/srv/irclogs.ubuntu.com/2009/03/12/#ubuntu-arm.txt

newz2000hi, would something like this make a suitable board for experimentation? [ebay link] http://tinyurl.com/cnjbgy (3.5" LCD) or http://tinyurl.com/b46hsg (7" LCD) - both are Samsung S3C2440 ARM9 devel boards04:00
newz2000Or does someone have a suggestion for something that has network connectivity and usb host for around $100 USD?04:01
rwhitbynetwork and usb host?  Linksys NSLU205:54
rwhitbyor a sheevaplug05:55
rwhitbyboth under USD$10005:55
rwhitbytalk to lool for ubuntu on nslu2, and rabeeh for sheevaplug :-)05:55
=== Mirell_ is now known as Mirell
newz2000so would I be making life difficult by experimenting with a paltform like the ones I linked above?13:35
persianewz2000, The main tricks with most platforms are 1) making sure there is a clean working kernel, and 2) making sure you have a mechanism to install.13:54
persiaIt's always safer to go with something that someone else already has working, but if you're prepared for the extra work in getting the basics working, anything ought to work.13:54
newz2000ah, good advice. That vendor says they ship with 2.6.13 pre-installed.13:55
newz2000is that helpful?13:55
persiaNot really.  We ship 2.6.28 :)13:55
newz2000yeah, big diff.13:55
persiaHistorically, there's been large, incompatible, patches between different ARM kernel trees as well, which complicates things.13:55
newz2000Maybe I'll have to just wait for the first gen of netbooks and get one of those. I'd kind of like to get something with a screen.13:57
loolnewz2000: I recommend you look into modern ARM hardware; there's a change Ubuntu might not support older hardware in future releases15:25
loolnewz2000: Sheevaplug or beagleboard would both qualify I think15:26
looltbm is working on sheevaplug enablement in Debian ATM15:26
loolOh!  Marvell released U-Boot and Linux downloads for SheevaPlug15:27
newz2000ah, good tip15:27
ograSheevaplug isnt v7 though15:27
ograso might not work in KK15:27
newz2000what are some good search words for the best architectures to use?15:27
ograomap3 is surely one ...15:27
* ogra is a big beagleboard fan 15:28
loologra: Exactly what I was checking; it's just ARMv515:28
loolHow disappointing15:29
ograyep15:29
ograi hope in KK someone from the community adds beagle support to the linux-ports package15:29
loolnewz2000: ARMv7?15:29
ograthat would give us some community15:29
loolnewz2000: cortex-a815:30
newz2000ok, will check it out15:30
ogracortex-a8 might be the best15:30
ograthat specifies all the v7 stuff out there15:30
ograthe TI zoom looks like a good platform, though the pricing is a joke15:31
ograhttp://www.logicpd.com/products/devkit/ti/zoom_omap34x-II_mdp?DCMP=wtbu_zoom&HQS=Other+PR+orderzoom ... "Starting at $1150 Recommended Resale"15:35
armin76tbh armv7 is pretty new regarding products using it, if marvell(and therefore almost all NAS vendor) decided to stay with armv5te i'd say its because of something15:58
ograwell, v7 is what the ubuntu port focuses on15:59
suihkulokkibecause ARMv7 license is more expensive than ARMv5 license and for a NAS the ARMv7 provide nothing intersting15:59
armin76suihkulokki: what does armv7 that armv5 doesn't?16:02
Stskeepsplans are to go armv7 exclusively (and not hwcap) in karmic? ..16:10
MartynHey all.16:34
MartynThe company I work for has gotten a babbage board, and I was wondering if I can run the current armel build of jaunty on it.16:35
MartynIt's all armel, but will the v4 target that ubuntu uses when compiling the dist give me any issues?16:35
* ogra points Martyn to http://people.ubuntu.com/~ogra/arm/babbage/16:38
ogranote its far from being done yet, its only the first handrolled image ...16:38
armin76ogra: who built that board? freescale?16:38
ograarmin76, well, who else doe MX$$ CPUs ? :)16:40
ogra*does16:40
Martynarmin : Pegatron16:43
Martynthe babbage board is basically the same thing as the pegatron netbook, but squashed onto a small devboard.16:44
Martynogra : 48 hours old build .. I'm impressed!16:48
Martynogra : How long does it take to churn through an entire native build, I wonder...16:48
Martynogra : I'll 'dd' up a card and boot it shortly.16:48
ogradefine "native build" :)16:48
MartynIt takes a while to download 800 megs worth of image16:49
Martynogra : Non-cross-compiled16:49
ograyou mean compiling a kernel16:49
ograless than 1h16:49
MartynOh, so the kernel is compiled on the mx51 board, but the entire distribution outside of it is cross compiled?16:49
ogradepending on your disk speed ...16:49
ogranothing is cross compiled16:49
MartynGood :)16:49
ograthe whole arm port is built natively on our arm buildds16:50
MartynI've been having more and more weird issues with cross compiling on x86 with armel targets.   Those problems simply go away when I use a native toolchain.16:50
ogracurrently NCommander is the only one cross compiling something for us, since redboot requires its own special toolchain16:50
Martynhzzah!16:50
ogra(and he works on packaging redboot for us atm)16:50
MartynAwsome.16:51
garrenwhy redboot over u-boot16:51
MartynWell, here does the download.  (insert sounds of bandwidth being sucked)16:51
Martynreboot is more flexible16:51
ograbecause there is no u-boot support for that HW yet16:51
Martynu-boot has no support on the MX51.16:51
garrenI thought redboot was no longer being maintained16:51
ograredboot is ugly and evil but nobody implemented u-boot for that SoC16:51
garrenoh ok16:52
garrenmx31 does that have u-boot support?16:52
ograu-boot has the big advantage of being able to just use vfat partitions for kernel and initramfs16:52
Martynogra : Wow .. 6mbit of download speed :)16:52
ograwhich means you can just use a vfat /boot partition16:52
Martynogra : I love downloading from well hosted servers .. that's close to our office's max theoretical speed16:52
ograand dont need to jump through hoops to get your kernel into afis partition or omething equally evil16:53
Martynogra : I know, I know.16:53
ograMartyn, well, the server is in the canonical datacentre16:53
* amitk watches ogra's temperature rise a few degrees talking about redboot16:53
Martynogra : One of my tasks is to port a more flexible bootloader.16:53
ograheh16:53
ograMartyn, take u-boot ... many people will love you for it :)16:54
Martynogra : If I can convince the VP of engineering here.. sure.16:54
ograits the best OSS community maintained bootloader atm16:54
Martynit's a very flexible one, but I prefer my bootloaders to have more 'smarts'16:54
ograit has a big backing by the beagleboard community16:54
Martynhaving to type 'mmcinit' .. etc.. is just inane16:55
ograso many people look after it and help fixing bugs ...16:55
Martyn(not insane, just boring and technical :) )16:55
ograindeed16:55
amitkMartyn: what are your options?16:55
ograit surely can use some improvement16:55
MartynI may skip it and port grub.16:55
garrenI agree u-boot is very popular and quite well maintained16:57
ograif you port grub you will be pretty much on your own maintaining the arm specific patches against it for the start ...16:58
Martynamitk : xosl, grub, u-boot, redboot .. although admittedly there's more work in grub than others, and more work in u-boot than any other for embedded platforms16:58
ograu-boot comes with a big community already16:58
MartynI may just do the 'lazy developer' thing, and extend u-boot to be smarter16:58
MartynBut that totally depends on what the company I'm working for sees as a priority.16:59
ograjust make u-boot read a config file for the bootcmd :)16:59
amitkwe should store that in a flash partition16:59
ograno !16:59
Martyncan do that.  I was just thinking of having it obey the "active" partition label if using PC-style partition labels16:59
ograin a text file thats just accessible with an editor ;)17:00
amitkogra: that requires an editor inside a bootloader - bloat17:00
Martynhold on .. I'm downloading the u-boot code.   Once I've had a read for a couple hours, I can make more valid comments and directed decisions17:00
ogrause flash only fro bringing up u-boot, make it read some kind of partition  in disk by default and make it read all additional options from atext file in that partition17:01
Martynamitk : NEVER.17:01
Martynamitk : It's simpler to just support reading a file off a filesystem.   Once the OS is up and running, you use your text editor of choice.17:01
* amitk agrees17:01
ograi.e. make it function similar to grub whithout having to port grub :)17:01
MartynThat's one of the good things about grub, for example.  It simply knows to read the FS (not caring much what FS it is .. as long as it's supported) finds the config file, and goes from there.17:01
ograright, grub has surely great usability, but u-boot has the biggest bugfixing community backing on arm atm ...17:02
ogramegre both and you have the perfect arm bootloader ;)17:02
Martynand as long as the bootloader supports EXT2/3/4, FAT(16/32), and a handful of other commonly used embedded OS'es, then you're fine.17:02
ograthe bootloader only needs to support one actually17:03
amitkthe problem with grub ATM is that the grub1 is a deadend, grub2 is still not stable17:03
ograjust to get your kernel up ...17:03
Martynogra : Sure, and even keep the filenames.  I mean, who cares if the default config file is called "menu.lst"/17:03
Martyn-heh-17:03
Martynogra : I hate having to have two different FS's on a system.  Since the bootloader tends to either live in firmware or on the first sector of the disk .. why not just support the most common FS types and get rid of the idea of a special partition for booting...17:04
ograsure, but that will make your work bigger17:04
MartynOne of the interesting things about filesystems, is that it's a bitch to create code to support /write/, but reads are actually relatively easy by comparison.17:04
Martynand most bootloaders don't have the support write for any reason.17:04
ograwell, you wont need write support at all for the above setup :)17:05
Martyni already have a code library to deal with NTFS, FAT, FAT16, FAT32(+LBA), EXT(2/3), jffs2, and cramfs17:05
ograthe system can do all the writing, the bootloader only needs to read17:05
ogra(and execute accordingly to the config)17:05
Martynexactly .. I wrote the bootloader for the IBM/Lenovo "blue button" restore system.17:05
ograsweet17:06
MartynAnd I can say, with PRIDE, all that fits easily in the first 63 sectors.17:06
MartynThe initial bootloader (jump section and some branching code) fits inside the first sector with room for the partition tables :)17:06
MartynOf course, that's not needed on the ARM platform, which doesn't even load a bootsector from disk, ever.17:07
MartynOne of the same reasons I love the OpenBoot firmware on macs.17:07
ograwhat i really hate about all arm bootloaders in their current state is that you always need a second machine since they all require serial interaction ...17:09
loolHey folks RB actually supports FS17:12
loolIn tip17:12
loolpackages/fs/fat/current/src/fatfs.c in ecos17:12
lool(Well at least ecos does)17:13
sofi2I have been asking this questions over and over ...Can any1 tell me if any1 was able to get touchscreen working on Jaunty-ARM?17:42
sofi2???17:42
Stskeepsi have it working on a n8x0, but through tslib :P17:43
sofi2I have installed tslib and I also removed synaptic17:44
sofi2But I am still unable to get it to work17:44
Stskeepsmaybe if you tell which hardware you're doing it on :P17:44
sofi2I can do a cat to the touchscreen event and I get characters back...This means my driver is working17:46
sofi2But for some reason I cannot see it on X?17:46
sofi2Any suggestions?17:47
Stskeepsdo you have a /etc/pointercal, since you use tslib? :P17:47
sofi2Yes I calibrated the touchscreen...I got those 4 corners and center hair and it generated /etc/pointercal17:47
Stskeepsand you got rid of xserver-xorg-input-synaptics (sp)17:48
sofi2yes17:48
Stskeepshmm17:48
sofi2But I cannot see anything on X17:48
Stskeepscannot see = no actual input working on X, or no cursor showing?17:48
sofi2I mean the touch is not showing an input pointer...However wheneven I touch the screen it takes me to the logout pop-up of LXDE17:49
sofi2no matter where I touch17:50
Stskeepsand you have an xorg not entirely unlike the inputdevice section in http://rafb.net/p/ghLad128.html ?17:52
Stskeepsxorg.conf, that is17:53
sofi2Actually I am not using omapfb because my hardware is being almost unresponsive ...So I am using      Option          "UseFBDev"              "true"   instead17:54
Stskeepswell, it was more about the InputDevice section17:54
sofi2Yes ..except that I had to change the event to event1 coz thats where my touch is17:55
Stskeepsalright.. i would recommend you to check your xorg log for anything weird :P17:57
sofi2Does jaunty have problems in xorg?17:57
sofi2Do you know where the paste bin is ? I wanted to paste the xorg log17:59
Stskeepsrafb.net/paste can be used17:59
sofi2rafb.net/paste18:00
sofi2How ?18:00
Stskeepshttp://rafb.net/paste paste it, and give the url to the result :P18:01
sofi2http://rafb.net/p/mxDz4Y48.html18:02
sofi2Thanks:)18:03
Stskeepsand width/height matches resolution?18:04
Stskeepscan you paste your xorg.conf too?18:04
sofi2xorg.conf:  http://rafb.net/p/oyRqch80.html18:07
Stskeepshm, seems correct18:08
Stskeepsand the tslib tools seem to react correctly?18:13
sofi2you mean ts_calibrate18:13
sofi2yes18:13
Stskeepsi wonder if that stay-clicked touchscreen bug was fixed..18:14
sofi2what is that bug?18:14
Stskeepswell there was some bug in -tslib that caused the cursor to stay clicked or something, but im not sure18:15
sofi2Is there another driver that is more stable then with a calibration tool ?18:16
Stskeepsok, this is not a official ubuntu package at all, but it is one we use on the nokia n8x0s on a ubuntu port, and i know it works, so you can test if it works with that18:16
Stskeepshttp://repository.mer.tspre.org/pool/main/x/xf86-input-tslib/xserver-xorg-input-tslib_0.0.5-1mer7_armel.deb18:16
sofi2ok Thanks :) I will try it right now18:18
Stskeepsno promises :P18:18
Stskeepscan i out of curiousity ask what kind of device you're working with?18:18
sofi2Its a omap3430 device from TI which is not out yet...I cant say more than this ;)18:20
Stskeepsalright18:20
Stskeepsah, and with http://repository.mer.tspre.org/pool/main/t/tslib/libts-0.0-0_1.0-4ubuntu2mer2_armel.deb , http://repository.mer.tspre.org/pool/main/t/tslib/libts-bin_1.0-4ubuntu2mer2_armel.deb too18:27
Stskeepsforgot those18:27
Martynogra : Does the babbage board support SDHC cards properly for booting?18:32
Martynlool : Sorry it took so long to get back to you .. I was out to lunch, literally.18:33
loolthat's fine18:33
loolMartyn: I have had issues with some versions of redboot with some cards; one limitation is that it will only see the first 2 GB18:34
MartynSo, I can't really comment as to why we have the board .. at least openly.18:34
loolWell you're in a public chan here18:35
loolSo let's avoid it :)18:35
MartynRight :)18:35
MartynAaaand .. after that wonderful netsplit...19:10
Stskeepssofi2: any luck?19:10
Martynogra : The image starts at block 4, so you've left room for redboot at the top of the image?19:10
MartynOr does the image have a reboot already on it?19:10
MartynI just did the dd and inserted the card, but got no joy for a boot.19:11
sofi2Stskeeps: I am still unable to get touch working?19:30
Stskeepssofi2: alright, - i'm not entirely sure what is wrong then :/19:31
* Martyn gives up on the board for the moment, and moves back to working on the beagleboard.19:37
MartynOne of these days, installing ubuntu on non-x86 architectures will be as easy as installing it on x8619:53
* Martyn *sighs* It just doesn't have to be this hard.19:54
Martynis there anyone here with a babbage board that could do a quick off-channel chat to check board DIP switch settings21:26
MartynSince I'm short the docs, I just want to get this one in a bootable state.21:26
Martynre21:41
=== ian_brasil is now known as ian_brasil_ack
=== ian_brasil_ack is now known as ian_brasil
MartynHi there David22:08
dad_hello22:08
=== Nicke_ is now known as Nicke
Martynre23:54

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