An alpha ARM full of Beefy Miracle (AKA Fedora 17 on ARM alpha 1)

[Peter Robinson]

A day later than I had hoped and probably not perfect but I don't want
to keep the hungry masses from their ARM based Beefy Miracle any
longer!

This is also posted at
http://nullr0ute.com/2012/03/an-alpha-arm-full-of-beefy-miracle-aka-fedor...

So down below is a pair of minimal root fs for ARM hardfp (ARMv7hl)
and softfp (ARMv5tel) but first a few notes about known issues:
* It's not for the faint of heart! If you don't like to roll your
sleeves up and get dirty, it's time to back away and go and buy an
iPad. While the ARM team is happy to help out with queries we don't
have the time to walk you though step by step. Google is your friend!
* SELinux is disabled by default. It should work just find but as it's
a tar file the file system would need to be re-labelled. I suggest you
enable it but get your device booting first
* root password is "fedoraarm" (no quotes)
* There's some known annoyances[0] with the kernel. It's not a major
problem, just annoying having a messages on the console. We're working
to get a fix for the next kernel
* There's 4 kernels installs by default the base "versatile" for qemu,
and one each for OMAP (3 and 4), tegra and IMX. Remove which ever one
you don't want once you have a working system.
* It boots to run level 3. We're working to get GUI interfaces but
we're not quite there yet, see below for more details
* A lot of ARM devices don't have battery backed RTCs so you need to
ensure you check your time hasn't regressed to the 70s ;-) as it will
cause havoc with yum amongst other things. ntpdate can assist you with
that.

Three's some links on the blog post to get you started with various devices.

Now on the missing GUI interfaces and "your favourite desktop". We're
working as quick as we can to get all the mainline packages built. I
would ask if you please don't just go and build random packages in
koji. We have scripts handling the build process to ensure it's built
identical to Mainline Fedora so everything works as it should but this
takes time. The quickest way to get these appearing for use if for you
to fix broken packages [1] in mainline Fedora. If they don't compile
there they certainly won't on ARM. These breakages block the build
process of packages higher up the stack as the needed dependencies
aren't there. Again please just don't go and compile random packages
in koji.

That being said there's been a LOT of work done by a few people to get
us to this point so I do hope you jump in and enjoy the ride :-D

Now for what you really are after:
http://fedora.roving-it.com/rootfs-f17-hfp-alpha1.tar.bz2 Fedora 17
ARMv7hl (hardfp) alpha 1 Minimal rootfs for tegra, OMAP, IMX5 and
other ARMv7 devices
http://fedora.roving-it.com/rootfs-f17-sfp-alpha1.tar.bz2 Fedora 17
ARMv5tel (softfp) alpha 1 Minimal rootfs for various Marvell plugs and
other ARMv5/6 devices

[0] http://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-omap/msg64732.html
[1] http://ausil.fedorapeople.org/f17-failures.html

[Niels de Vos]

On 03/01/2012 02:05 AM, Peter Robinson wrote:
>  A day later than I had hoped and probably not perfect but I don't
> want
>  to keep the hungry masses from their ARM based Beefy Miracle any
>  longer!
>
>  This is also posted at
>
> http://nullr0ute.com/2012/03/an-alpha-arm-full-of-beefy-miracle-aka-fedor...
Very cool! Downloading now, but I only have access to my Genesi 
SmartBook for the next weeks, which may provide some difficulties? I 
guess I'm now forced to find out which patches are needed to get the 
display working reliably.

Cheers,
Niels

[Andrew Wafaa]

On Thu, 2012-03-01 at 09:49 +0000, Niels de Vos wrote:
>  Very cool! Downloading now, but I only have access to my Genesi 
>  SmartBook for the next weeks, which may provide some difficulties? I 
>  guess I'm now forced to find out which patches are needed to get the 
>  display working reliably. 
Unfortunately Genesi are still working on an open driver that can be
upstreamed for 3.x on the iMX51. I'm not sure if they'll be able to get
it out in time for either F17 or openSUSE 12.2. We (openSUSE) can only
get a display working if we use the old 2.6.x kernel and even then use
their kernel tree. 

Half the issue is Freescale have shifted all their focus onto the iMX6
and so Genesi are fighting uphill, but they are making progress.

Regards,

Andy

-- 
Andrew Wafaa
IRC: FunkyPenguin
GPG: 0x3A36312F

[Niels de Vos]

On 03/01/2012 11:39 AM, Andrew Wafaa wrote:
>  On Thu, 2012-03-01 at 09:49 +0000, Niels de Vos wrote:
> > Very cool! Downloading now, but I only have access to my Genesi
> > SmartBook for the next weeks, which may provide some difficulties? I
> > guess I'm now forced to find out which patches are needed to get the
> > display working reliably. 
So, I managed to boot Beefy Miracle on my SmartBook. It currently runs 
an adopted kernel based on sources from Genesi, with version 
2.6.35.14.23. The kernel really is not stable (at least on F13) and may 
hang on occasion (for to me unknown reasons).

If you are adventurous and would like to give F17 alpha1 a try, get the 
rootfs as mentioned earlier in this thread (or read 
http://nullr0ute.com/2012/03/an-alpha-arm-full-of-beefy-miracle-aka-fedor...)

and add the kernel, modules and by hand updated initramfs from 
http://devos.fedorapeople.org/kernel-genesi/f17-hfp-alpha1_EfikaMX-sb.tar...

First thing I notices on the rootfs, was that I could not install any 
additional packages, and WLAN wasn't configured (of course). I hope 
http://blog.nixpanic.net/2012/03/wlan-configuration-of-networkmanager.html 
helps in case you like to use WLAN as well.

>  Unfortunately Genesi are still working on an open driver that can be
>  upstreamed for 3.x on the iMX51. I'm not sure if they'll be able to get
>  it out in time for either F17 or openSUSE 12.2. We (openSUSE) can only
>  get a display working if we use the old 2.6.x kernel and even then use
>  their kernel tree. 
Yeah, that is the same here. I hope to be able to lend a hand on getting 
some drivers in a decent state. Currently I am mainly stuck with the lcd 
(mtl017) driver on 3.x. No display makes the SmartBook difficult to use :-/

http://git.rtp-net.org/?p=efika.git;a=summary contains quite some usable 
patches, but finding out which ones are required, and porting them to a 
later kernel isn't trivial.

>  Half the issue is Freescale have shifted all their focus onto the
> iMX6
>  and so Genesi are fighting uphill, but they are making progress. 
Sure, and I appreciate the work Genesi does. Imho it is Freescale that 
should have provided the drivers in an upstreamable state and failed at 
that. It is a pity that the industry does not force (non-optimised) 
drivers to be upstream.

Cheers,
Niels

[Thomas Meyer]

Zitat von Peter Robinson <pbrobinson(a)gmail.com&gt;:

>  Now on the missing GUI interfaces and "your favourite
> desktop". We're
>  working as quick as we can to get all the mainline packages built. I
>  would ask if you please don't just go and build random packages in
>  koji. We have scripts handling the build process to ensure it's built
>  identical to Mainline Fedora so everything works as it should but this
>  takes time. The quickest way to get these appearing for use if for you
>  to fix broken packages [1] in mainline Fedora. If they don't compile
>  there they certainly won't on ARM. These breakages block the build
>  process of packages higher up the stack as the needed dependencies
>  aren't there. Again please just don't go and compile random packages
>  in koji. 
btw. where to report bugs in packages (like I did for accountsservice  
here on this list)? The package did build fine in mainline because I  
guess it where build before the usr-merge/move. now it fails.

>  That being said there's been a LOT of work done by a few people
> to get
>  us to this point so I do hope you jump in and enjoy the ride :-D 
Thanks for all the hard work.

with kind regards
thomas

[Peter Robinson]

On Thu, Mar 1, 2012 at 10:16 AM, Thomas Meyer <thomas(a)m3y3r.de&gt; wrote:
>  Zitat von Peter Robinson <pbrobinson(a)gmail.com&gt;:
>
>
> > Now on the missing GUI interfaces and "your favourite desktop". We're
> > working as quick as we can to get all the mainline packages built. I
> > would ask if you please don't just go and build random packages in
> > koji. We have scripts handling the build process to ensure it's built
> > identical to Mainline Fedora so everything works as it should but this
> > takes time. The quickest way to get these appearing for use if for you
> > to fix broken packages [1] in mainline Fedora. If they don't compile
> > there they certainly won't on ARM. These breakages block the build
> > process of packages higher up the stack as the needed dependencies
> > aren't there. Again please just don't go and compile random packages
> > in koji.
>
>
>  btw. where to report bugs in packages (like I did for accountsservice here
>  on this list)? The package did build fine in mainline because I guess it
>  where build before the usr-merge/move. now it fails. 
It depends on the problem. The circular deps issue is an issue that
koji-shadow will generally work out. The issue with the other one is a
result of the usrmove changes and is actually an upstream bug that
will come to light when the next version is built upstream.

Peter

[Dennis Gilmore]

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Hash: SHA1

On Thu, 01 Mar 2012 11:16:25 +0100
Thomas Meyer <thomas(a)m3y3r.de&gt; wrote:

>  
>  Zitat von Peter Robinson <pbrobinson(a)gmail.com&gt;:
>  
>  > Now on the missing GUI interfaces and "your favourite desktop".
>  > We're working as quick as we can to get all the mainline packages
>  > built. I would ask if you please don't just go and build random
>  > packages in koji. We have scripts handling the build process to
>  > ensure it's built identical to Mainline Fedora so everything works
>  > as it should but this takes time. The quickest way to get these
>  > appearing for use if for you to fix broken packages [1] in mainline
>  > Fedora. If they don't compile there they certainly won't on ARM.
>  > These breakages block the build process of packages higher up the
>  > stack as the needed dependencies aren't there. Again please just
>  > don't go and compile random packages in koji.
>  
>  btw. where to report bugs in packages (like I did for
>  accountsservice here on this list)? The package did build fine in
>  mainline because I guess it where build before the usr-merge/move.
>  now it fails.
>  
if a package is FTBFS for resons like usrmove or not ported for gcc-4.7
or just does not compile then file in bugzilla with patches prefered.
if its an issue that its just not building because we dont have the deps
built yet you just need to be patient, of course if you are a fedora
proven packager just fix it and build it on primary, then submit it as
an update.

>  > That being said there's been a LOT of work done by a few
> people to
>  > get us to this point so I do hope you jump in and enjoy the ride :-D
>  
>  Thanks for all the hard work.
>  
>  with kind regards
>  thomas
>  
>  
Thanks for looking at some packages :)

Dennis
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