[Arm-netbook] Flashing the NAND

[Aaron J. Seigo]

On Monday, December 9, 2013 12:41:59 Siarhei Siamashka wrote:
> Except that it also touched linux-sunxi wiki, linux-sunxi defconfigs
> and the mali400 graphics drivers support on sunxi hardware. And kinda
> implied that a poor job is also being done there.

Let me clear that up so you don’t have to try and interpret implications:

The linux-sunxi wiki is not a problem in itself. Neither is elinux.org. Or 
rhombus-tech.com. However, to get anything meaning done with EOMA + AW SoC + 
Linux one needs to use pieces of all of them, and all are in varying states of 
detail and freshness.

The linux-sunxi kernel is not perfect. Mostly because it is starting from 
something that isn’t perfect and has few resources applied to it. So, the 
answer is: participate towards improvement.

Sadly, there are no documented means to do so other than things like “email 
$SOMEONE” and “get on IRC when people are there”.  Even that has to be found 
out by asking people directly. I spent ~2am-5am my local time on Saturday on 
irc to work through one issue, which is an insane time to do so. I’ve asked 
where coordination happens, where bug reports are managed, about the structure 
of the  wiki .. the answers I keep getting are unsatisfactory from the 
perspective of someone not already in the club.

mali400 graphics drivers: not your problem to deal with. They are a closed 
blob of horror. That can be quite frustrating, but *it is not your issue*.

> Was there even any effort made to communicate with the linux-sunxi
> community?

Yes, there were. Why don’t you know? Because the communication methods 
available are not well ordered. That’s something I’d like to see improved.

> For the OpenGL ES support in X11 on sunxi hardware, I have a project
> page here, which happens to list some contact information and
> describes the process of reporting issues:
>     https://github.com/ssvb/xf86-video-fbturbo

Yep, and we are using stuff from there. That is actually one of the better 
documented things around, as it is mentioned here:

http://linux-sunxi.org/Binary_drivers
http://linux-sunxi.org/Packages

I’d love to see that driver enhanced even further. We happen to have a 
developer with our company who has extensive experience with x.org and opengl 
development. The sad that is that right now the last thing I would suggest to 
them is to get involved because I really don’t want to expose them to the 
nature of this community as presented in this thread or on irc over the 
weekend. I have to wonder how many others have walked away due to that sort of 
interaction.

> Yes, the OpenGL ES issue has been successfully communicated via IRC.
> Nice job. Still Aaron described dealing with this particular issue
> using WTF word. Now I'm really curious what was my fault and how we
> can improve from this point?

I’m a big boy and sometimes I use big boy language. If you’re going to get 
bent out of shape about three letters like “WTF”, this is going to be really 
difficult.

That said, the “WTF” is due to the binary blob that is the mali driver we have 
to work with today. You have very little to do with that, last time I checked. 
Why are you taking this so personally?

> Joem, if you have nothing really constructive to say, please just don't
> get in the way.

If you want  people involved, the best way to not accomplish that is to tell 
them to go away. joem’s input was measured, nice and obviously with the intent 
to improve things.

Your characterization of him “getting in the way” is pretty distasteful stuff. 
This appears to be the  norm here, and you all need to decide whether you want 
to shift that norm in hopes of building a bigger, more vibrant community.

Go compare the reactions in this thread to what goes on in, say, the RPi 
community. Notice that RPi is pretty big? Those things are connected.

-- 
Aaron J. Seigo