[Arm-netbook] Side-Topic: Liberating PocketCHIP

[Pablo Rath]

On Mon, Jul 10, 2017 at 06:34:39AM -0400, Jean Flamelle wrote:
> Actually learned about the
> deblob scripts seeing a script use them on the chrome kernel, so I was
> thinking about running deblob in a u-boot directory and seeing what
> happens.

My guess is that nothing useful is going to happen because there is a
deblob script tailored for every kernel release. I would be quite
surprised if it works on the source of a completely unrelated project. 
But I have been wrong before so go ahead if you want and tell us what
happens.

> > I ditched all the custom NTC stuff and went for vanilla Debian. I have
> > managed to install Debian Stretch (current Stable) on a USB stick
> > using Debian Installer. I am using a self-compiled mainline U-Boot via
> > sunxi-fel to
> > circumvent the U-Boot version on NAND provided by the manufacturer which
> > can not boot from USB.
> 
> I'm not sure if you mean version "of" NAND, but otherwise it sounds
> like your saying they hardcoded it not boot that way?
> Feature-not-a-bug?

I have to admit that I don't understand your first question probably
because I am not a native speaker. Is "of NAND" or "on NAND" a semantic
or a technical question?
I think NextThing forked U-Boot before USB boot went mainline. I
remember a forum thread where someone from NextThing wrote there are two
options; first to backport USB boot into NextThings U-Boot fork or
second to wait until certain features of NextThings U-Boot are
mainlined. So in my opinion feature-not-a-bug is not the case here.

> > I had some problems to boot the rootfs after completing installation and
> > solved it with help from the debian-arm mailing list (see this thread
> > for additional information:
> > https://lists.debian.org/debian-arm/2017/06/msg00027.html)
> > I am only using Debians main repos and connect to the Internet via
> > USB-OTG with the g_ether kernel module and a network bridge on my
> > desktop.
> 
> That whole thing sounds like it was painful to get operating.

I don't give up easily.
It was more like solving a puzzle where all parts fit once you have gotten them
out of several different boxes. I did not write a single line of code so
I am standing on the shoulders of giants (linux-sunxi community, debian
developers, U-Boot developers).
> 
> > I am running Chip headless via ssh and have not tested video and
> > sound yet. There may be some hidden quirks I am not yet aware of but so
> > far it looks good.
> 
> I would be very interested to know if GPIO functions okay like that.

Do you have an easy test to verify GPIO functions?

> kudos Pablo!

Thank you!

kind regards
Pablo