Looking for mainline kernel dmesg and .config

[wigyori]

Hi,

Can someone pls post a dmesg of a mainline kernel booting on an A13? (Could be either version of the boards, with 3.9.x or above.) Also a .config would be much appreciated, I'm stuck with a "Starting kernel" message on 3.9.4.

Thanks in advance,
-w-

[Tele]

Don't forget to set the

System Configuration --- > Port to run getty on

to ttyS0

Not sure but maybe that one is set incorrectly. Its default is ttyS1 in many config files, and that's wrong, you can't get any message after kernel has started.

[wigyori]

Hi,

The issue is not around getty but earlier. No kernel message shows up at all after the Starting kernel message after loading kernel via u-boot. This is a vanilla mainline kernel. The script.bin I'm using is the one provided by Olimex. console is set to ttyS0,115200 in the kernel bootline.

Regards,
-w-

[Tele]

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The issue is not around getty but earlier...


Sry my mistake, I was talking about buildroot, while you were compiling pure kernel. Im stupid, forgive me.

You are sailing on undiscovered waters I think.
People usually use the "official" sunxi kernel which is 3.4.43 at the moment.

Take a look at
https://github.com/linux-sunxi/linux-sunxi/tree/sunxi-next
It might help, although that is 3.10-rc1 kernel.

In the subdir

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arch/arm/boot/dts

there is a device tree file

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sun5i-a13-olinuxino.dts

thats promising, you have some chance.
But unfortunately, I cant see any A13_defconfig file in the usual 'configs' directory, you have to assemble it manually. Maybe its not so hard.

[wigyori]

Hi Tele,

I know this is uncharted territory, that's why a.) I'm going there, b.) I'm looking for clues from people who might have used it.   Using 3.4.43 is not really an option now, I'd like to use the mainline kernel.

The dts file gets compiled when I select ARCH_SUNXI, so on the devicetree side it's probably OK. I'll try the sunxi-next tree You've mentioned.

Thanks,
-w-

[iso9660]

Hi, here is a wiki url with instructions to build mainstream Linux kernel images.
I've been told that to work with mainline kernel images there is no need to use fex files anymore.

http://linux-sunxi.org/Mainline_Kernel_Howto

[wigyori]

All what it does is that u-boot loads in the kernel, a "Starting kernel" is printed out and then nothing else, this is both with a stock 3.10 and with a checkout from the sunxi-next tree.

This is an "old" rev. B board (WIFI-DEV) with which I've had some issues with getting the serial console working (UEXT instead of UART1). Is it possible that with this board the kernel console should be on ttyS1 ?

Thx,
-w-

[Tele]

Try to enable:

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Kernel hacking ---> Kernel low-level debugging functions (CONFIG_DEBUG_LL)


and then enable

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Kernel hacking ---> Early printk (CONFIG_EARLY_PRINTK)


This won't solve anything, but you could get some more information about freezing, and that might help.

[Tele]

Some questions:

Do you use u-boot?

If yes, do you use uEnv.txt ? What is in it?

How do you load the compiled device tree file (/boot/dtbs/sun5i-a13-olinuxino.dtb) into the memory ?

[vinifr]

linux-sunxi IRC chat:

<vinifr> hi, is already possible to start the mainline kernel with sunxi board?

<Turl> vinifr: yes, but driver capabilities are limited

<arokux2> vinifr, yes, check http://linux-sunxi.org/Linux_mainlining_effort however only some limited functionality will be available.

[wigyori]

Sorry I have not been around for the last 2 weeks, came back 2 days ago.

The kernel kimage is created fine, loadaddrs look correct as well, at least I get a "starting linux" message. Question is that with the DTBs compiled into the kernel image, do we need to load in the .dtb file onto 0x41000000 - is it used by U-boot? I'm using 2013.07-rc1.

Thx,
-w-

[vinifr]

Do you tried Maxine's repo? https://github.com/mripard/linux It contains all patches already accepted.
https://github.com/mripard/linux/blob/master/arch/arm/configs/multi_v7_defconfig

[wigyori]

Yes, and that doesn't work too. What I'm trying to do is

- build a kernel with DTB appended, starting it with bootm 0x48000000 - stuck at "Starting kernel..." message
- build a kernel with DTB not appended, but booting the kernel via bootm without initramfs - fails too

Note that this is an A13-WIFI-DEV board (rev. B), where the UART0 is in the UEXT connector. Guesswork here is that for some reason the DTB isn't used by the kernel if its appended to the vmlinux image.

If I am to start the kernel with the bootm triplet, the dtb has to be at 0x41000000, right?

-w-

[vinifr]

You can use both, appended or not appended.
http://linux-sunxi.org/Initial_Ramdisk
Kernel image with dtb appended: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/22273442/A13/boot/uImage

I tested and works well! 
Instructions here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/22273442/A13/boot/instructions

[wigyori]

Some quick notes here:

http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/olimex/a13-olinuxino