[Letux-kernel] LetuxOS: Replicant for GTA04

[H. Nikolaus Schaller]

While we are waiting for v5.10-rc1, I have invested some
time to resurrect our Replicant 4.2 image for the GTA04.

I have some progress towards running a more modern kernel :)

The biggest missing piece was that my build wrapper did not call
the Letux/scripts/replicant-modules script. So there were no
modules in the right format to install and the kernel failed
to load them.

The next problem was that init.gta04.rc is not maintained
in the kernel tree but depends on it. So the version I originally
installed did not even call load_modules.sh.

I have changed that, so that the kernel and the startup tricks
and helpers can be kept more easily in sync.

So far I can now build a new µSD through makesd by

	DEV=/dev/sdb makesd -v latest replicant -r https://download.goldelico.com/gta04-replicant/4.2/20170423-kernel-4.10-replicant.tbz

and then manually install a newly built kernel, device tree
and repacked modules.

As soon as I run the next full build of all letux kernels
(maybe next Monday when v5.10-rc1 is out) there should be
new replicant compatible kernel packages so that makesd can
do a full install. I'll report how to do this this later.

The status of my tests is:

Kernel 4.14.202 boots up to the Replicant logo and then stucks.
Kernel 4.19.152 writes ANDROID to the framebuffer but then reboots - this kernel should already support the GTA04A5 if I remember correctly.
Kernel 5.4.72 panics somewhere in omapdrm.
Kernel 5.9.1 drivers/staging/android/logger.c does not compile (problems with struct timespec).

So there is some progress and potentially fixable issues.

The most important one is that I do not know how to debug that there
is no progress after the Replicant logo with 4.14 kernel. There is
no console message, processes are running but nothing visible happens.
Touch remains inactive. Console shell works.

Ideas? Suggestions?

BR,
Nikolaus