We did something similar in Linaro for testing, there might be some useful tools / experience there. Talk to Alexander Sacs... Dave Sent from my iPad On 20 Dec 2012, at 13:26, Peter Robinson <pbrobinson@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Hi Hans, > > Second try! > >> I'm very interested in fedora on arm, and as such I've started >> a "little" hobby project to get Fedora-arm up and running >> on allwinner a10 boards. > > A number of us are interested in the A1x devices. I have a Cubieboard. > >> After 2 weeks (mostly weekends) of fiddling and writing >> some kernel patches (more to follow). I've fedora-arm >> up and running nicely on an mk802-II "hdmi-stick", but it >> still needs some polishing before I can make images available. >> >> It also runs on the gooseberry board Spot gave me at >> Fudcon Paris, but the hdmi out of that board is having >> issues... >> >> My work is based on: >> -f18arm-latest-armhfp-xfce.tar.xz >> -https://github.com/linux-sunxi/linux-sunxi (3.4 branch) >> -https://github.com/linux-sunxi/u-boot-sunxi >> >> So all 100% open (not all upstream / mainline, but a group >> of people is working on that). > > The initial upstream support has landed in 3.8 for the sunxi SoC > support. I'm not sure how complete it is. There was someone working on > upstreaming the uboot support. I would be nice to find out the status > of that too. > >> 1) Does anyone know a good place to host images, IE can I >> create a fedorahosted page for this and/or abuse >> fedorapeople.org for this? > > fedorapeople.org might be OK if you have enough space. > >> 2) There are many A10 based devices (I've 3 more coming >> from china / hong kong), and all of them have different >> board-configs. >> >> The good news here is that the A10 boot setup involve >> something called a "fex" file, which is a config file which >> tells the kernel about which parts of the A10 are used on >> a board and which gpio pins are connected to what. >> >> So all a10 boards share a common kernel-build, they >> just need a different fex file, and a different u-boot. >> >> AFAIK for F-18 the same is done for some supported boards, >> where there is a single kernel, which gets configured through >> devicetree for specific boards. Ideally the A10 (sunxi) >> kernels should move over to devicetree too, but that will >> be a while, and won't really change the problem. > > Yes, the mainline 3.8 support will have DT support I suspect. > >> So now we finally get to the question, how to deal with >> the situation where we can, and want to, support many >> boards, all with the same image, except for the need >> of a different u-boot and a small config file in /boot. >> >> One option would be to create 8 almost identical images, >> but that seems like a bad idea to me. What I'm currently >> thinking about is creating 1 4GB image for all A10 devices >> and configure it by default for the MK802 (version 1), >> but include compiled u-boot "images" and fex files >> under /boot, together with a small .sh script using dialog >> which allows the user to change the selected board-config. >> >> The user can then dd the image to an sdcard, mount it >> and then run the sh script to select the board model he >> wants to use it with. The sh script will be written so >> as to run on any architecture and distro. > > I think that sounds reasonable, is there a means of specifying the fex > file in the uboot configuration? Then it might be just a matter of > specifying it and regenerating the uboot.scr file. > >> It could even be run on an actual A10 device, assuming the >> device is compatible with the MK802 revision 1, which most >> are (they need there own u-boot + fex to enable usage of >> 1G versus 512 MB ram, extra USB ports, etc.). > > Yes, sounds fairly standard like most ARM variants based on a single SoC. > >> So summarizing I'm looking for suggestions for: >> 1) Where to host Fedora-18 images for A10 based devices >> 2) How to deal with having board-specific u-boot + fex file >> without multiplying the number of images. > > 1) fedorapeople should be OK, or I have a host I can give you access > too if that doesn't work. > > 2) I think a simple script should be enough, with luck in a short > amount of time we should be able to support it all in the mainline > Fedora kernel with device tree. > > BTW does it need any binary firmwares for any HW support? > > Peter > _______________________________________________ > arm mailing list > arm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/arm _______________________________________________ arm mailing list arm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/arm
