[Lenny400] [Mipsbook-devel] Squeeze rootfs and modernising the kernel

[Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller]

Hi Ard,

Am 01.04.2015 um 09:50 schrieb ard <ard at kwaak.net>:

> Hi,
> 
> On Wed, Apr 01, 2015 at 07:35:11AM +0200, Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller wrote:
>> Am 31.03.2015 um 23:34 schrieb David Boddie <david at boddie.org.uk>:
>> 
>>> On Tuesday 31. March 2015, Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller wrote:
>>>> Am 24.03.2015 um 23:46 schrieb David Boddie <david at boddie.org.uk>:
>>> 
>>>>> I noticed the 3.12-wip-letux400 branch at
>>>>> 
>>>>> http://git.goldelico.com/gta04-kernel.git
>>>>> 
>>>>> and will look into that.
>>>> 
>>>> Well, it is just a dummy. No real work has been done to support the Letux
>>>> 400 in this kernel, but I would be happy to support such a project. Maybe
>>>> we could even rebase and jump forward to 4.0-rc6 :)
>>> 
>>> We'll see. Unfortunately, quite a lot has happened since 2.6.24.3. :-)
>> Yes… Approx. 35 releases (with 6-8 rc each).
> 
> But also a lot of improvement on ubi. We can use ubi for the 2
> nand chips, and use ubifs on that.

Yes, and it works fine and stable on ARM (we have it on GTA04 since 3.12 kernels).

> 
>>> 
>>>>> Is that likely to be a better approach than
>>>>> attempting to merge the changes to the 2.6.24 kernel into a later
>>>>> release?
>>>> 
>>>> The problem is that the jz4730 SoC isn’t supported by any official
>>>> kernel. Just the jz4740 SoC and they have quite some differences (but also
>>>> similarities).
>>>> 
>>>> And, the documentation of the jz4730 did exist online but has disappeared
>>>> a while ago. So the first step would be to collect as much about the jz4730
>>>> SoC as possible.
>>>> 
>>>> Maybe you can find copies of
>>>> http://projects.kwaak.net/twiki/bin/view/Epc700/WebHome in some wayback
>>>> machine?
> 
> Sorry about that. My twiki was compromised and the easiest way
> out was to just stop the apache.
> I will find a way to correct it. Maybe just read-only.

Would be sufficient IMHO.

> There is
> not a lot of information though.

Well, if I remember correctly there were photos and analyses of gpio assignments
etc. which might be of big help for newer kernels.

> 
>>> There seem to be some documents that can be retrieved via archive.org and
>>> also elsewhere.
>>> 
>>>> Or someone just reading this list has archived some (or all) documents?
>>>> 
>>>> I have uploaded what I had found a while ago:
>>>> 
>>>> http://download.goldelico.com/letux-400/files/
> 
> Those schematics seem awesome

AFAIK they were found in the FCC database. But boards/revisions differ slightly in
what is really populated.

> 
>>> Thanks for those. I think they will overlap what has already been found, but
>>> it's always good to have another archive available.
>>> 
>>>> The next step could be to extend the mips cpu support for the jz4730 in
>>>> the kernel.org arch/mips tree (unfortunately they are not yet on DT like
>>>> ARM which would make some things a little easier like formally describing
>>>> the SoC).
>>> 
>>> That's what I've been led to believe regarding the device tree work but I'm
>>> not focusing on this myself. At the moment I'm trying to reuse work I've done
>>> on other embedded-like systems for the user space software the minibook will
>>> need. I'll try to keep you updated about both of these efforts. Is this
>>> mailing list the best place for that?
> 
> I am pre-occupied with exynos (odroids/chromebooks) atm. I have a
> Letux 400, and an epc700 (from intertoys). At least one battery
> and battery cover is broken. Although I do not want to part with
> them, I can send these to anyone who is actually active, and put
> them to better use.
> The epc700 has a serial console "break out", but no build in
> wifi. Or it might have it. I did some soldering.

AFAIK reflashing a bootloader needs JTAG access to the Flash memory. I had
started a project to build such an adapter some years ago but it was never finished
or tested (mainly because of lack of MIPS compatible JTAG software for the OpenMoko
debug board):

http://projects.goldelico.com/p/letux-400-jtag/

> 
>> There was another mailing list not only for the Letux 400 but all MIPS based 
>> minibooks. I don’t know if it is still alive:
>> 
>> http://lists.linuxtogo.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mipsbook-devel
> 
> I’m not even sure how it popped up in my inbox ;-).

Yes, the list appears to work (and I have forwarded my responses to both)
but there, the archive is also dead.

So the mostly maintained list is the lenny400 at goldelico.com (because I
am the sysadmin for it :).

> 
> Regards,
> Ard van Breemen
> 

BR,
Nikolaus