Kernel 3.x and Freerunner

[Denis 'GNUtoo' Carikli]

On Thu, 30 Jan 2014 11:54:40 +0100
Mike Crash <mike at mikecrash.com> wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> last two years I was busy with other private stuff, now I have
> returned to my old projects and also my Neo. I have completely
> rewritten my software and I want to compile it for Neo. But new
> software is not compatible with old kernel (for example udev).
> 
> I have tried to boot up Neo and what a surprice, everything works as 2
> years ago. Only battery has half of capacity...
> 
> I want to ask if there was some progress in support of Neo Freerunner
> in stock kernel.
There is some support for it in mainline, I'm not sure that it's enough
to suit your usecase, beside patches to fix some gta02-specific issues
or patch that should have been submited to mainline that weren't, some
drivers are not in mainline:
 * The glamo driver.
 * The wifi driver: I've been told that the mainline ath6kl was very
   different from the one in the freerunner, and that it was because
   the firmware of the very early ath6k of the freerunner was very
   different.

> I still use old 2.6.29 with openmoko modifications,
> is it possible to use kernel 3.13?
No idea, you have to try it out, be sure to get a debug board for that:
1) configure(stuff like make ARCH=arm xconfig/menuconfig for instance)
the kernel for the gta02, by looking at the existing configurations of
the lastest kernel
2) compile and run it
3) you'll have no display working at that point, so that's why you
really need the serial console at first.
4) forward-port the patches specific to the GTA02 and the missing
drivers.
In order to have to do it only once, do that with mainlining in mind,
and do use the devicetree. mainline the patches.

> I don't need phone functionality,
> only display,
That requires the glamo, so you'll have to forward port the glamo
driver at least.
> audio
That driver is in mainline, but maybe without devicetree bindings.

> and gps.
Shouldn't be too hard to mainline, assuming you choose the right
framwork for it. if I remember well, it's just some gpio toggling, and
that can even been done in userspace if mainling that is difficult.
> I have looked around, there are some Neo
> stuff in stock kernel, but I don't know, if it is usable.
Last news I have, which is really old, is that SHR had the most recent
kernels in their meta-smartphone layer, but I'm unsure if that's used
or not.

> Please can
> anybody tell me, what's the situation now? Have anybody tried new
> stock kernels?
It depends on what you mean by "new", SHR had a more rencent kernel
with almost everything working beside the regulators, which means that
GPS, modem, and wifi had issues.
Since it was just some GPIOs it could have been worked arround in
userspace, like by modifying the fso plugins again.

Denis.
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