see what I can do.

[JohnS]

Sorry to ask but which changes for the i2c bus?

John

[jwischka]

Sorry to ask but which changes to the i2c bus?

John

Default frequency in the sunxi code is 400/200/200 (kHz). They need to be changed to 100 for it to work properly.

[JohnS]

Thanks.

[drspastic]

http://pastie.org/6098799 is my errors. it did take a long time to compile but i dont have a powerful machine or any machine that uses a physical hard disk im running on an 8gig card and everything since installing git and trying to compile has eaten much of that. still not sure how to clear the unused stuff out and free some gigs. now running git gc and its also taking a long time. i can wait.

im sure cedar support must help by giving hardware video decoding. otherwise its little brain has to do it in software.
as for mali, i think it must do something to improve 3d. i know nothing of the details but there are open source projects to implement mali400 support. i like bzflags and want more speed to not get blown up

i will try to bung r13 kernel in tomorrow on a clone of my main 8gig card. see how the wind blows.

[JohnS]

If it's a missing file the general idea is to find which package provides it and install it.

John

[jwischka]

Did this happen with my .config file as well?

http://pastie.org/6098799 is my errors. it did take a long time to compile but i dont have a powerful machine or any machine that uses a physical hard disk im running on an 8gig card and everything since installing git and trying to compile has eaten much of that. still not sure how to clear the unused stuff out and free some gigs. now running git gc and its also taking a long time. i can wait.

im sure cedar support must help by giving hardware video decoding. otherwise its little brain has to do it in software.
as for mali, i think it must do something to improve 3d. i know nothing of the details but there are open source projects to implement mali400 support. i like bzflags and want more speed to not get blown up

i will try to bung r13 kernel in tomorrow on a clone of my main 8gig card. see how the wind blows.