Linux 2.6 Port Status

[paranoidd]

Hi there,

I've some news. The GP32 base port is almost complete for Linux 2.6. I've been working full time on it for more than 1 month, and I've finished today the base support against 2.6.12-rc2.

So, this is what I've completed until now:
- clock, dma, irq, gpio, uart, sleep code, uncompress code, spi, i2s and i2c for the s3c2400;
- gp32 machine support, based on the s3c2400 cpu.

This is what's missing:
- mmc controller, usb device, lcd driver, power management;
- proper modification of the gp32 linux bootloader.

The LCD driver is on the way; I have mine here, ported from 2.4, but there's a guy involved with HP's H1940 port that's going to submit a new one, probably with PM support as well. USB, MMC and PM aren't really necessary at the moment, so they will need to wait.

Now, all we need to do is get it to boot. The bootloader used by the 2.4 is really poor, since it only copies the zImage to a memory location and jumps there. It lacks to pass information needed by the kernel, such as passing the atag array, which is mandatory for new bootloaders. I've started to enhance it, but I won't be able to finish it for the next 2 weeks.

Another thing is that maybe we'll need to move some pieces of asm code from 2.4's arch/arm/boot/compressed/head-gp32.S to C code, inside the init_machine function at mach-gp32.c

The code was uploaded to http://cscience.org/~lucasvr/patches/linux/2.6.12-rc. Some of these may not apply, since I've already merged some stuff to the -rc tree. For those interested, I'm keeping a (b)log of my activities on the GP32 Linux port at http://www.livejournal.com/users/lucasvr.

I'll try go get in touch with the code for the next week, but I think it's going to be a bit complicated, since I'll be changing $HOME to a new city this sunday. Anyway, Linus is leaving BitKeeper usage (http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/4/6/121), so the kernel is in freeze state. No patches being merged for some time..

Well, that's it. Feel free to hack in the code. Just remember to send me an email if you make something interesting, like getting it to boot ;-)

Cheers,
Lucas

 

[mth411]

Wow,
Thank you very much for your hard work!!!
I have been playing around with the older 2.4 (nanox, wifi) releases of gplinux, and they were fun.
Has anyone looked into the new blu+ screen init issues?

Thanks again, I am very much looking foward to linux on the gp.

Can you also give us a link to a paypal donation or the likes, or are cheers enough to keep you guys going?

mth411

 

[paranoidd]

I've talked to Spiv and have seen some posts about the BLU+ problem. While we can peek the firmware version and detect which hardware is being used, a lot of guys have already reflashed their gp32 and are running a modified version.

So, if both GP32-standard and GP32-BLU+ users have reflashed their consoles with the same alternative firmware, we cannot rely on this kinf of information anymore.
One possible solution is to play with the LCD timings, until we find a reasonable one which does work on both consoles.

I just can't test anything on the BLU+, as I just own a FLU unit. Having some beta testers ready to test broken/test drivers is all we're going to need for the next days, and then cheers can go to everyone for both development and testing efforts.

 

[cyberic]

This is what's missing:
- mmc controller, usb device, lcd driver, power management;
- proper modification of the gp32 linux bootloader.

Well, that's it. Feel free to hack in the code. Just remember to send me an email if you make something interesting, like getting it to boot ;-)

Great news!

Good luck for your move, and thanks for working on the 2.6 port!

It will bring support for lots of new devices, as well as new filesystems such as unionfs.
Maybe it will also bring the ability to use the GP32 as a USB gadget, with the genuine USB cable...

I look forward to seeing it in action!

Do you think you will be able to provide read/write access to the SMC?

PS: maybe one day your port will be integrated in mainline kernel !?

 

[paranoidd]

Thanks!

Yes, I think it would be easier to add full SMC support. There's already some good chunks of code for the s3c2410/s3c2440 NAND controller on which we can base our work on.

About getting mainline: it's already getting in. I'm constantly talking to Ben Dooks (s3c2410/s3c2440 maintainer) and I've been submitting and merging some patches since I've started to work on it. Linux-2.6.12-rc2 already has some of them applied. It's just a matter of time to get everything commited now (need to wait a little, since the ARM maintainers are not reviewing anything due to the changes in the kernel trees management software).

Cheers,
Lucas

 

[aapje89]

nice

 

[Tidus]

Really a great news I would love to see a big update in GP32 Linux
Thanks alot paranoidd & keep up the good work

 

[Fez]

I would also like to thank you for your work. Hard work should be appreciated.

 

[Wava]

Where you get it???

 

[ElRokus]

i have a blu+ (and i´m therefore very interested in seeing this implemented ) and if i can i´d help, testing or something. unfortunately i´m far away from home, so i can´t compile something (in fact the only thing i can do is trying out precompiled versions someone mails me, i think).
the improved version of the opensnes-emu on the gp32 has a taiwan-samsung-display-switch-feature. the sourcecode (not of the most recent version) is available. maybe the way reesy solved the problem can be useful for this project (even though a linux-kernel-display-driver is a different thing).
so far.