Towards Microcore on Allwinner A10

[caminati]

Hi tinypoodle

"Created with GIMP" ??

Sounds like he may have used  netpbm.

Yes, I originally used netpbm.
However Tinypoodle (who must be a detective in real life ) quoted a tag in the header of the png I posted, so I explained why it is there.

[roberts]

I packed a much more complete port of Micro Core, not even an alpha, though.
I am uploading it right now:
caminati.net.tf
or, equivalently:
https://sites.google.com/site/marcocaminati/
It is a tar.bz2 with the separate components to be installed manually, if anybody wants a whole media image for simplicity, I can provide it.

Anyhow: now Core scripts are all there, even though actually tc-config is not completing yet.
Refer to the included README.
There I also explain the approach I adopted to port, somehow more streamlined than before, after seeing Robert's Rpi kit.

Still no text display on my Mele. Is it because I need hdmi output while you use lcd output for table?

[caminati]

Still no text display on my Mele. Is it because I need hdmi output while you use lcd output for table?

On my hardware, video output is completely and solely determined by which script.bin I place in the first partition (root directory, along with uImage).
All the other distros I tried gave me either hdmi or builtin lcd output according to that.
I never tested the statement above wrt this release, however. I will try and let you know if I have hdmi output, since at the moment I am lucky enough to have hdmi tv around.

[caminati]

I just tested the mele-a1000.bin contained in:
http://dl.linux-sunxi.org/nightly/2012.07.23/mele-a1000_hwpack_2012.07.23.7z
replaced my script.bin with it (using the latter name), and successfully got hdmi output.
Is your kernel alive? I mean, usb pens flashing, keyboard leds responding...

[roberts]

I cp mele-a1000.bin /mnt/sdb1/script.bin.
Boot Mele, keyboard lights flash, mouse stays lighted.
But no signal to hdmi.

[roberts]

Your code is specifically looking for script.bin?
I will try other bin files on the Ubuntu image.

[caminati]

I cp mele-a1000.bin /mnt/sdb1/script.bin.
Boot Mele, keyboard lights flash, mouse stays lighted.
But no signal to hdmi.

Does writing something like /bin/busybox poweroff -fn work?
Sorry to bother you: have you tried Alt+SysRq+e or Alt+SysRq+i (the sooner during booting process the better)?
Does the whole reisub sequence actually reboot (supposing you could sense a reboot in these conditions)?
Maybe there is some problem due to tc-config not completing.
I stupidly forgot to add blkid utility, which crashes it.
Thanks for your report!

[caminati]

Your code is specifically looking for script.bin?
I will try other bin files on the Ubuntu image.

You can replace script.bin with the filename you like by editing boot.scr.
However, each time you have to do mkimage -C none -A arm -T script -d on the source of boot.scr, which is a nuisance.
Also, sticking with the standard is advisable: unforeseen consequences of small changes is what u-boot excels in

[roberts]

No response that I can detect when I try:
Does writing something like /bin/busybox poweroff -fn work?
Sorry to bother you: have you tried Alt+SysRq+e or Alt+SysRq+i (the sooner during booting process the better)?

I also tried renaming evb.bin, that is what Ubuntu and the miniand distros use, to script.bin and still no hdmi output.

[caminati]

No response that I can detect when I try:
Does writing something like /bin/busybox poweroff -fn work?
Sorry to bother you: have you tried Alt+SysRq+e or Alt+SysRq+i (the sooner during booting process the better)?

I also tried renaming evb.bin, that is what Ubuntu and the miniand distros use, to script.bin and still no hdmi output.

Yes, during tests I kept both names with identical contents, to be on the safe side.
In the meantime I found out that the Mele script.bin that I suggested you disables the usb port on my tablet. Argh, matters are getting complex.

[caminati]

No response that I can detect when I try:

This is interesting, anyway. Sounds like the problem is not video output or framebuffer, but more serious.
I will try to summon some more mele owners on other allwinner forums as soon I fix some issues.

[caminati]

We have a second piece of hardware booting something on hdmi:
https://www.miniand.com/forums/forums/development/topics/minimal-textonly-linux-testers-wanted

A kind user on miniand forum gave me feedback using his 1Gb MK802, and a stripped-down version of console linux I posted there.
I can get a script.bin from the huge image he used, though it is not clear if he tried it with my kernel and u-boot.

EDIT: Here it is

[roberts]

Seeing that you posted a new image file: A10MinimalLinux.img.gz
I tried it with mele-a1000.bin renamed to script.bin.

Viola! I see text. Very LARGE text. It boots to login!

But this is not uCore, initramfs as was the first attempt.
This is why I am delaying initramfs on rpi until I get the basics, traditional rootfs working.

Anyway, you  have reached a first milestone. Awesome!

[caminati]

Seeing that you posted a new image file: A10MinimalLinux.img.gz
I tried it with mele-a1000.bin renamed to script.bin.

Viola! I see text. Very LARGE text. It boots to login!

But this is not uCore, initramfs as was the first attempt.

You're right: it is just busybox, bterm and a very sleepy init, which just mounts devpts and respawns getty->bterm.
On the other hand, here I have full Micro Core working on the tablet, with only zcache kernel module missing, and tce-load -i working fine.
So, the real question now is why my previous file didn't work for you.
u-boot.bin, sun4i-spl.bin and the kernel are identical, and I have no control on script.bin. So it must necessarily be /init or /bin/busybox, which changed, or /etc/tc-config, which is here bypassed. Or something with initramfs.
And why the very first release also didn't work for you? That was VERY similar to this.
Only the boot loaders and script were left out there; maybe...
Mumble, very difficult to troubleshoot remotely

This is why I am delaying initramfs on rpi until I get the basics, traditional rootfs working.

Anyway, you  have reached a first milestone. Awesome!

Glad it works

[roberts]

uCore now working.

Used the image file. Copied the boot.scr from first attempt together with uCore to first partition. Formatted the 2nd partition and left blank.

Boots and is working fine.