move to kernel 3.10

[xlazom00]

Amlogic release new kernel 3.10
http://openlinux.amlogic.com:8000/download/ARM/

It will be nice to move to new kernel :)

[C-Prime90]

already in the works ;)

[xlazom00]

why did you close this issue as it is "IN WORKS"
you broke whole issues tracking idea :)

[dhead666]

@croniccorey

What the status of kernel 3.10 ?
I'm trying to build it myself using gcc-linaro-arm-linux-gnueabihf-4.7-2013.04.
It looks like I can't boot it using the original uboot of the g18ref.

make meson6_defconfig
make zImage
make meson6_g18.dtd
make meson6_g18.dtb
cat arch/arm/boot/zImage arch/arm/boot/dts/amlogic/meson6_g18.dtb > new_zImage
./arch/arm/boot/mkimage -A arm -O linux -T kernel -C lzma -a 82000000 -e 82000000 -d new_zImage uImage

This is the output when executing the kernel

Booting kernel from Legacy Image at 82000000 ...
Image ame:
Image Type: ARM Linux Kernel Image (lzma compressed)
Data Size: 3501226Bytes = 3.3 MiB
Load Address: 82000000
Entry Point: 82000000
Verifying Checksum ... OK
Uncompressing Kernel Image ... LZMA: uncompress or overwrite error 1 - must RESET board to rcover
resetting ...

[dhead666]

After testing misc configurations of memory addresses to load the kernel and to exract the kernel and failing in all cases, I decided to not compress it at all.
So now I get no error but after the first message that the kernel is loading I get no output anymore (I do have ttyS0 set withing the kernel by bootcmd.
So ATM using the original uBoot of the g18ref doesn't end well although from what I read it should have worked.

Here're the steps I made:

make meson6_defconfig
make UIMAGE_COMPRESSION=none uImage
make meson6_g18.dtd
make meson6_g18.dtb
cat arch/arm/boot/uImage arch/arm/boot/dts/amlogic/meson6_g18.dtb > uImage

[xlazom00]

try to contact Stane1983
https://github.com/Stane1983

It looks like he made it booting
http://www.cnx-software.com/2014/03/10/amlogic-gpl-source-code-release-kernel-3-10-u-boot-and-drivers-wi-fi-nand-tvin-mali-gpu/

[dhead666]

Nevermind, I found my silly mistake, I forgot to enable the config to append fdt to the kernel.
Now I got the kernel loading with the legacy uboot but I encounter a kernel panic.

[dhead666]

Good news, got Arch Linux running, still things a bit unstable, no networking yet so one need to solder wires to the uart solder pads.

Now I need to figure out how to create a bootable sd card without changing uboot enviroment params on the spi as I want to have a bootable sd card to load Arch.

I'm not sure if Amlogic method for creating bootable sd also automatically flash the uboot from sd to spi, which I don't want.
As I understood there are two ways to load uboot from sd, the first is to dd the uboot before the first partition and the second is to have it resided in the first partition but to rename it to something.

If I can't supplied an extra uboot enviroment params file then I'm guessing I will also need to compile my own uboot as it will default to the ones configured at build time and I'm not sure there are uboot sources for the g18 board.

[xlazom00]

It is really bad that you don't have working ethernet driver in kernel
I use it with kernel 3.0 this way:
boot kernel over tftp as uboot support this. As you don't need working ethernet to boot linux kernel :)
And then with working kernel I use NFS for rootfs
http://pastebin.com/V6bhWYqh
Try to load kernel from tftp. it is good start

[dhead666]

I know about tftp booting but it won't help the fact I don't have eth0 registered so the kernel won't be able to nfs the rootfs.

If nothing is off with my kernel config then it possible that the meson6_g18.dtd needs some tweaking.

I think I'll just use an usb ethernet adapter for the time being and will try to figure out how to have a bootable sd card load the rootfs.

[xlazom00]

http://www.cnx-software.com/2014/05/12/how-to-extract-a-device-tree-file-from-android-firmware-files/

[dhead666]

Thanks @xlazom00, I didn't know it's possible.
I don't think the g18 (meson6) got an Android firmware with FDT support (Amlogic Android SDK 4.4 ?).

I probably need to look at the old board files from the 3.0.50 kernel and see if something is missing in the FDT file.