[Arm-netbook] Trouble booting kernel on A1000, amery config settings

[Barry Kauler]

On 5/21/12, Alejandro Mery <amery at geeks.cl> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On Sun, May 20, 2012 at 5:45 AM, Barry Kauler <bkauler at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Firstly, a small note: the "Hacking the Mele A1000" page has an
>> incorrect statement, that the picture showing the gnd-rx-tx pins for
>> the uart are wrong. Actually, the picture is correct, and I have added
>> a correction note to the page:
>
> it's a wiki, it's intended for people to improve it. otoh adding
> correction notes is not as good as actually fixing the content.

It was necessary to inform everyone first that the previous comment
was wrong, not just delete it.

>> Now for my problem. The kernel will not boot. I get uart output coming
>> to my 'microcom' program, up to:
>>
>> reading uImage
>>
>> ...and that's it, nothing else happens.

The kernel was booting. The problem was the uart-to-usb converter. I
reported recently that it was hanging using Gtkterm, someone
recommended use minicom. Well, I changed to microcom, same hanging
problem. I dropped the baud rate to 9600, still hangs.

I might try a different serial-to-usb converter, as I have done this
before successfully on a different board entirely (using Gtkterm and
Cutecom). So the problem is not my laptop, it is something in the
converter or the Mele board.

> wait a second, please stop calling it *my* default .config or *my*,
> it's the sun4i_defconfig (or sun4i_crane_defconfig) that came on the
> source drop released by Qware from allwinner.

I got pulled up before, for referring to "Tom's Ubuntu SD image". I
was asked to reword it to something like "the Ubuntu SD image uploaded
by Tom".

Alright, so I will try to refer to the default .config that we are
discussing indirectly, something like "the sun4i_defconfig hosted by
amery at github" or whatever.

Anyway, I can now successfully build that kernel, but cannot get X
running. It complains that /dev/fb0 is not available. The "Ubuntu SD
image uploaded by Tom" has the only kernel (I have) for which X works
-- I noted that kernel does not have disp.ko or hdmi.ko so I presumed
they are builtin, so I tried that with the amery source (excuse me!),
no go. I built the kernel with fbcon enabled, still no go.

Also, with the kernel built from the "sun4i_defconfig hosted by amery
at github", SATA is still not recognised. Do I have to turn something
on somewhere? A change required in evb.bin?

If someone can build a kernel in which SATA and X do work on the Mele,
could you post exact instructions? Or, would you mind uploading a
compiled kernel, with .config file and the modules/firmware, then I
can use it in "my Puppy Linux SD image".

Regards,
Barry Kauler