Fedora 14 on ARM status update

[Peter Robinson]

Hi All,

A status update on F-14 on armv5tel because I've been somewhat quiet of late....

I believe we're going reasonably well although its not running as fast
as I would like.

We're nearing the end of the build-previous run. From there in the
next couple of days I should be able to switch over to running
koji-shadow and we'll move forward again.

I have a number of problematic packages that I would like some help
with. gcc/glibc/libffi/java/perl/python/binutils come to mind. In some
cases I have work arounds or patches in that are less than ideal so I
would love someone with more of a clue than myself to help out if
possible. I'll post a reply to this mail with more details of exact
packages over the weekend so people can help out and hack on it all.

We have enough of F-14 built that OLPC has moved over to F-14 for
builds on ARM on the XO and we're seeing some decent speed
improvements over F-13 on the same devices :-)

I plan to get out a new updated alpha minimal rootfs next week
sometime (I currently don't have broadband or I'd do it this weekend)
and I plan on adding a smartbook image to that as well to assist in
testing.

I'm still calling it alpha as we're still not signing packages. That
should hopefully be sorted before long.

Cheers,
Peter

[Niels de Vos]

On Fri, Aug 05, 2011 at 10:42:08PM +0100, Peter Robinson wrote:
...
>  I plan to get out a new updated alpha minimal rootfs next week
>  sometime (I currently don't have broadband or I'd do it this weekend)
>  and I plan on adding a smartbook image to that as well to assist in
>  testing. 
Could you or some other proven packager have a look at Bug 728730? The
attached (and tested) patch makes it possible to use kernel parameter
"console=ttymxc,115200" on Freescale i.MX based (EfikaMX like Genesi
Smarttopp/Smartbook). It would really be cool if this can be included in
one of the upcoming rootfs images.

Note that the Genesi systems can not run Fedora 14 yet. The currently
available kernel (2.6.31) does not work with Fedora 14. F14 requires
kernel 2.6.32 or newer. There is work being done on a kernel update, but
the result is not stable yet. When Genesi has a stable kernel, they will
likely post it in their blog at http://blog.efikamx.info/ . I'm also
trying to keep track of it and will send a message to this list when
there is a kernel update.

Thanks,
Niels

Newer kernel for Genesi efikamx

[William Cohen]

On 08/06/2011 03:09 PM, Niels de Vos wrote:
 
>  Could you or some other proven packager have a look at Bug 728730?
> The
>  attached (and tested) patch makes it possible to use kernel parameter
>  "console=ttymxc,115200" on Freescale i.MX based (EfikaMX like Genesi
>  Smarttopp/Smartbook). It would really be cool if this can be included in
>  one of the upcoming rootfs images.
>  
>  Note that the Genesi systems can not run Fedora 14 yet. The currently
>  available kernel (2.6.31) does not work with Fedora 14. F14 requires
>  kernel 2.6.32 or newer. There is work being done on a kernel update, but
>  the result is not stable yet. When Genesi has a stable kernel, they will
>  likely post it in their blog at http://blog.efikamx.info/ . I'm also
>  trying to keep track of it and will send a message to this list when
>  there is a kernel update.
>  
>  Thanks,
>  Niels 
Hi Niels,

I have a Genesi Efika mx smartbook and have been trying to get a newer kernel running on
it so I can try out Fedora 14 on it when the packages become available. The following blog
entry talks about building 2.6.38 kernel:

http://marcin.juszkiewicz.com.pl/2011/05/16/linux-2-6-38-on-efika-mx-smar...

I have been able to cross compile a kernel and install it, but I haven't been able to
boot the machine with the new kernel. I  built and installed a newer version of
module-init-tools (3.16) on the machine, but maybe there are other rpms that need to be
newer for this to work.

-Will

Newer kernel for Genesi efikamx

[Dan Horák]

William Cohen píše v Po 08. 08. 2011 v 09:41 -0400:
>  On 08/06/2011 03:09 PM, Niels de Vos wrote:
>  
>  > Could you or some other proven packager have a look at Bug 728730?
>  The
>  > attached (and tested) patch makes it possible to use kernel
>  parameter
>  > "console=ttymxc,115200" on Freescale i.MX based (EfikaMX like Genesi
>  > Smarttopp/Smartbook). It would really be cool if this can be
>  included in
>  > one of the upcoming rootfs images.
>  > 
>  > Note that the Genesi systems can not run Fedora 14 yet. The
>  currently
>  > available kernel (2.6.31) does not work with Fedora 14. F14 requires
>  > kernel 2.6.32 or newer. There is work being done on a kernel update,
>  but
>  > the result is not stable yet. When Genesi has a stable kernel, they
>  will
>  > likely post it in their blog at http://blog.efikamx.info/ . I'm also
>  > trying to keep track of it and will send a message to this list when
>  > there is a kernel update.
>  > 
>  > Thanks,
>  > Niels
>  
>  Hi Niels,
>  
>  I have a Genesi Efika mx smartbook and have been trying to get a newer
>  kernel running on it so I can try out Fedora 14 on it when the
>  packages become available. The following blog entry talks about
>  building 2.6.38 kernel:
>  
>  http://marcin.juszkiewicz.com.pl/2011/05/16/linux-2-6-38-on-efika-mx-smar...
>  
>  I have been able to cross compile a kernel and install it, but I
>  haven't been able to boot the machine with the new kernel. I built and
>  installed a newer version of module-init-tools (3.16) on the machine,
>  but maybe there are other rpms that need to be newer for this to work. 
I was going to try it soon, so thanks for your build. What's the problem
with the kernel? Are you booting from SD card or the internal flash
disk? Is your kernel available to download?


Dan

Newer kernel for Genesi efikamx

[William Cohen]

On 08/08/2011 09:52 AM, Dan Horák wrote:
>  William Cohen píše v Po 08. 08. 2011 v 09:41 -0400:
> > On 08/06/2011 03:09 PM, Niels de Vos wrote:
> >
> >> Could you or some other proven packager have a look at Bug 728730?
> > The
> >> attached (and tested) patch makes it possible to use kernel
> > parameter
> >> "console=ttymxc,115200" on Freescale i.MX based (EfikaMX like Genesi
> >> Smarttopp/Smartbook). It would really be cool if this can be
> > included in
> >> one of the upcoming rootfs images.
> >>
> >> Note that the Genesi systems can not run Fedora 14 yet. The
> > currently
> >> available kernel (2.6.31) does not work with Fedora 14. F14 requires
> >> kernel 2.6.32 or newer. There is work being done on a kernel update,
> > but
> >> the result is not stable yet. When Genesi has a stable kernel, they
> > will
> >> likely post it in their blog at http://blog.efikamx.info/ . I'm also
> >> trying to keep track of it and will send a message to this list when
> >> there is a kernel update.
> >>
> >> Thanks,
> >> Niels
> >
> > Hi Niels,
> >
> > I have a Genesi Efika mx smartbook and have been trying to get a newer
> > kernel running on it so I can try out Fedora 14 on it when the
> > packages become available. The following blog entry talks about
> > building 2.6.38 kernel:
> >
> > http://marcin.juszkiewicz.com.pl/2011/05/16/linux-2-6-38-on-efika-mx-smar...
> >
> > I have been able to cross compile a kernel and install it, but I
> > haven't been able to boot the machine with the new kernel. I built and
> > installed a newer version of module-init-tools (3.16) on the machine,
> > but maybe there are other rpms that need to be newer for this to work.
>  
>  I was going to try it soon, so thanks for your build. What's the problem
>  with the kernel? Are you booting from SD card or the internal flash
>  disk? Is your kernel available to download?
>  
>  
>  Dan
>  
>   
I was trying to boot the machine from an SD card. I have previously been able to natively
build a kernel to try systemtap out on the machine. The following link describe the steps
used to get the 2.6.31.24 kernel up and running:

http://sourceware.org/systemtap/wiki/SystemtapOnFedoraArm

For the 2.6.38 kernel I used
http://marcin.juszkiewicz.com.pl/2011/05/16/linux-2-6-38-on-efika-mx-smar... as the
starting point. I haven't made a tarball/rpm of it. I used the
http://marcin.juszkiewicz.com.pl/download/efikamx/hrw-kernel-config-for-2... for the
configuration.

As far as failure mode I turned off the "rhgb quiet" on the boot, but I still
got a blank screen. Tried toggle to caps lock key and didn't get any response. I
don't have the jtag/usb dongle, so no serial output and I don't have much insight
into how things are failing.

-Will

[Peter Robinson]

On Fri, Aug 5, 2011 at 10:42 PM, Peter Robinson <pbrobinson(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:
>  Hi All,
>
>  A status update on F-14 on armv5tel because I've been somewhat quiet of late....
>
>  I believe we're going reasonably well although its not running as fast
>  as I would like.
>
>  We're nearing the end of the build-previous run. From there in the
>  next couple of days I should be able to switch over to running
>  koji-shadow and we'll move forward again.
>
>  I have a number of problematic packages that I would like some help
>  with. gcc/glibc/libffi/java/perl/python/binutils come to mind. In some
>  cases I have work arounds or patches in that are less than ideal so I
>  would love someone with more of a clue than myself to help out if
>  possible. I'll post a reply to this mail with more details of exact
>  packages over the weekend so people can help out and hack on it all. 
So I mentioned i would mention some of the problems I would love some
help with from someone that knows a lot more about C and compiles and
autoconf and things that I can at best bumble my way around.

1) perl-5.12.2-133.fc14
http://arm.koji.fedoraproject.org/koji/buildinfo?buildID=28938

Theres a bug report where the maintainer outlines it looks like a
binutils problem. I managed to work out that a new compile option
caused it.
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=709107

2) icu-4.4.1-3.fc14.src.rpm
http://arm.koji.fedoraproject.org/koji/taskinfo?taskID=148683

Err. No idea :-)

3) mesa
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=713609

ajax I believe has been looking at this to some length

A random list of some other smaller ones that are likely easier to
fix, or might just need an update, or check to see if your favourite
package has build issues in koji :)

atlas-3.8.3-18.fc14
djvulibre-3.5.22-1.fc14
libffado-2.0.1-4.20100706.svn1864.fc14

I'd also love to see if any of the java patches that Andrew has been
working on for F-15 are back portable back to F-14 too :-D

Any one else that wants to work on an area like a desktop or
programming environment please do :-)

Peter