Hi Jim,
2017-10-02 23:45 GMT+02:00 Jim Perrin jperrin@centos.org:
On 09/29/2017 05:35 AM, Marcin Wojtas wrote:
Hi,
As for the news, unmodified CentOS-7-aarch64 downloaded from http://mirror.centos.org/altarch/7/isos/aarch64/ works great on Marvell Armada 8040 MacchiatoBin (http://macchiatobin.net/).
You can see vmlinuz-4.11.0-22.el7a.aarch64 bootlog here: https://pastebin.com/kuDQRzDV
Oh very nice!
All interfaces that are supported in the mainline linux kernel (with ACPI) work fine with Centos image as well. However as there's an effort to add ACPI support to remaining interfaces (e.g. network or sd/mmc controllers), we would like backport upstream patches to your tree. Hence I have a couple of questions in addition to what can be found in https://wiki.centos.org/SpecialInterestGroup/AltArch/AArch64/Contributions:
- Are the Centos kernel sources accessible in some kind of public repository?
Yes. You can find the repository details at https://git.centos.org/summary/?r=sig-altarch/kernel in the sig-altarch7-aarch64 branch.
We don't store the larger tarballs in git though, so it may help for you to look at https://wiki.centos.org/Sources/ to see how to interact with our look-aside repository.
- When sending patches to arm-dev, do you require original commit log
and URL to adequate patch in the kernel.org?
Yes.
- Is patch existence in linux-next sufficient for you to accept it?
Yes.
- I imagine proceeding in two steps - align drivers between v4.11 and
mainline first and later add (still being developed) ACPI support patches once they are ready and merged upstream. Would it be ok for you?
As long as you're not disabling existing support in the kernel patches (You can't turn acpi off, for example) and the patches are specific to your hardware, that sounds fine.
- Do you have some kind of merge windows/release cycles to follow,
when upstreaming patches?
No, only when building updated install media.
Thank you for all your answers.
Given current quality of Centos support for new family of ARM64 SoCs, how about mentioning Armada 7k/8k family in 'Supported Hardware' section on https://wiki.centos.org/SpecialInterestGroup/AltArch/AArch64
I can add it as developmental support while we get the network pieces and acpi sorted out. Will that work for you?
Yes, it would be great, if you could add it - please let know once that happens.
Just to make it clear, Centos on MacchiatoBin works with the normal installer and AltArch image without any setup quirks - we just need to compliment the ACPI support for remaining interfaces in the Linux mainline first (Network and SD/MMC controller). FYI, it is likely that we add ACPI-support information to the mainline Linux support matrix for Marvell SoCs: https://elinux.org/Marvell_EBU:Mainline_Linux
Best regards, Marcin