Re: [Tinkerphones] GTA04A5 and News from the Kernel
i want unsuscribe from this email ⏎--⏎ ⏎Enviado de forma segura con Tutanota. Consigue tu bandeja de correo encriptado hoy mismo!⏎ ⏎https://tutanota.com 27. Oct 2016 22:24 por p...@boddie.org.uk: > Cutting the GTA04 list because it isn't directly relevant, although I'm not > really sure of the relevance here anyway... > > On Thursday 27. October 2016 19.43.27 H. Nikolaus Schaller wrote: >> >> Now back to the topic of FLOSS. This driver is of >> course free. But it will need / load firmware binaries >> into the GPU part of the SoC. These binaries are >> on one hand some "microkernel" running on the SGX >> GPU and the ARM libraries for OpenGL etc. > > It was interesting to finally get hold of a programming manual for a > completely different SoC - the Ingenic JZ4780 - which is also burdened with a > PowerVR implementation (SGX540). Unfortunately, there are no details of how > the 3D functionality of the GPU is accessed, in contrast to all the register > descriptions for that SoC's 2D functionality (X2D). > > Given what was said about the Broadcom SoC used in the Raspberry Pi, the > claims of "fully free" drivers and yet the continued presence of a non-free > microkernel, I can easily imagine the SGX functionality being rather > similarly > structured, regardless of the larger SoC being ARM-based (like the DM3730) or > MIPS-based (like the JZ4780). > >> So thats it for today. And I hope I can bring some >> news about the GTA04A5 tomorrow. > > I hope it will be good news! > > Paul > > P.S. You mentioned another phone concept on the list a while back that was to > use one of the AM series of TI SoCs. Are there any more details on this yet? > ___ > Community mailing list > Community@openphoenux.org > http://lists.goldelico.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/community > http://www.tinkerphones.org___ Community mailing list Community@openphoenux.org http://lists.goldelico.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/community http://www.tinkerphones.org
Re: [Tinkerphones] GTA04A5 and News from the Kernel
[whoops, sorry for hitting send to early a moment ago] Quoting Paul Boddie (2016-10-27 22:24:20) > Cutting the GTA04 list because it isn't directly relevant, although I'm not > really sure of the relevance here anyway... > > On Thursday 27. October 2016 19.43.27 H. Nikolaus Schaller wrote: > > > > Now back to the topic of FLOSS. This driver is of course free. But > > it will need / load firmware binaries into the GPU part of the SoC. > > These binaries are on one hand some "microkernel" running on the SGX > > GPU and the ARM libraries for OpenGL etc. [...] > Given what was said about the Broadcom SoC used in the Raspberry Pi, > the claims of "fully free" drivers and yet the continued presence of a > non-free microkernel, I can easily imagine the SGX functionality being > rather similarly structured, regardless of the larger SoC being > ARM-based (like the DM3730) or MIPS-based (like the JZ4780). As I understand it, there are 3 camps: a) refuse any non-free code, even difficult to replace soldered-on. b) refuse non-free runtime-loaded code executed anywhere. c) tolerate non-free code not affecting main CPU or its memory. d) Tolerate non-free code. I believe FSF is in the b) camp,and Debian is in the c) camp (and Debian+non-free is in d) camp). Problem with Raspberry Pi is not (only) that its GPU requires non-free code, but that its boot sequence is tied to the GPU so that it is not possible to even _boot_ without loading that non-free blob for the GPU. If I understand you correctly, Nikolaus, then the situation for this board is that it fits even FSF requirements (the phone works but slower without GPU, I guess), and those wanting GPU can simply enable the non-free packages provided unofficially from Debian (which is the main grudge FSF holds against Debian). That is far better that the situation for Raspberry Pi which cannot be approved by FSF nor Debian - only works with Debian+non-free. - Jonas -- * Jonas Smedegaard - idealist & Internet-arkitekt * Tlf.: +45 40843136 Website: http://dr.jones.dk/ [x] quote me freely [ ] ask before reusing [ ] keep private signature.asc Description: signature ___ Community mailing list Community@openphoenux.org http://lists.goldelico.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/community http://www.tinkerphones.org
Re: [Tinkerphones] GTA04A5 and News from the Kernel
Quoting Paul Boddie (2016-10-27 22:24:20) > Cutting the GTA04 list because it isn't directly relevant, although I'm not > really sure of the relevance here anyway... > > On Thursday 27. October 2016 19.43.27 H. Nikolaus Schaller wrote: > > > > Now back to the topic of FLOSS. This driver is of > > course free. But it will need / load firmware binaries > > into the GPU part of the SoC. These binaries are > > on one hand some "microkernel" running on the SGX > > GPU and the ARM libraries for OpenGL etc. > > It was interesting to finally get hold of a programming manual for a > completely different SoC - the Ingenic JZ4780 - which is also burdened with a > PowerVR implementation (SGX540). Unfortunately, there are no details of how > the 3D functionality of the GPU is accessed, in contrast to all the register > descriptions for that SoC's 2D functionality (X2D). > > Given what was said about the Broadcom SoC used in the Raspberry Pi, the > claims of "fully free" drivers and yet the continued presence of a non-free > microkernel, I can easily imagine the SGX functionality being rather > similarly > structured, regardless of the larger SoC being ARM-based (like the DM3730) or > MIPS-based (like the JZ4780). > > > So thats it for today. And I hope I can bring some > > news about the GTA04A5 tomorrow. > > I hope it will be good news! > > Paul > > P.S. You mentioned another phone concept on the list a while back that was to > use one of the AM series of TI SoCs. Are there any more details on this yet? > ___ > Community mailing list > Community@openphoenux.org > http://lists.goldelico.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/community > http://www.tinkerphones.org -- * Jonas Smedegaard - idealist & Internet-arkitekt * Tlf.: +45 40843136 Website: http://dr.jones.dk/ [x] quote me freely [ ] ask before reusing [ ] keep private signature.asc Description: signature ___ Community mailing list Community@openphoenux.org http://lists.goldelico.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/community http://www.tinkerphones.org
Re: [Tinkerphones] GTA04A5 and News from the Kernel
Cutting the GTA04 list because it isn't directly relevant, although I'm not really sure of the relevance here anyway... On Thursday 27. October 2016 19.43.27 H. Nikolaus Schaller wrote: > > Now back to the topic of FLOSS. This driver is of > course free. But it will need / load firmware binaries > into the GPU part of the SoC. These binaries are > on one hand some "microkernel" running on the SGX > GPU and the ARM libraries for OpenGL etc. It was interesting to finally get hold of a programming manual for a completely different SoC - the Ingenic JZ4780 - which is also burdened with a PowerVR implementation (SGX540). Unfortunately, there are no details of how the 3D functionality of the GPU is accessed, in contrast to all the register descriptions for that SoC's 2D functionality (X2D). Given what was said about the Broadcom SoC used in the Raspberry Pi, the claims of "fully free" drivers and yet the continued presence of a non-free microkernel, I can easily imagine the SGX functionality being rather similarly structured, regardless of the larger SoC being ARM-based (like the DM3730) or MIPS-based (like the JZ4780). > So thats it for today. And I hope I can bring some > news about the GTA04A5 tomorrow. I hope it will be good news! Paul P.S. You mentioned another phone concept on the list a while back that was to use one of the AM series of TI SoCs. Are there any more details on this yet? ___ Community mailing list Community@openphoenux.org http://lists.goldelico.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/community http://www.tinkerphones.org
[Tinkerphones] GTA04A5 and News from the Kernel
Hi, finally we got a time slot tomorrow to do the next soldering tests for the GTA04A5. The reason why it took so long is that these pick machines sometimes run for several days with the same program producing some 10 thousand PCBs for other customers... So they can't easily stop and do experiments like we need. The plan for tomorrow is try to solder 4 PoP systems with different preparation: 1. without (almost no) solder paste and no flux. The idea is to see if the effect comes from too much flux added or is inherent to the DM3730 package. 2. with solder paste in the outer ring of the DM3730 package and no paste in the middle (where the shorts usually occur). The idea is to reduce the amount of flux in the critical area. 3. with a tiny snippet of Kapton under the DM3730 and doing the same flux dipping as we tried before. 4. with a tiny snippet of Kapton under the DM3730 and full solder paste as one would usually do. Puh. Quite costly to produce scrap since we will not solder any other components and therefore we can only do X-ray inspection and measure for short circuits. There is no possibility to test if the DM3730 SoC would work well and has really all pads connected. Anyways I hope this will give a lot of insights and finally will allow to decide how to do the real production run. Probably we need to run 4 full boards and test them before doing the remaining ones... On the kernel side there is also some news. Nothing for those readers who are strong advocates of FLOSS and do never want to run any binary from unknown sources. Those can skip this section... The reason is that it is about the PVR/SGX530 3D GPU inside the DM3730 chip. The whole 3D system is made of four components, two of them are binary blobs only, one is GPL open source and the fourth unknown is the SGX hardware. The news is about the open source kernel driver. I have finally managed to get it compiled again on letux-4.9-rc2. And in a way that it is a simple kernel module. Well, if you want to call a 4 MByte .ko "simple". modprobing on the GTA04 almost succeeds, except an error message from the "reset framework". This was expected, since it is one of two parts which need adaptation to newer kernel APIs. One is the "reset framework" and the other one is about dma/cache interaction where the TI driver calls some very very low level (even assembler) code directly. This has been declared private API some time ago and so it has to be rewritten to use some more official API. If someone wants to dig into this topic, the source code is here: http://git.goldelico.com/?p=gta04-kernel.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/work/hns/gpu/pvr-v2 Now back to the topic of FLOSS. This driver is of course free. But it will need / load firmware binaries into the GPU part of the SoC. These binaries are on one hand some "microkernel" running on the SGX GPU and the ARM libraries for OpenGL etc. So thats it for today. And I hope I can bring some news about the GTA04A5 tomorrow. BR, Nikolaus ___ Community mailing list Community@openphoenux.org http://lists.goldelico.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/community http://www.tinkerphones.org
