Compiling firefly sources for nextxeon/tchips boards

[grant2258]

Well its good to have the pop metal and firefly dts to compare to the stock firmware. It's not as simple as that though the code in the Linux needs to be there for the dts as well. Are all the android libs and binaries updated to this kernel as we'll it's easy to pump a new Linux kernel out for Linux only. If your happy enough with no acceleration or limited offered by Linux this should be fine to use

[sawbones999]

DUH!

I've gotten my kernel versioning messed up. 3.18 is much newer than 3.4, not older. I don't know why I'm thinking the number after one is a minor revision. I just checked and latest stable is 3.18.8. Mainline 3.19 and 4.1rc2

I thought 3.4 is newer than 3.1x

-SB

[sawbones999]

If they (Rockchip) are already integrating into 4, we should be able to jump way ahead of current releases, we might as well, right? Since we don't have specific manufacturer code to base on, why not go current?

Edit-especially be if I want KVM working properly. I just have to be sure that it's configured properly for RK3288, and for Android.


Cheers,
-SB

[sawbones999]

Well its good to have the pop metal and firefly dts to compare to the stock firmware. It's not as simple as that though the code in the Linux needs to be there for the dts as well. Are all the android libs and binaries updated to this kernel as we'll it's easy to pump a new Linux kernel out for Linux only. If your happy enough with no acceleration or limited offered by Linux this should be fine to use

Well yeah that's true. I wouldn't want to get out ahead beyond where the acceleration libraries are compiled. I'd want the Mali drivers to work and all of the VPU libs, too. I guess it'd be too easy if they were portable and could just be used as is with a newer kernel.

It sounds good though. It will still be the same Android version, just a newer kernel.

-SB

Edit-honestly I have never built a kernel for Android, only Linux. I've compiled modules for Android, but that's a lil bit different.

[grant2258]

Well I'm on with Linux android is new to me though. As far as I can tell and I stand to be corrected is that the android specific binaries for rock chip sdk are compiled against the same kernel that firefly uses. That's why the kernel
Isn't moving up. The accelerated drivers for Linux should be out soon and we won't have to use the android bloatware. You could dual boot if u miss android. Linux drivers will open the box up in a good way.

[cappybob]

MALI updates the last few days. They are making leaps and bounds. They are releasing new kernel for mali and releasing rockchip proprietary build info for build and hardware acceleration. New enough that nothing yet has been pushed to SDK (Linux) build. Android works already Linux has the problem. Check the Firefly Wiki Community if you need this also. Sounds like everyone still working bugs out.

----cappybob

[grant2258]

Yea I know about the user space drivers. It's something closer to where we want to be but not quite there. Hopefully the goods will be delivered soon. Again will be binanary releases not ideal but at least it's something. It's like ati they stopped supporting there older chips sets on Linux so if you want Linux drivers you need to roll back the kernel not ideal bit that's proprietary binary drivers for you

[sawbones999]

Yeah I've been watching the Mali site ever since I noticed their release about the open source drivers, with the disclaimer that these are not a full driver stack. If you read the whole thing though, they say that they're trying to provide roughly equivalent function to the commercial SDK or something like that. What is "roughly equivalent"? They either are or they aren't.

I wish they would just open source it all like nVidia has done with the GPU from tegra. Of course the majority of nVidia's revenue comes from the pc market. This is not true for ARM Holdings.

Guess we will have to wait and see what the Rockchip proprietary build turns out like.

Linux acceleration is great, but personally I'd like to stick with Android on this one. I like the concept of Android TV. Sure it could all be done on Linux. I could go grab my mini itx board and have it all up in a short amount of time, but that's not attractive to me because I've been using Linux since the late nineties and Android presents a new challenge with unique problems. Also, I feel like if I set it up purely on Linux why not just use any old extra pc I have laying around.

If you guys see any interesting developments please post and I will do the same!
Cheers,
-SB

[grant2258]

Well you can get the tronsmart sdk and add commits you want to add from the firefly source if it's just android you want to customise to your liking. They both came from the same sdk it an old one so you would need to get down to the nitty gritty and start chopping the bit. The firefly won't boot with a 111k dts decompiled so you'll be at the same point as me ill be looking into booting the kernel in Linux first then ill use a configuration I know works and figure out the android end and make a working dts for the source code you have in front of you for nexton boards android is just bloat ware on Linux to me. Open elec is ideal for TV box use for me personally. I know some people want android for play store and different reasons that's why it's good to have both.

[sawbones999]

Is the Tronsmart SDK available publicly?

It's not really that I want to customize Android so much. I just want to compile an Android compatible kernel with kvm/virt support on RK3288. Obviously I'd want GPU/VPU acceleration on the host.

I'm afraid that the current firefly source 3.10 is not new enough to get KVM working on ARM, so I guess I'll just have to wait to see how these newer 3.14 sources turn out, which I suspect are being put together for Rockchip's RK3288 entrance to the chromium market.

I hope cappybob is right that this will be the base for the lollipop release. I don't really care about lollipop(actually I think I prefer KK) but that kernel might have some support for kvm/arm. There is at least some source for it there in the tree, but not nearly as much as the newer releases.

Yes openelec is ideal for media system, but I want to keep Android for the plethora of apps available and for gaming.

Maybe I could get current stable release from kernel.org, compile for RK3288, and then run a current Android system image on top of Linux as a KVM virtual machine. I wonder how big of a performance hit that would be. Probably lose VPU acceleration and cripple the GPU.

Ah, pipe dreams.

Maybe I should just try all this on my ADT-1. Much newer kernel, better SDK and documentation, free open source GPU devkit, etc. I just really like RK3288 better than tegra 4, damnit! LOL. Tegra 4 video decoding doesn't even come close to comparison.

Cheers,
-SB