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Date:      Wed, 13 Jun 2018 10:01:32 +0200
From:      Emmanuel Vadot <manu@bidouilliste.com>
To:        Ganbold Tsagaankhuu <ganbold@gmail.com>
Cc:        Kyle Evans <kevans@freebsd.org>, Rogiel Sulzbach <rogiel@rogiel.com>, "freebsd-arm@freebsd.org" <arm@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: De-orbit Allwinner A10/A20/A31 for 12.0
Message-ID:  <20180613100132.af9a6fa4e4c9d627ffd28a5a@bidouilliste.com>
In-Reply-To: <CAGtf9xNxFQUumLid9AD5j9pPR8Kj4wRSjjMA6P4_Ztb=Od0ZqA@mail.gmail.com>
References:  <20180612223248.f95d9ce3961187576e220614@bidouilliste.com> <1270d2d0-7f10-4454-af30-d5d62ec5bd73@Spark> <CACNAnaFXWhEjdpQB8DZzRPHwcPLuYkhbjVLV%2BJWbHOt=yGZhRw@mail.gmail.com> <CAGtf9xNxFQUumLid9AD5j9pPR8Kj4wRSjjMA6P4_Ztb=Od0ZqA@mail.gmail.com>

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On Wed, 13 Jun 2018 11:32:08 +0800
Ganbold Tsagaankhuu <ganbold@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> On Wed, Jun 13, 2018 at 7:47 AM, Kyle Evans <kevans@freebsd.org> wrote:
> 
> > On Tue, Jun 12, 2018 at 3:51 PM, Rogiel Sulzbach <rogiel@rogiel.com>
> > wrote:
> > > On Jun 12, 2018, 5:33 PM -0300, Emmanuel Vadot <manu@bidouilliste.com>,
> > wrote:
> > >>
> > >> Hello arm@
> > >>
> > >> I don't like to send this email but ...
> > >>
> > >> I want to remove A10/A20/A31 support for FreeBSD 12, here is the
> > >> reason why :
> > >>
> > >> - I don't have time to maintain thoses SoC
> > >> - For A10/A20 we currently don't boot on it since it requires new
> > >> clocks binding (handled by aw_ccung) and I have no time to do the
> > >> switch.
> > >> - H3 (which is 32bits too) is way better in term of performance and
> > >> price, you can buy a "good" $10 board while getting an A20 will cost
> > >> you more for some reason.
> > >> - My A31 board (BananapiM1) just died today after a long time of being
> > >> my arm32 reference board.
> > >> - I don't want the code to stay like the old 32 bits rockchip or
> > >> amlogic code that can't even boot nowadays.
> > >>
> > >> If someone want to step up and convert A10/A20 to ccung I'll be
> > >> glad to help/review but if no one step up it's unreasonable for me to
> > >> support those right now and I prefer to remove completely the support.
> > >>
> > >> The plan is to remove support in one month (July 12th) if there is no
> > >> volunteer to update the current code.
> > >>
> > >> Cheers,
> > >>
> > >> --
> > >> Emmanuel Vadot <manu@bidouilliste.com> <manu@freebsd.org>
> > >
> > > Hello Emmanuel,
> > >
> > > we have recently considered to switching from i.MX6 to a A20 for cost
> > reasons.
> > >
> > > I have just bought a Banana Pi with an A20 to test performance and
> > compare it to the Wandboard. The problem with H3 (and all other better
> > socs) is the lack of a proper SATA controller. A real controller is only
> > available in A10/A20 SoCs, all others go through a horrible SATA-to-USB
> > adapter that is horribly slow.
> > >
> > > Anyway, in case we decide to switch, I can keep the A20 running
> > -CURRENT. I might need some help getting started since I do not have a lot
> > of experience in the kernel, other than the AHCI driver for the imx.
> >
> > Hi Rogiel,
> >
> > FWIW- I'm going to go ahead and write the ccung bits for A10/A20 so
> > that I can make use of my Lamobo R1 when the switch driver for that is
> > finished.
> >
> > This is probably not a bad time to pare down the DTS+U-Boot we build
> > for these SoC to what people are actually willing to claim they use
> > with FreeBSD, though.
> >
> 
> 
> First of all I would like to thank manu@ and kevans@ and other committers
> who improved the support of Allwinner SoC related codes and maintaining
> them up to now.
> I basically agree with manu@, but there could be few points we may have to
> consider:
> - It is nice to have the support of a board which has SATA controller, as
> mentioned Rogiel

 Yes that's for me the only interesting thing on those SoC nowadays.

> - According to https://wiki.freebsd.org/FreeBSD/arm/Allwinner most of
> drivers work on A20 boards (if we add ccung support) and it could be a
> reference code for attracting new developers, users etc.

 Correct the only missing thing is ccung (and test/maintainance of
course)

> - If we nuke A10/A20 bits, then we maybe need to obtain some other boards
> with H3 SoC for gjb@ or anyone who builds official images, I believe those
> images are tested on those boards.

 I plan to deorbit some images and make a generic image, now sure how
for now that's all :)

> - I know it is time consuming, but I think a developer has to make sure
> his/her code changes work across boards/SoC family, or at least ask others
> to test or apply similar changes to their boards/SoCs just to make sure
> everything works. Correct me if I'm wrong here.

 Sure, that's why I always test on 32bit allwinner (A31/H3) and 64bit
(A64/H5)

> - I know I should be blamed for not updating Rockchip RK3188 and Amlogic
> codes, but I hope some of the bits can be used/referenced later on for
> boards with SoC like RK3328, RK3399 etc, since I do have the latter one.

 Nothing to be blamed for, we all have a life :)
 I had a quick glance at the rockchip code before starting working on
RK3328 and I think that now everything supported before is supported
for 64bits SoC (with a few extras)

> Kyle,
> 
> Adding ccung support to A10/A20 is very much appreciated.
> I will wait for your switch driver, that would be really awesome.
> I think I have same board too :)
> 
> thanks a lot for understanding,
> 
> Ganbold
> 
> 
> 
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Kyle Evans
> > _______________________________________________
> > freebsd-arm@freebsd.org mailing list
> > https://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-arm
> > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-arm-unsubscribe@freebsd.org"
> >


-- 
Emmanuel Vadot <manu@bidouilliste.com> <manu@freebsd.org>



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