Debian Bug report logs - #871792
flash-kernel: please add support for Golden Delicious GTA04 phone

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Message #5 received at submit@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Josua Mayer <josua.mayer97@gmail.com>

To: Debian Bug Tracking System <submit@bugs.debian.org>

Subject: flash-kernel: please add support for Golden Delicious GTA04 phone

Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2017 15:41:53 +0000

Package: flash-kernel
Severity: wishlist

Dear Maintainer,

Please add support for above mentioned phone.
Since debian armmp kernel 4.9.13-1 the board is reasonably well supported, 
though charging isn't working, which is why I use a custom kernel here.

It comes with a downstream u-boot variant based on 2016.11.
For the sake of simplicity, it is reasonable to expect that there is a 
vendor-provided u-boot binary already installed in nand flash. 
It looks for a boot.scr on any MBR partition on the microSD card
(there is a boot menu available), and executes it if found.
I am pretty sure the current vendor boot-script does not set the expected 
distro_bootpart, and related variables but we can add the necessary pieces 
as they come up!

The rootfs might also be on nand flash, but lets skip that for starters 
because the vendor boot-script could use some improvement in that area.
It currently looks for a kernel uImage and bootm`s that without any initrd.

More details:
There are several iterations of the GTA04, and of its early prototypes.
U-Boot auto-detects at least all those that were shipped to customers, 
and sets fdtfile variable as appropriate. This is the list of DTBs included 
with linux-image-4.9.0-3-armmp:
/usr/lib/linux-image-4.9.0-3-armmp/omap3-gta04a3.dtb
/usr/lib/linux-image-4.9.0-3-armmp/omap3-gta04a4.dtb
/usr/lib/linux-image-4.9.0-3-armmp/omap3-gta04a5.dtb

If you need any further details, let me know!

Yours sincerely
Josua Mayer


-- System Information:
Debian Release: 8.9
  APT prefers oldoldstable
  APT policy: (500, 'oldoldstable'), (500, 'oldstable')
Architecture: armhf (armv7l)

Kernel: Linux 4.12.3-letux+ (SMP w/1 CPU core; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: sysvinit (via /sbin/init)

Message #10 received at 871792@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Vagrant Cascadian <vagrant@debian.org>

To: Josua Mayer <josua.mayer97@gmail.com>, 871792@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#871792: flash-kernel: please add support for Golden Delicious GTA04 phone

Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2018 18:15:43 -0800

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

On 2017-08-11, Josua Mayer wrote:
> Please add support for above mentioned phone.
> Since debian armmp kernel 4.9.13-1 the board is reasonably well supported, 
> though charging isn't working, which is why I use a custom kernel here.
>
> It comes with a downstream u-boot variant based on 2016.11.
> For the sake of simplicity, it is reasonable to expect that there is a 
> vendor-provided u-boot binary already installed in nand flash. 
> It looks for a boot.scr on any MBR partition on the microSD card
> (there is a boot menu available), and executes it if found.
> I am pretty sure the current vendor boot-script does not set the expected 
> distro_bootpart, and related variables but we can add the necessary pieces 
> as they come up!

Can you include the output from the u-boot prompt of "printenv" ? This
would be necessary to figure out what might need to go into a boot
script.


> More details:
> There are several iterations of the GTA04, and of its early prototypes.
> U-Boot auto-detects at least all those that were shipped to customers, 
> and sets fdtfile variable as appropriate. This is the list of DTBs included 
> with linux-image-4.9.0-3-armmp:
> /usr/lib/linux-image-4.9.0-3-armmp/omap3-gta04a3.dtb
> /usr/lib/linux-image-4.9.0-3-armmp/omap3-gta04a4.dtb
> /usr/lib/linux-image-4.9.0-3-armmp/omap3-gta04a5.dtb

It looks like the models for those are:

arch/arm/boot/dts/omap3-gta04a3.dts:    model = "Goldelico GTA04A3";
arch/arm/boot/dts/omap3-gta04a4.dts:    model = "Goldelico GTA04A4";
arch/arm/boot/dts/omap3-gta04a5.dts:    model = "Goldelico GTA04A5";

So an entry like:

Machine: Goldelico GTA04A3
DTB-Id: omap3-gta04a3.dtb

Would get the dtb files copied where they go.

More information would be needed to write a boot script for this.


live well,
  vagrant

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Message #15 received at 871792@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Josua Mayer <josua.mayer97@gmail.com>

To: 871792@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#871792: flash-kernel: please add support for Golden Delicious GTA04 phone

Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2018 10:38:36 +0100

Hi Vagrant,

I believe that we should expect the generic boot-script to just work.
If it doesn't that will be because of bugs in our boot menu script, and
we can fix those outside of Debian.
For the next two to 3 weeks I won't have time to acquire that
environment, but maybe I can get someone else to post it.

As to the models: Yes, those seem correct. So we will need an entry for
each of them?
Supported kernel flavors: armmp, no lpae.

What I was asking before is if it is possible to have a wildcard entry
for the device variants that would always copy a set of DTBs to /boot,
to make moving the sdcard between devices easier.
But this is just a wishlist item, if flash-kernel doesn't work that way,
so be it.

Also: is there a way to modify this later if we ever want to be able to
install directly to nand flash(meaning kernel and rootfs) in such a way
that people can choose during install if they want to use sdcard or nand?
Such that when installed to sdcard, flash-kernel will never touch nand
flash, and vice versa?
Again, another wishlist item.

br
Josua Mayer

Message #20 received at 871792@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Josua Mayer <josua.mayer97@gmail.com>

To: 871792@bugs.debian.org

Subject: u-boot environment

Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2018 22:47:15 +0200

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Dear Maintainers,

I finally found the time to capture the u-boot environment variables
when bootargs.scr is run by our vendor boot script.
This did involve changing the first script to set a few variables, and I
am submitting my few changes to the vendor.

I will update this bug when the changes have been accepted.
I have some uncertainties in my code changes, but not in the result. The
goal is using the generic boot script, so I don't think waiting for the
vendor blocks adding entries to the db.

I have created the following 3 machine entries, and verified that the
system comes up properly after running flash-kernel:
Machine: Goldelico GTA04A3
Kernel-Flavors: armmp
Boot-Script-Path: /boot/bootargs.scr
DTB-Id: omap3-gta04a3.dtb
U-Boot-Script-Name: bootscr.uboot-generic
Required-Packages: u-boot-tools

Machine: Goldelico GTA04A4
Kernel-Flavors: armmp
Boot-Script-Path: /boot/bootargs.scr
DTB-Id: omap3-gta04a4.dtb
U-Boot-Script-Name: bootscr.uboot-generic
Required-Packages: u-boot-tools

Machine: Goldelico GTA04A5
Kernel-Flavors: armmp
Boot-Script-Path: /boot/bootargs.scr
DTB-Id: omap3-gta04a5.dtb
U-Boot-Script-Name: bootscr.uboot-generic
Required-Packages: u-boot-tools

Please find attached a logfile for demonstration purposes showing that
the current 4.16 kernel actually works as intended.

Yours sincerely
Josua Mayer

[bootargs.log (text/x-log, attachment)]

[buster-gta04.log (text/x-log, attachment)]

Message #25 received at 871792@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Josua Mayer <josua.mayer97@gmail.com>

To: 871792@bugs.debian.org

Subject: wait a little

Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2018 22:52:44 +0200

Sorry for the quick addition: a secodn uncertainty lies in the name of
the boot script.
We currently search for a bootargs.scr which was supposed to let distros
set a few boot options, and then return control back to the menu.

So maybe the name should be boot.scr instead. I will update once this
has been decided.

Message #30 received at 871792@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Vagrant Cascadian <vagrant@debian.org>

To: Josua Mayer <josua.mayer97@gmail.com>, 871792@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#871792: wait a little

Date: Thu, 04 Apr 2019 14:35:22 -0700

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

On 2018-07-17, Josua Mayer wrote:
> Sorry for the quick addition: a secodn uncertainty lies in the name of
> the boot script.
> We currently search for a bootargs.scr which was supposed to let distros
> set a few boot options, and then return control back to the menu.
>
> So maybe the name should be boot.scr instead. I will update once this
> has been decided.

Any status update? Not much time left to get into the next release...


live well,
  vagrant

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