[fedora-arm] Cubietruck questions - Re: Announcing Fedora 19 ARM remix for Allwinner SOCs release 3

[Robert Moskowitz]

On 10/13/2013 05:29 PM, Hans de Goede wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I'm very happy to announce the third release (r3) of my Fedora 19 ARM
> remix images for Allwinner A10, A10s, A13 and A20 based devices. This
> release is based on the official Fedora 19 Final for ARM images,
> with u-boot and kernel(s) from the linux-sunxi project:
> http://linux-sunxi.org/
>
> New this release:
>
> 1) Fix the bad brown paper bag bug in r2 which caused it to not boot
> on sun4i (A10) and sun5i (A13/A10s) devices
> 2) Support for the cubietruck (except for the wifi module)

Will this get fixed in f19?  Or not until f20?

> -The regular (host not otg) usb-port on A10s based boards can be a
>  bit quirky. It is best to plug in a hub even when using only one
>  device, otherwise the device may not be recognized. If this happens,
>  after adding a hub, often a power-cycle is needed too.

Yet another reason to go with the A20.

> -The wifi chip on the Auxtek-T004 hdmi-stick and on the cubietruck are
>  unsupported atm

I am not hurrying out and buying a CT, and my first application will 
probably not use wifi, but eventually I will be needing this.

> Enjoy,
>
> Hans

Oh, I plan to.  Thanks.  But a couple more questions.

>         * If you've an A20 board, your ethernet may have a random 
> mac-address,
>           so if you want to configure a static ip-address and want it 
> to stick
>           across reboots, go to the ethernet-tab, select the 
> mac-address field
>           and delete its contents, so that the static ip address you're
>           configuring does not get tied to the random mac-address.

I work in IEEE 802.  This is NASTY!  They did not want to get enough 
address space from the RAC?  I may have to get one just to figure out 
what is going on (and will talk to my colleagues in .1 at the Jan 
meeting.  This is probably more common than I would have thought).

> How to power your allwinner device
> ----------------------------------
>
> For reliable operation it is important that your allwinner device is 
> properly
> powered. Some users try to power their allwinner development boards 
> through
> the power pin on the serial port / uart connector. This is a very bad 
> idea!
> and will almost always result in unreliable operation. Instaed always 
> power
> your allwinner device over the barrel connector intended for that using,
> using a quality, reliable power supply.

Good to know and will probably impact one solar powered project (if it 
gets funding).

> Known Issues
> ------------
> * The broadcom sdio wifi found in the Auxtek T004 hdmi-stick and on the
>   Cubietruck is not supported

You really make sure we got the message.  ;)

>
>
> Supported hardware components / features:
> -----------------------------------------
>
> Fedora 19 ARM for Allwinner A10 supports the following components:
> * SPI (as module, not supported on A20)

Ooops.  I am looking at adding addtional ethernet ports using this. I 
see that there are a number of single ethernet port modules for SPI on 
Arnudio systems.  It seems this is a route to get the A20 to function as 
a multiport router.  Do you see this limitation being fixed?


Thank you for your efforts.