DT: newbie questions

DT: newbie questions

[Chris Moore]

Hi,

Sorry for these newbie questions :(

I would like to add support for the cheap Chinese KI PLUS S905 boxes 
which seem very popular.
They are re-branded (or cloned) by several different vendors.
In particular the most serious seem to be:-
VideoStrong (http://www.videostrong.com/product.asp?sid=257)
Acemax 
(http://www.acemax.net.cn/droid-world/droid-box/hybrid-android-dvb-t2-dvb-s2/kii-pro-ki-plus-s2-t2-combo-149.html#.WRls_GjyiUk)

I actually have an Xtreamer mxV (http://www.xtreamer.net/mxv) which 
seems to be an exact clone.

My first question is what to put in the compatible line.
I could put:
a) compatible = "videostrong,kiplus", "acemax,kiplus", "xtreamer,mxv", 
"amlogic,meson-gxbb";
but there are many other KI PLUS vendors so I could maybe omit the vendor:
b) compatible = "kiplus", "xtreamer,mxv", "amlogic,meson-gxbb";
but this poses the problem of what to put in amlogic.txt which seems to 
require a vendor.

My second question is what to base my patch on:
Should it be v4.12/dt64 in Kevin's linux-amlogic.git?

My third question concerns the SDIO WiFi.
The WiFi chip seems to vary between boards.
My board has a Realtek RTL8189ETV.
I note that its (unfortunately out of tree) driver is loaded even if the 
DT specifies a Broadcom chip.
Is it really necessary to specify the chip in the DT?
(It seems that the SDIO, like the PCI and USB buses, recognizes 
connected devices by their IDs.)

My final question is how to submit my patch.
Should I send an RFC to this list for approval before possibly spamming 
others?

I thank you in advance for your replies and your tolerance.

Cheers,
Chris Moore

DT: newbie questions

[Chris Moore]

Le 15/05/2017 ? 11:28, Chris Moore a ?crit :
> Hi,
>
> Sorry for these newbie questions :(
>
> I would like to add support for the cheap Chinese KI PLUS S905 boxes 
> which seem very popular.
> They are re-branded (or cloned) by several different vendors.
> In particular the most serious seem to be:-
> VideoStrong (http://www.videostrong.com/product.asp?sid=257)
> Acemax 
> (http://www.acemax.net.cn/droid-world/droid-box/hybrid-android-dvb-t2-dvb-s2/kii-pro-ki-plus-s2-t2-combo-149.html#.WRls_GjyiUk)
>
> I actually have an Xtreamer mxV (http://www.xtreamer.net/mxv) which 
> seems to be an exact clone.
>
> My first question is what to put in the compatible line.
> I could put:
> a) compatible = "videostrong,kiplus", "acemax,kiplus", "xtreamer,mxv", 
> "amlogic,meson-gxbb";
> but there are many other KI PLUS vendors so I could maybe omit the 
> vendor:
> b) compatible = "kiplus", "xtreamer,mxv", "amlogic,meson-gxbb";
> but this poses the problem of what to put in amlogic.txt which seems 
> to require a vendor.

Another solution to the multi-vendor problem could be to create a 
pseudo-vendor "generic" (or similar) and then have:
c) compatible = "generic,kiplus", "xtreamer,mxv", "amlogic,meson-gxbb";
Would this be acceptable?

>
> My second question is what to base my patch on:
> Should it be v4.12/dt64 in Kevin's linux-amlogic.git?
>
> My third question concerns the SDIO WiFi.
> The WiFi chip seems to vary between boards.
> My board has a Realtek RTL8189ETV.
> I note that its (unfortunately out of tree) driver is loaded even if 
> the DT specifies a Broadcom chip.
> Is it really necessary to specify the chip in the DT?
> (It seems that the SDIO, like the PCI and USB buses, recognizes 
> connected devices by their IDs.)
>
> My final question is how to submit my patch.
> Should I send an RFC to this list for approval before possibly 
> spamming others?
>
> I thank you in advance for your replies and your tolerance.
>
> Cheers,
> Chris Moore
>
> _______________________________________________
> linux-amlogic mailing list
> linux-amlogic at lists.infradead.org
> http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-amlogic
>

DT: newbie questions

[Neil Armstrong]

Hi Chris,

On 05/16/2017 06:18 AM, Chris Moore wrote:
> Le 15/05/2017 ? 11:28, Chris Moore a ?crit :
>> Hi,
>>
>> Sorry for these newbie questions :(
>>
>> I would like to add support for the cheap Chinese KI PLUS S905 boxes which seem very popular.
>> They are re-branded (or cloned) by several different vendors.
>> In particular the most serious seem to be:-
>> VideoStrong (http://www.videostrong.com/product.asp?sid=257)
>> Acemax (http://www.acemax.net.cn/droid-world/droid-box/hybrid-android-dvb-t2-dvb-s2/kii-pro-ki-plus-s2-t2-combo-149.html#.WRls_GjyiUk)
>>
>> I actually have an Xtreamer mxV (http://www.xtreamer.net/mxv) which seems to be an exact clone.
>>
>> My first question is what to put in the compatible line.
>> I could put:
>> a) compatible = "videostrong,kiplus", "acemax,kiplus", "xtreamer,mxv", "amlogic,meson-gxbb";
>> but there are many other KI PLUS vendors so I could maybe omit the vendor:
>> b) compatible = "kiplus", "xtreamer,mxv", "amlogic,meson-gxbb";
>> but this poses the problem of what to put in amlogic.txt which seems to require a vendor.
> 
> Another solution to the multi-vendor problem could be to create a pseudo-vendor "generic" (or similar) and then have:
> c) compatible = "generic,kiplus", "xtreamer,mxv", "amlogic,meson-gxbb";
> Would this be acceptable?

Sorry, the generic is not really acceptable here since there is always a vendor, and adding a new
vendor is easy and well accepted.

The point with Amlogic based Set-Top-Boxes is that they are 99% based on a reference design given
from Amlogic, and only the SBCs (Odroid-C*, Khadas, NanoPi K2) differs.

Here is the list of Amlogic Reference Designs I am aware of :
- S905 : P200 and P201
- S905X : P212
- S905D : P230 and P231
- S912 : Q200 and Q201

When pushing S905 based boxes, we were not really aware of that, but starting with S905X we started
to base the board DTS on the Reference Design DTSI like the Khadas Vim and the Wetek Hub/Play2.

I'm aware there is a lot of work to clean up all the other S905/S905X and S912 based boxes... but
the majority of boxes should run unchanged with the reference design DTS.

> 
>>
>> My second question is what to base my patch on:
>> Should it be v4.12/dt64 in Kevin's linux-amlogic.git?

You can now use 4.12-rc1.

>>
>> My third question concerns the SDIO WiFi.
>> The WiFi chip seems to vary between boards.
>> My board has a Realtek RTL8189ETV.
>> I note that its (unfortunately out of tree) driver is loaded even if the DT specifies a Broadcom chip.
>> Is it really necessary to specify the chip in the DT?
>> (It seems that the SDIO, like the PCI and USB buses, recognizes connected devices by their IDs.)

Yes, the SDIO id will act like PCI and USB busses.

>>
>> My final question is how to submit my patch.
>> Should I send an RFC to this list for approval before possibly spamming others?

Not really, but if you have doubts like here, you can send question and a RFC if code is better than text to explain !

>>
>> I thank you in advance for your replies and your tolerance.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Chris Moore

Neil

>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> linux-amlogic mailing list
>> linux-amlogic at lists.infradead.org
>> http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-amlogic
>>
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> linux-amlogic mailing list
> linux-amlogic at lists.infradead.org
> http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-amlogic

DT: newbie questions

[Chris Moore]

Hi,

Thank you, Neil, for your informative reply.

Le 16/05/2017 ? 10:08, Neil Armstrong a ?crit :
> Hi Chris,
>
> On 05/16/2017 06:18 AM, Chris Moore wrote:
>> Le 15/05/2017 ? 11:28, Chris Moore a ?crit :
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> Sorry for these newbie questions :(
>>>
>>> I would like to add support for the cheap Chinese KI PLUS S905 boxes which seem very popular.
>>> They are re-branded (or cloned) by several different vendors.
>>> In particular the most serious seem to be:-
>>> VideoStrong (http://www.videostrong.com/product.asp?sid=257)
>>> Acemax (http://www.acemax.net.cn/droid-world/droid-box/hybrid-android-dvb-t2-dvb-s2/kii-pro-ki-plus-s2-t2-combo-149.html#.WRls_GjyiUk)
>>>
>>> I actually have an Xtreamer mxV (http://www.xtreamer.net/mxv) which seems to be an exact clone.
>>>
>>> My first question is what to put in the compatible line.
>>> I could put:
>>> a) compatible = "videostrong,kiplus", "acemax,kiplus", "xtreamer,mxv", "amlogic,meson-gxbb";
>>> but there are many other KI PLUS vendors so I could maybe omit the vendor:
>>> b) compatible = "kiplus", "xtreamer,mxv", "amlogic,meson-gxbb";
>>> but this poses the problem of what to put in amlogic.txt which seems to require a vendor.
>> Another solution to the multi-vendor problem could be to create a pseudo-vendor "generic" (or similar) and then have:
>> c) compatible = "generic,kiplus", "xtreamer,mxv", "amlogic,meson-gxbb";
>> Would this be acceptable?
> Sorry, the generic is not really acceptable here since there is always a vendor, and adding a new
> vendor is easy and well accepted.
>
> The point with Amlogic based Set-Top-Boxes is that they are 99% based on a reference design given
> from Amlogic, and only the SBCs (Odroid-C*, Khadas, NanoPi K2) differs.
>
> Here is the list of Amlogic Reference Designs I am aware of :
> - S905 : P200 and P201
> - S905X : P212
> - S905D : P230 and P231
> - S912 : Q200 and Q201
>
> When pushing S905 based boxes, we were not really aware of that, but starting with S905X we started
> to base the board DTS on the Reference Design DTSI like the Khadas Vim and the Wetek Hub/Play2.
>
> I'm aware there is a lot of work to clean up all the other S905/S905X and S912 based boxes... but
> the majority of boxes should run unchanged with the reference design DTS.

The KI PLUS has GXBB (S905), Fast (100Mbs) Ethernet, 1 GiB RAM, four USB 
ports and often Realtek RTL8189ETV WiFi.

The P20x boards are probably the closest but they have Gigabit Ethernet 
and the KI PLUS only has Fast Ethernet.
(Indeed the stock uBoot prompt and some Linux boot messages contain the 
string "p20x".)
So, although obviously derived from these reference designs as you say, 
Ethernet doesn't work with the P200 and P201 DTS.
Obviously working Ethernet is essential.

The only existing GXBB DTS with 1GiB RAM and Fast Ethernet is the GXBB 
version of the Nexbox A95x.
But USB on the KI PLUS doesn't work with this DTS.

So I really do need a new DTS.

Cheers,
Chris

DT: newbie questions

[Chris Moore]

P.S.

Le 16/05/2017 ? 12:51, Chris Moore a ?crit :
> Le 16/05/2017 ? 10:08, Neil Armstrong a ?crit :
>> On 05/16/2017 06:18 AM, Chris Moore wrote:
>>> Le 15/05/2017 ? 11:28, Chris Moore a ?crit :
>>>> I would like to add support for the cheap Chinese KI PLUS S905 
>>>> boxes which seem very popular.
>>>> They are re-branded (or cloned) by several different vendors.
>>>> In particular the most serious seem to be:-
>>>> VideoStrong (http://www.videostrong.com/product.asp?sid=257)
>>>> Acemax 
>>>> (http://www.acemax.net.cn/droid-world/droid-box/hybrid-android-dvb-t2-dvb-s2/kii-pro-ki-plus-s2-t2-combo-149.html#.WRls_GjyiUk)
>>>>
>>>> I actually have an Xtreamer mxV (http://www.xtreamer.net/mxv) which 
>>>> seems to be an exact clone.
>>>>
>>>> My first question is what to put in the compatible line.
>>>> I could put:
>>>> a) compatible = "videostrong,kiplus", "acemax,kiplus", 
>>>> "xtreamer,mxv", "amlogic,meson-gxbb";
>>>> but there are many other KI PLUS vendors so I could maybe omit the 
>>>> vendor:
>>>> b) compatible = "kiplus", "xtreamer,mxv", "amlogic,meson-gxbb";
>>>> but this poses the problem of what to put in amlogic.txt which 
>>>> seems to require a vendor.
>>> Another solution to the multi-vendor problem could be to create a 
>>> pseudo-vendor "generic" (or similar) and then have:
>>> c) compatible = "generic,kiplus", "xtreamer,mxv", "amlogic,meson-gxbb";
>>> Would this be acceptable?
>> Sorry, the generic is not really acceptable here since there is 
>> always a vendor, and adding a new
>> vendor is easy and well accepted.
>>
>> The point with Amlogic based Set-Top-Boxes is that they are 99% based 
>> on a reference design given
>> from Amlogic, and only the SBCs (Odroid-C*, Khadas, NanoPi K2) differs.
>>
>> Here is the list of Amlogic Reference Designs I am aware of :
>> - S905 : P200 and P201
>> - S905X : P212
>> - S905D : P230 and P231
>> - S912 : Q200 and Q201
>>
>> When pushing S905 based boxes, we were not really aware of that, but 
>> starting with S905X we started
>> to base the board DTS on the Reference Design DTSI like the Khadas 
>> Vim and the Wetek Hub/Play2.
>>
>> I'm aware there is a lot of work to clean up all the other S905/S905X 
>> and S912 based boxes... but
>> the majority of boxes should run unchanged with the reference design 
>> DTS.
>
> The KI PLUS has GXBB (S905), Fast (100Mbs) Ethernet, 1 GiB RAM, four 
> USB ports and often Realtek RTL8189ETV WiFi.
>
> The P20x boards are probably the closest but they have Gigabit 
> Ethernet and the KI PLUS only has Fast Ethernet.
> (Indeed the stock uBoot prompt and some Linux boot messages contain 
> the string "p20x".)
> So, although obviously derived from these reference designs as you 
> say, Ethernet doesn't work with the P200 and P201 DTS.
> Obviously working Ethernet is essential.

In fact the P201 probably does have Fast Ethernet.
I remember that my board used to work well with the P201 DTB.
But this was with the Amlogic 3.14.y kernels.
In the mainline 4.x kernels it was incorrectly described with Gigabit 
Ethernet.
But I see that this has just been corrected in 4.12-rc1.
However unfortunately I cannot get 4.12-rc1 to boot: I get no kernel 
output at all on the serial console :(
I have never had any problems with the 4.10 and 4.11 series.

Have you tried 4.12-rc1 on a GXBB board?
What bootargs do you recommend?

>
> The only existing GXBB DTS with 1GiB RAM and Fast Ethernet is the GXBB 
> version of the Nexbox A95x.
> But USB on the KI PLUS doesn't work with this DTS.
>
> So I really do need a new DTS.

Well, in view of the above I probably can make do with the P201 DTS, at 
least until I try to get the internal DVB tuners working.

DT: newbie questions

[Neil Armstrong]

On 05/17/2017 05:41 PM, Chris Moore wrote:
> P.S.
> 
> Le 16/05/2017 ? 12:51, Chris Moore a ?crit :
>> Le 16/05/2017 ? 10:08, Neil Armstrong a ?crit :
>>> On 05/16/2017 06:18 AM, Chris Moore wrote:
>>>> Le 15/05/2017 ? 11:28, Chris Moore a ?crit :
>>>>> I would like to add support for the cheap Chinese KI PLUS S905 boxes which seem very popular.
>>>>> They are re-branded (or cloned) by several different vendors.
>>>>> In particular the most serious seem to be:-
>>>>> VideoStrong (http://www.videostrong.com/product.asp?sid=257)
>>>>> Acemax (http://www.acemax.net.cn/droid-world/droid-box/hybrid-android-dvb-t2-dvb-s2/kii-pro-ki-plus-s2-t2-combo-149.html#.WRls_GjyiUk)
>>>>>
>>>>> I actually have an Xtreamer mxV (http://www.xtreamer.net/mxv) which seems to be an exact clone.
>>>>>
>>>>> My first question is what to put in the compatible line.
>>>>> I could put:
>>>>> a) compatible = "videostrong,kiplus", "acemax,kiplus", "xtreamer,mxv", "amlogic,meson-gxbb";
>>>>> but there are many other KI PLUS vendors so I could maybe omit the vendor:
>>>>> b) compatible = "kiplus", "xtreamer,mxv", "amlogic,meson-gxbb";
>>>>> but this poses the problem of what to put in amlogic.txt which seems to require a vendor.
>>>> Another solution to the multi-vendor problem could be to create a pseudo-vendor "generic" (or similar) and then have:
>>>> c) compatible = "generic,kiplus", "xtreamer,mxv", "amlogic,meson-gxbb";
>>>> Would this be acceptable?
>>> Sorry, the generic is not really acceptable here since there is always a vendor, and adding a new
>>> vendor is easy and well accepted.
>>>
>>> The point with Amlogic based Set-Top-Boxes is that they are 99% based on a reference design given
>>> from Amlogic, and only the SBCs (Odroid-C*, Khadas, NanoPi K2) differs.
>>>
>>> Here is the list of Amlogic Reference Designs I am aware of :
>>> - S905 : P200 and P201
>>> - S905X : P212
>>> - S905D : P230 and P231
>>> - S912 : Q200 and Q201
>>>
>>> When pushing S905 based boxes, we were not really aware of that, but starting with S905X we started
>>> to base the board DTS on the Reference Design DTSI like the Khadas Vim and the Wetek Hub/Play2.
>>>
>>> I'm aware there is a lot of work to clean up all the other S905/S905X and S912 based boxes... but
>>> the majority of boxes should run unchanged with the reference design DTS.
>>
>> The KI PLUS has GXBB (S905), Fast (100Mbs) Ethernet, 1 GiB RAM, four USB ports and often Realtek RTL8189ETV WiFi.
>>
>> The P20x boards are probably the closest but they have Gigabit Ethernet and the KI PLUS only has Fast Ethernet.
>> (Indeed the stock uBoot prompt and some Linux boot messages contain the string "p20x".)
>> So, although obviously derived from these reference designs as you say, Ethernet doesn't work with the P200 and P201 DTS.
>> Obviously working Ethernet is essential.
> 
> In fact the P201 probably does have Fast Ethernet.

Yes, P201 should be the closest, it's basically P200 with 10/100 ethernet, and way simpler.

> I remember that my board used to work well with the P201 DTB.
> But this was with the Amlogic 3.14.y kernels.
> In the mainline 4.x kernels it was incorrectly described with Gigabit Ethernet.
> But I see that this has just been corrected in 4.12-rc1.
> However unfortunately I cannot get 4.12-rc1 to boot: I get no kernel output at all on the serial console :(
> I have never had any problems with the 4.10 and 4.11 series.
> 
> Have you tried 4.12-rc1 on a GXBB board?
> What bootargs do you recommend?

Not yet, but this version should already boot some GXBB boards on kernelci.org

>>
>> The only existing GXBB DTS with 1GiB RAM and Fast Ethernet is the GXBB version of the Nexbox A95x.
>> But USB on the KI PLUS doesn't work with this DTS.
>>
>> So I really do need a new DTS.
> 
> Well, in view of the above I probably can make do with the P201 DTS, at least until I try to get the internal DVB tuners working.
> 

Yes, you can stick with P201 until you figure out how to use the DVB tuners, then it will need a new DTS !

Neil

DT: newbie questions

[Kevin Hilman]

Hi Chris,

Neil Armstrong <narmstrong@baylibre.com> writes:

> On 05/16/2017 06:18 AM, Chris Moore wrote:

[...]

>>>
>>> My second question is what to base my patch on:
>>> Should it be v4.12/dt64 in Kevin's linux-amlogic.git?
>
> You can now use 4.12-rc1.
>

More specifically, use v4.13/dt64 (based on v4.12-rc1)

Kevin

GXBB: 4.12-rc1 boot failure (was DT: newbie questions)

[Chris Moore]

Hi,

  Le 17/05/2017 ? 17:44, Neil Armstrong a ?crit :
> On 05/17/2017 05:41 PM, Chris Moore wrote:
>> Le 16/05/2017 ? 12:51, Chris Moore a ?crit :
>>> Le 16/05/2017 ? 10:08, Neil Armstrong a ?crit :
>>>> On 05/16/2017 06:18 AM, Chris Moore wrote:
>>>>> Le 15/05/2017 ? 11:28, Chris Moore a ?crit :
>>>>>> I would like to add support for the cheap Chinese KI PLUS S905 boxes which seem very popular.
>>>>>> They are re-branded (or cloned) by several different vendors.
>>>>>> In particular the most serious seem to be:-
>>>>>> VideoStrong (http://www.videostrong.com/product.asp?sid=257)
>>>>>> Acemax (http://www.acemax.net.cn/droid-world/droid-box/hybrid-android-dvb-t2-dvb-s2/kii-pro-ki-plus-s2-t2-combo-149.html#.WRls_GjyiUk)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I actually have an Xtreamer mxV (http://www.xtreamer.net/mxv) which seems to be an exact clone.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> My first question is what to put in the compatible line.
>>>>>> I could put:
>>>>>> a) compatible = "videostrong,kiplus", "acemax,kiplus", "xtreamer,mxv", "amlogic,meson-gxbb";
>>>>>> but there are many other KI PLUS vendors so I could maybe omit the vendor:
>>>>>> b) compatible = "kiplus", "xtreamer,mxv", "amlogic,meson-gxbb";
>>>>>> but this poses the problem of what to put in amlogic.txt which seems to require a vendor.
>>>>> Another solution to the multi-vendor problem could be to create a pseudo-vendor "generic" (or similar) and then have:
>>>>> c) compatible = "generic,kiplus", "xtreamer,mxv", "amlogic,meson-gxbb";
>>>>> Would this be acceptable?
>>>> Sorry, the generic is not really acceptable here since there is always a vendor, and adding a new
>>>> vendor is easy and well accepted.
>>>>
>>>> The point with Amlogic based Set-Top-Boxes is that they are 99% based on a reference design given
>>>> from Amlogic, and only the SBCs (Odroid-C*, Khadas, NanoPi K2) differs.
>>>>
>>>> Here is the list of Amlogic Reference Designs I am aware of :
>>>> - S905 : P200 and P201
>>>> - S905X : P212
>>>> - S905D : P230 and P231
>>>> - S912 : Q200 and Q201
>>>>
>>>> When pushing S905 based boxes, we were not really aware of that, but starting with S905X we started
>>>> to base the board DTS on the Reference Design DTSI like the Khadas Vim and the Wetek Hub/Play2.
>>>>
>>>> I'm aware there is a lot of work to clean up all the other S905/S905X and S912 based boxes... but
>>>> the majority of boxes should run unchanged with the reference design DTS.
>>> The KI PLUS has GXBB (S905), Fast (100Mbs) Ethernet, 1 GiB RAM, four USB ports and often Realtek RTL8189ETV WiFi.
>>>
>>> The P20x boards are probably the closest but they have Gigabit Ethernet and the KI PLUS only has Fast Ethernet.
>>> (Indeed the stock uBoot prompt and some Linux boot messages contain the string "p20x".)
>>> So, although obviously derived from these reference designs as you say, Ethernet doesn't work with the P200 and P201 DTS.
>>> Obviously working Ethernet is essential.
>> In fact the P201 probably does have Fast Ethernet.
> Yes, P201 should be the closest, it's basically P200 with 10/100 ethernet, and way simpler.
>
>> I remember that my board used to work well with the P201 DTB.
>> But this was with the Amlogic 3.14.y kernels.
>> In the mainline 4.x kernels it was incorrectly described with Gigabit Ethernet.
>> But I see that this has just been corrected in 4.12-rc1.
>> However unfortunately I cannot get 4.12-rc1 to boot: I get no kernel output at all on the serial console :(
>> I have never had any problems with the 4.10 and 4.11 series.
>>
>> Have you tried 4.12-rc1 on a GXBB board?
>> What bootargs do you recommend?
> Not yet, but this version should already boot some GXBB boards on kernelci.org

The problem was that my initrd was too big and something was obviously 
getting silently clobbered :(
(Both uBoot and the kernel move stuff around and decompress things.)

I had put all the kernel modules generated by the mainline arm64 
defconfig into my initrd and it had become very big.
Would it be possible to mainline an Amlogic specific version of the 
defconfig which would only include modules relevant to Amlogic boards?

Cheers,
Chris