[fedora-arm] New Packages and Policy Questions

[Gordan Bobic]

Peter Robinson wrote:

>>  >> The package in question won't compile at all on F13, it seems:
>>  >>
>>  >> # rpmbuild --rebuild xorg-x11-server-1.6.1.901-1.fc11.src.rpm
>>  >
>>  > I don't know what the actual problem is from the error, but are all the
>>  > dependencies in that filesystem also f11-vintage?  If everything else
>>  > down /usr/include is f13-vintage, it's quite possible f11 sources or
>>  > spec might choke on considerably newer dependent includes.
>>
>> Most of the system is the F13 rawhide. It's yum updated from the F12
>> release since an awful lot in the F13 alpha is still missing or broken
>> (e.g. firefox). So there are still a number of F12 vintage packages that
>> aren't in the koji repository yet.
>>
>> Interestingly, F11 libxinerama packages that contain the headers where
>> the compile breaks don't even include those header files.
> 
> fbdev works fine for me for the AC100, I don't think its accelerated
> but it auto detects and just works, not had enough time to play with
> it further and see what works and what doesn't.

Indeed, I'm aware that fbdev just works. Ironically, the "accelerated" 
driver doesn't support most of the useful acceleration APIs (e.g. XV). 
It only supports GL ES. If I understood what I read in the mailing list 
archives correctly, Mesa as of recently has support for implementing a 
full GL API based on GL ES APIs. But as far as I can tell, that version 
of Mesa isn't in F13.

The accelerated driver also has some interesting dependencies (kernel 
module and a userspace daemon). It's also not as reliable and can cause 
a few other quirks (e.g. random case of caps lock being stuck on and the 
only cure I've found is a reboot).

Plus, text mode console switch no longer works one you get into X.

There was, however, some success recently in getting one of acceleration 
APIs working with mplayer, based on hardware acceleration of the Tegra.

Are you on the AC100 IRC channel?

>>  > What're you trying to achieve by recooking f11 xorg server on f13? Maybe
>>  > there's a different way to come at your overall goal.
>>
>> I very much doubt it. The machine I'm working on is a Toshiba AC100. The
>> only kernel available for it with working keyboard/mouse support is
>> 2.6.29 provided by Toshiba as part of the open source code they wrote
>> for Android (the machine comes pre-loaded with Android). Unfortunately,
>> Toshiba have in their infinite wisdom decided to put the keyboard and
>> mouse behind proprietary interfaces, rather than USB HID (the machine
>> does have full featured master and slave USB, which makes the decision
>> particularly retarded). The drivers haven't yet been ported to later
>> kernels.
> 
> Interesting, I'm looking at this closer as I have one of these devices
> myself. The keyboard/mouse reports its attached to the old style ps2
> keyboard/mouse interfaces.

AFAIK they are attached to the NvEc interfaces. One of the people on the 
mailing list was working on getting these to work on a more recent 
kernel, but with limited success so far - it isn't as trivial as one 
might hope.

There is some hope that Toshiba will provide Android 2.2 for the AC100 
in the near future which should come, in theory, with a 2.6.32.x kernel, 
which will hopefully make things a little easier for us WRT nvidia 
driver compatibility, but Toshiba's interest in supporting the AC100 
seems to be diminishing by the day.

>> Further, the only way to eccelerated graphics on it is using the nvidia
>> closed source tegra xorg driver. Since only 2.6.29 kernel works, only
>> the tegra driver that is compatible with the interface of the kernel
>> module for 2.6.29 works. That driver is sufficiently old that it is
>> based on the xorg ABI from version 1.6.x, i.e. of the F11 vintage.
> 
> Works fine with the fbdev on the 2.6.29 kernel using the F-13 and the
> fbdev X driver. In the 2.6.37 and already pending for the .38 series
> there's been a lot of tegra drivers make it to the mainline kernel so
> it will be interesting to see what's missing / remaining / different
> on the toshiba side of development.

As I said, last I checked the keyboard/mouse didn't work with newer 
kernels at the moment, and carrying an USB mouse/keyboard isn't really 
an acceptable solution for a netbook.

Gordan