piCore-5.3rc1

[bmarkus]

Team Tiny Core is pleased to announce the availability of piCore-5.3rc1:

http://tinycorelinux.net/5.x/armv6/release_candidates/

* kernel updated to 3.14.2
* Raspberry Pi firmware updated to May 3, 2014 version
* official BusyBox patches applied
* curaga's wget3 BusyBox patch applied, setting default timeout to 10s
* tce-load: Don't show an error when extension contains multiple modules
* tce-load: Use sudo when unmounting meta-extensions
* patched to enable HDMI sound at 192 kbit/s rate (thanks sbp)
* patched rtl8192cu driver to disable powersaving

Please note, alsa-modules-3.14.2-piCore+.tcz has no startup script to avoid conflicts with DACS, necessary modules must be loaded by user, including on-chip sound device.

Images with preinstalled SSH for headless operation and with GUI also available.

Updating previous versions on Raspberry Pi without removing SD card:

Download piCore-5.3rc1-boot.tar.gz extract to a temporaray folder and overwrite content of /mnt/mmcblk0p1 after mounting it. It will overwrite custom boot options. If you have customied cmdline.txt on config.txt in the old system, do it again. Do not reboot if using wireless remote connection, otherwise you will loose connection due to incompatible kernel modules!

Next download kernel module tcz's from the repo matching new kernel version and reboot. You must have a new, updated system working.

Please note, there may be kernel module extensions which are not yet available in the repo.

Before modifying mmcblk01 content, it is adviced to make backup to a persistent device.

For support visit http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php/board,57.0.html

[sbp]

Hi bmarkus

I tried your 3.12.4 kernel and in comparison with mine yours have a lot of crackling noise when playing audio via USB - exactly the same kind of noise which was solved in the kernel during the week-end. see here: https://github.com/raspberrypi/linux/issues/575

The solution was to enable DMA_CMA : https://github.com/raspberrypi/linux/commit/b83416ee2870dc481abfa2dffedc1fc1afb8e7d2
and later the amount was reduced from 16MB to 5 MB.

When I build my kernel in the week-end I enabled these settings and the noise disapeared. However, in your kernel the noise is still present.

Therefore, I extracted your config file, and I can see that the new settings are not enabled in your build - so that is probably the reason for this noise again.

This is from my config:

Code: [Select]

#
# Generic Driver Options
#
CONFIG_UEVENT_HELPER_PATH=""
CONFIG_DEVTMPFS=y
# CONFIG_DEVTMPFS_MOUNT is not set
CONFIG_STANDALONE=y
CONFIG_PREVENT_FIRMWARE_BUILD=y
CONFIG_FW_LOADER=y
# CONFIG_FIRMWARE_IN_KERNEL is not set
CONFIG_EXTRA_FIRMWARE=""
CONFIG_FW_LOADER_USER_HELPER=y
# CONFIG_DEBUG_DRIVER is not set
# CONFIG_DEBUG_DEVRES is not set
# CONFIG_SYS_HYPERVISOR is not set
# CONFIG_GENERIC_CPU_DEVICES is not set
CONFIG_REGMAP=y
CONFIG_REGMAP_I2C=m
CONFIG_REGMAP_SPI=m
CONFIG_REGMAP_MMIO=m
CONFIG_DMA_SHARED_BUFFER=y
CONFIG_DMA_CMA=y

#
# Default contiguous memory area size:
#
CONFIG_CMA_SIZE_MBYTES=5
CONFIG_CMA_SIZE_SEL_MBYTES=y
# CONFIG_CMA_SIZE_SEL_PERCENTAGE is not set
# CONFIG_CMA_SIZE_SEL_MIN is not set
# CONFIG_CMA_SIZE_SEL_MAX is not set
CONFIG_CMA_ALIGNMENT=8
CONFIG_CMA_AREAS=7

So I think we/you need to add these two options:
CONFIG_DMA_CMA=y
CONFIG_CMA_SIZE_MBYTES=5

They can be found in the menuconfig
First you must enable "Continuous Memory Allocator" found in "Kernel Features"

Then you are able to go into "Device Drivers" - Chose "Generic Driver Options" and the last line on that page is "DMA Continous Memory Allocator" which you select, Then new options pops up, and now you select Size in Mega Bytes (NEW) here you select 5.

And then you will have the new options selected for better USB functions.

Will you make such a kernel, or should I use my own?

Steen

[bmarkus]

Hi Steen

thanks for the comments. I will build a new kernel.

Regards... Béla

[Gerrelt]

Shall I wait until the new kernel is available before I start installing/testing?

[sbp]

Hi Gerrelt

I think so, the USB audio is really bad in this kernel.
However, if you add "dwc_otg.fiq_fsm_mask=0x1" to the cmdline.txt it plays OK, but then you won't get acceleration of the High-speed isochronous transactions which is important for some USB DACs.

Steen

[bmarkus]

Kernel rebuilt. For testing please find mmcblk0p1 content at http://tinycorelinux.net/5.x/armv6/release_candidates/piCore-5.3rc2-boot.tar.gz

Just copy its content over rc1 and check. If it is OK, I will create the regular SD card imeges.

[sbp]

Thanks Béla

USB audio is working perfectly now.

Steen

[sbp]

However, now it crashes whenever I try to use any of the I2S cards

If I do:
sudo modprobe -q snd_soc_pcm5102a
sudo modprobe -q snd_soc_hifiberry_dac

The whole kernel crashes?

Steen

[bmarkus]

Tried, I can modprobe snd_soc_pcm5102a and its get loaded. modprobe snd_soc_hifiberry_dac kills the whole system.

[bmarkus]

It is fixed now, system works fine. Mainstream 3.14.3 kernel just released. Next piCore 5.3 RC will be released when Raspberry version available.

[sbp]

Hi Bela

The latest version is working really good.
No USB-audio problems and the I2S-audio DACs are also working again

Thanks
Steen

[lykkedk]

Kernel rebuilt. For testing please find mmcblk0p1 content at http://tinycorelinux.net/5.x/armv6/release_candidates/piCore-5.3rc2-boot.tar.gz

Just copy its content over rc1 and check. If it is OK, I will create the regular SD card imeges.

Hmm...  maybe stubid ! ... i can't figure out howto copy this over.

The permissions/readonly is "fighting" me back

// Jesper

[bmarkus]

Hi, please provide details what is read-only. Did you mount /mnt/mmcblk0op1?

And please try rc3 instead of rc2.

[lykkedk]

Okay then

It's the rc3 i have been trying with!

I can't figure out howto copy the content of the extracted folder mmcblk0p1 onto my sdcard with the piCore-5.3rc1 image on.

I downloaded the http://distro.ibiblio.org/tinycorelinux/5.x/armv6/release_candidates/piCore-5.3rc3-boot.tar.gz, extracted it, and then i got the folder mmcblk0p1, which i have to copy over the mmcblk0p1 on my sdcard which is containing the piCore-5.3rc1 image

 

//Jesper

[sbp]

If you are not a Linux guy :-)
Then the easiest way is to take your sd card into a windows computer and. Then simply copy all the files from your new piCore mmcblk0p1 directory to the the sd-card in your card reader (and thus overwrite your old files in the boot directory).

Then remove the card and put it in your rpi and boot.

Steen