Power & Source of Big Ideas

It turns out that somebody already figured out how to manually install gentoo linux on NanoPi R4S. I found this with "gentoo nanopi r4s" as search keywords. https://github.com/palacaze/gentoo-nanopi-r4s This is crazy. The amount of time he must have poured into this is unimaginable. There ...
It seems NanoPi R4S is the kind of hardware I was looking for. However, I gave up on NanoPi R2S before because I couldn't find a way to ⋅ build bootaloader without armbian or download bootloader ⋅ install bootloader manually ⋅ build mainline or vendor kernel manually an...
I wrote idbloader.img, uboot.img, and trust.img onto a microSD card. I formatted /boot as an ext4 file system and put extlinux/extlinux.conf on it. Armtix linux installed /boot/Image, /boot/initramfs-linux.img, /boot/dtbs/rockchip/rk3328-nanopi-r2s.dtb. I tried to boot NanoPi R2s with the microSD ca...
I'm trying to figure out how to write extlinux.conf for NanoPi R2S. Can anyone show me the content of extlinux.conf on NanoPi R2S?
How do friendlyelec developers actually build u-boot and linux kernel for NanoPi R2S?
I set up `cross-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu/gcc-6.5.0` on gentoo linux with sudo crossdev --stable --gcc 6.5.0 --target aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu According to https://github.com/friendlyarm/sd-fuse_rk3328/blob/master/build-kernel.sh, I needed the following commands against nanopi-r2-v5.4.y branch of h...
Yup, for u-boot check out doc/README.rockchip. The instructions are a bit sparse for the RK3328, but pretend it's an RK3399 and you're most of the way there. You'll want "option 3" (i.e. with TPL). According to https://github.com/friendlyarm/sd-fuse_rk3328, friendlyarm's rk3328 SBCs seem ...
Kyra wrote:
Technically they both do already, it's just a matter of a suitable devtree.


Are you saying that linus torvalds is being an asshole about accepting SBC support?
Yup, for u-boot check out doc/README.rockchip. The instructions are a bit sparse for the RK3328, but pretend it's an RK3399 and you're most of the way there. You'll want "option 3" (i.e. with TPL). So, as long as I use downstream u-boot, I can rely on https://github.com/u-boot/u-boot/blob...
I read ⋅ http://opensource.rock-chips.com/wiki_Boot_option ⋅ http://opensource.rock-chips.com/wiki_Rockchip_Kernel ⋅ https://github.com/friendlyarm/sd-fuse_rk3328 I understood some things, but I still can't put things together. Are there instructions on building u-boot ...
I mean https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_Attached_SCSI

With UASP(USB Attached SCSI Protocol), I can issue TRIM command to SSD via the USB 2.0 port.

Can I expect 500mA of max current from the USB 2.0 port?
You can plug a USB 3 gigabit ethernet adaptor into Rock Pi X or other single board computers with a USB 3 port.

NanoPi R2S just makes it physically more reliable and cleaner by not allowing users to detach the USB 3 ethernet adaptor.
I don't need to stick to Raspberry Pi. I think reverse-engineering build steps for NanoPi R2S isn't going to be too much work for me. But, it's going to be too much work for most people who don't even know about single board computers. It's just a big enough hassle that makes me want to explore alte...
I don't want to rely on distribution support which is not scalable to all hardwares.
Users should be able to find and follow build steps. Right now, documentation is sketchy.

I prefer user-level DIY.
I guess that leaves the choice of documenting build steps well. It seems weird to me that manufacturers focus on supporting a few specific distros instead of documenting build steps well. If you document build steps well, distributions will support your board and users will follow the steps. Instead...
If you throw "1 mio EUR" into our project per year, we will hire few people to start developing UEFI for boards you want to have it on. But there are many other companies that will provide the same. Just look around. I thought you were working for radxa. Are you now working for friendlyar...
https://forum.radxa.com/t/is-rock-pi-x- ... -tree/4553 says Rock Pi X is an x86_64 single board computer that comes with UEFI and does not require device tree.

It will be interesting to explore x86 single board computers.

Is UEFI possible on ARM single board computers, too?
I think you are biased toward armbian. I want to figure out the exact steps without using third party tools. I have been doing so on x86 computers. I don't want to be reliant on armbian to bootstrap another linux distribution. I think single board computer manufacturers should provide build steps fo...
To me, https://github.com/friendlyarm/sd-fuse_rk3328 seems more digestible than armbian. Armbian is a huge codebase. Understanding a huge code base is more difficult than reading documents. If I combine https://github.com/friendlyarm/sd-fuse_rk3328 with RK3328 documents on rockchip wiki, I will be a...
Is NanoPi R2s going to be soon supported by mainline linux and mainline u-boot? For that you will have to look elsewhere. ... Armbian runs improved mainline u-boot / kernel combo :) 1. I use either gentoo or artix linux. 2. Analyzing armbian is difficult. Are you saying that NanoPi R2S is not going...
Is NanoPi R2s going to be soon supported by mainline linux and mainline u-boot?
igorp wrote:
crocket wrote:
armbian is a complex beast.


Things are far more complex :D Armbian kills great portion of that complexity and I agree it could be done more.


I remember you from radxa forum.

I figured out that https://github.com/friendlyarm/sd-fuse_rk3328 is the recipe for nanopi r2s and nanopi neo3.
guidol wrote:
because the R2S is supported by armbian you could use the armbian-build-system to generate u-boot and linux for the R2S:
https://docs.armbian.com/Developer-Guid ... eparation/


I'd like to figure out the recipes. I tried to decode armbian before and failed. armbian is a complex beast.
Can you point me to forks that support NanoPi R2S?

Does NanoPi R2S require uboot?
poddmo wrote:
The iperf3 and bonnie test was with the usb stick formatted as fat32. I didn't try any further tests on the usb stick as my curiosity was for the impact on the LAN performance.


I wonder whether `ls` becomes slow in a large folder over SSH due to higher latencies during stress tests.
I tested it and was surprised to see that there was barely any impact when running an iperf3 test on the LAN ethernet adapter and running a bonnie++ test on a usb stick in the usb 2.0 type A socket, at the same time. I'm happy to say I see no practical impact to the USB3 ethernet. As for the therma...
I have both and can confirm that, in my experience, there are no problems with the metal cases even when the CPU load is in excess of 4.0. The case does get a couple of degrees warmer but absolutely nothing I'd worry about. Happy to perform a stress test with the zeropi if you're still interested. ...
If it is not connected to DMA controller, it may fail to receive or send packets while CPU cores are busy.
H3 is known to overheat easily. Someone warned me that H3 and H5 are going to need watercooling if I want to run CPU-intensive tasks for extended periods of time. Although NEO2 Black can be bought with NEO/NEO2 Metal Case w/ heat sink and ZeroPi can be bought with a similar case, I worry that a meta...