On 2017-09-08, H. Nikolaus Schaller wrote:
Am 08.09.2017 um 16:49 schrieb Linux-SWAT openpandora@free.fr:
Well, the official 3.2 kernel is mature and very robust so it is wise to apply the "never touch a running system" rule.
I had a 3.2 kernel build that mostly worked, based off of the debian kernel sources plus some openpandora patches... I used it regularly running Debian on the SD card, and then the SD card died.
On the other hand a 4.13 kernel has a lot of interesting new features. And there are approx. 9 months left over until there will be no maintainance by official Linux any more:
But, like you mention, given the end-of-life for 3.2, I didn't have the energy to keep maintaining and old kernel...
And there's a lack of communication about your kernel for OP, I mean if you or ED or notaz post a pinned thread, it will add a lot of visibility.
I think here on this (kernel related) list there are some OpenPandora owners which would be enough to test a little more and talk about it :)
I've worked a little on and off again testing the OpenPandora on mainline/Debian and with the letux patchsets based on the Debian kernel (e.g. a mostly modular config). I even tried just building the kernel with the appropriate letux defconfig, but didn't have much better luck.
I've also been using mainline u-boot on it... which only works via serial console. Also never been able to figure out how to load u-boot via SD, so it's a bit nervous updating it...
Does it "run" X ?
Yes. It can even run PyraOS (aka Debian 9 + extensions).
I generally was able to get X to work on Debian using the LCD.
What is known to be broken ?
Nubs. Sound. I am not sure about Bluetooth and TV-Out. And power management may be weaker.
From memory, I wasn't able to get working USB, wifi, and battery charging (although seemingly arbitrarily sometimes the battery would charge).
Never tried bluetooth and don't remember about sound. Nubs definitely didn't work, and the keyboard FN key didn't work at all, or didn't work correctly, and some of the keys were in unexpected places.
The SD slots worked, and I was able to access the NAND. The serial console worked after I wired up a cable for it. Maybe I got USB-OTG networking working with g_ether; can't recall for sure.
Long-term, it might make sense to have a wiki page with a matrix of tested and working features on various models, kind of like the linux-sunxi folks have:
https://linux-sunxi.org/Linux_mainlining_effort#Status_Matrix
In general, it was not working well enough to use with recent kernels, so I haven't tested often. I can give it another whirl and summarize the working/broken features.
I'd love to get OpenPandora working with a reasonably recent kernel, so if testing a bit can help, happy to test patches, but probably not in a position to write them.
live well, vagrant