GPD MicroPC

[Silent-Hunter]

I dislike Ubuntu, so hopefully Debian really will work.
[doublepost=1561408430,1561408351][/doublepost]I really don't want to have to join a discord server though. Will the patches be uploaded anywhere else?
[doublepost=1561408609][/doublepost]Also, yeah, the built-in keypad doesn't work in the debian installer. That's weird, isn't it just an internal PS/2 interface like most laptops?

 

[levi]

That patches are already in kernel version 5.2rc5 and will be in stock 5.2 once that's ready. I'd expect them to be backported to older supported kernels too, although to be fair I don't know exactly how that works.

Here's the panel rotation patch from hans: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linu.../?id=652b8b086538c8a10de5aa5cbdaef79333b46358

There are other patches from him on that page and the one before at the very least, but that's the main one of interest I assume.

 

[Silent-Hunter]

Will the screen be automatically rotated when I add the new kernel? Or will I need to do something to it?

 

[levi]

Providing you install a kernel with that patch included, it looks like it defines the rotation needed as standard. That's the main reason I linked that particular changeset.

 

[Silent-Hunter]

Providing you install a kernel with that patch included, it looks like it defines the rotation needed as standard. That's the main reason I linked that particular changeset.

Okay. Unfortunately it doesn't look like 5.2rc5 is in the debian experimental repo.

 

[levi]

Yeah, debian doesn't use the latest kernels. Stable seems to be on 4.9, testing and unstable on 4.19. Stuff should be backported to those kernels in time, but I don't quite understand why stable claimed to be using 4.9.65 while the kernel community's supported version for that is 4.9.183, but I guess debian doesn't take all of the backports and maintains their own old kernels, so I guess we'll have to wait and see if they decide to backport that one.

But I'm sure there are more than a few of you who've got a GPD Micro on order and want to use Linux on it, and someone will produce packages for you. Just follow the crowd, and even if they take you to ubuntu that's not the end of the world.

 

[Eight Bit]

I just received mine, nice device! I'm typing this post on it right now. In windows though, I'll wait for such a linux package myself

 

[ckblackm]

I'm going to leave mine on Windows right now until some time's passed for all the kinks to be worked out. Besides.. it makes a pretty good video streamer for the Women's World Cup soccer matches.

 

[Silent-Hunter]

Could I trouble anyone for a link to the kernel sources I should be using? I don't want to use the wrong ones.

 

[levi]

Here's kernel v5.2rc6 sources which includes the rc5 patches you're interested in plus extra good stuff. In a little while, proper v5.2 should be released though, and then you should use that in preference, or use the patches backported into a closer kernel to the one your system started with.

As far as I understand it, running with the wrong kernel won't stop your machine booting or running many applications, although if the kernel build doesn't populate /usr/lib/modules some things will likely fail like mounting usb and network devices might fail. Actually if you've anything pluggable automounted by your fstab then that might affect booting too, and you'll end up dropped back to an emergency shell. Maybe on consideration, I'd try putting those patches I linked previously against a more representative set of sources. The kernels that debian uses in its stable release is still supported until 2023 for example, but first I'd see if the kernel build populates that folder.

Edit: Or just live with the screen being rotated for a few weeks until this all gets sorted out amicably. This machine comes with an RS232 port for example, so perhaps getting used to using that might be a valuable use of your time.

 

[Silent-Hunter]

Here's kernel v5.2rc6 sources which includes the rc5 patches you're interested in plus extra good stuff. In a little while, proper v5.2 should be released though, and then you should use that in preference, or use the patches backported into a closer kernel to the one your system started with.

As far as I understand it, running with the wrong kernel won't stop your machine booting or running many applications, although if the kernel build doesn't populate /usr/lib/modules some things will likely fail like mounting usb and network devices might fail. Actually if you've anything pluggable automounted by your fstab then that might affect booting too, and you'll end up dropped back to an emergency shell. Maybe on consideration, I'd try putting those patches I linked previously against a more representative set of sources. The kernels that debian uses in its stable release is still supported until 2023 for example, but first I'd see if the kernel build populates that folder.

Edit: Or just live with the screen being rotated for a few weeks until this all gets sorted out amicably. This machine comes with an RS232 port for example, so perhaps getting used to using that might be a valuable use of your time.

Well, I've never built a kernel before (except with Gentoo's tools). But I'll give it a try. Will it build in support for everything? Or do I have to use that curses menu thing to select what kernel features I need?

 

[levi]

No idea, I've not built a kernel since the late 90s myself. I find a little patience is usually all that's required for devices to be supported properly in whatever kernel you want to use, but it's fair to say I don't buy a lot of brand new computers for this reason.

 

[Silent-Hunter]

I'll just give it a try.
[doublepost=1561587275,1561578206][/doublepost]Well, it's building now. I guess we'll see!
[doublepost=1561591222][/doublepost]Well, it didn't work. It gave a mipi related gpio error several times, and is still sideways.
[doublepost=1561591724][/doublepost]Should I have done `make defconfig` instead of `make oldconfig`?

 

[Grench]

Is there any chance that the work that was done to get rotation properly working on the GPD micro PC may have application to getting the combined rotation and 3D working on the Pyra? It sounds like the two issues may be similar enough for some learning?

 

[Silent-Hunter]

I wish I knew exactly what kernel option this patch is in. It may be unchecked.
[doublepost=1561593368,1561592813][/doublepost]I found it, and it was checked, so I don't know.
[doublepost=1561601073][/doublepost]I tried it again, and it's still not working.

 

[levi]

As far as I can see, the rotation should only expect to be applied inside X. It's defined as a dri quirk, which I read is to control how mesa works, so wouldn't be much use on the Pyra project where we're trying to use TIs tiler subsystem to do the rotation outside of X too, and to have it not interfere with the use of OpenGLES.

 

[EvilDragon]

Is there any chance that the work that was done to get rotation properly working on the GPD micro PC may have application to getting the combined rotation and 3D working on the Pyra? It sounds like the two issues may be similar enough for some learning?

Totally unrelated. 3D also works on the Pyra with rotation, just not yet with the hacked up TILER we're using right now. And there's nothing to learn, it's known why this happens and how to fix it. It was just a lack of time to rewrite the TILER test into a propely working environment.
Basically, Matthijs just did a quick proof of concept to show TILER can be used for fast rotation (so we can get rid of the rotator chip), it's never been meant to be used in that state.

 

[Silent-Hunter]

As far as I can see, the rotation should only expect to be applied inside X. It's defined as a dri quirk, which I read is to control how mesa works, so wouldn't be much use on the Pyra project where we're trying to use TIs tiler subsystem to do the rotation outside of X too, and to have it not interfere with the use of OpenGLES.

Oh, because I had to use "xrandr -o right" to rotate it, and VAAPI and VDPAU don't work, so Moonlight game streaming app complains. I assumed that was because the rotation was killing accelerated video support.

 

[SNESFAN]

 

[Silent-Hunter]

Hmm... I wonder if there's a way to get just the kernel package from that.
[doublepost=1561913990,1561911479][/doublepost]I added the xorg.conf.d files from that source link and now there's no tearing, but still no vdpau or vaapi support, so moonlight still complains about no h264 acceleration.