[martinredolatti]

Hi everyone

I'm working on an amlogic8726-m3 set tb box trying to get debian linux to run natvely.

I've managed to get a kernel running on a base root filesystem. But i'm not able to get anything on the screen except for the A9 logo.

I can play a movie with mplayer or vlc (command line versions based on directfb or sdl) and get audio thru the hdmi input of the tv. But the screen stays black with the A9 logo.

Same happens if I try to run Xorg with the generic fbdev driver (can't compile mali_drm required by X11 accelerated mali driver because of a kernel version mismatch).

Any help would be more than appreciated.

Thanks a lot!

[reallybigabe]

Hows this coming?
Wish I could help, but I'm totally just waiting to leech.

I could sift through logs for ya, thats about the best I have.

[j1nx]

The FB console is off by default. Did you enabled it in the kernel config? I know it works as I see my co-workers messing around on HDMI FB console on the MX boxes

Compiling the X11 drivers is not that easy as you need all the required libraries and some are not part of the Opensource package and there for need to be compiled by someone who has access to the DDK from Mali.

[martinredolatti]

I had forgotten about this thread

Thanks for the replies, i had framebuffer disabled in kernel config as j1nx suggested. Been messing with X11 with the fbdev driver and it works (more or less) i'm having some trouble setting the resolution since xrandr and other xutils for getting display info and refresh rates do not seem to work properly.

Also, i'm having some weird issue with debian binaries (tried both arm-eabi and armhf). I get rando Illegal Instruction or segmentation fault errors that make my applications crash.

This happens only on startup, i beleive some issue with malloc failing to return a correct memmory range?

I've seen theres a module named cmem.ko that I haven't messed around yet. Do you know j1nx if it has something to do with this?


As for de Mali driver, the error i get during compilation is because kernel.26.34 doesn't treat drm devices as platform drivers, and I beleive the mali_drm is built around that struct.

[j1nx]

Try to compile CMEM inkernel instead of module. see if that helps

About the Mali. I once crossed that bridge while messing around on the Allwinner A10. Man that stuff pissed me off ...!

[martinredolatti]

Thanks! I'll let you know how that turns out.

Do you know if it's possible to run VLC or MPLAYER with hardware decoding on the AMLOGIC soc? I'm building libamplayer-m3 libs published in pivos github, and i'll try to build mplayer and/or vlc in order to use those headers at compilation time and have it linked to amlogic's ffmpeg libraries

[CSylvain]

Hello martinredolatti,
A you customize the settings in the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file ?
For my part I can not even run "xclock"
I every time a segmentation fault.
I tried compiling the driver "Mali" to "xorg" and it's worse :

Code:

(==) Using config file: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf"
(==) Using system config directory "/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d"
MaliSetup
MaliIdentify
MaliProbe
MaliHWProbe
(EE) MALI(0): mali_drm_open_master Unable to open DRM: No such file or directory
(EE) MALI(0): Failed to be master of DRM!
(EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration.

The log file shows no way for the DRM.

What is difficult with AMlogic is the lack of information, or source code to run their product on linux.
I let a few days and if I can not find a solution I continue my project on the "Allwinner" tempi if there is no tuner DVB integrate, I will tell a USB.

[martinredolatti]

You can't use the mali driver for X11, since it needs mali_drm which cannot be built using kernel sources provided by amlogic because of an incompatibility with the drm driver subsystem.

make sure you use "fbdev" as your X11 driver.

it's usually the one selected by default if you have no xorg.conf file

good luck!

[CSylvain]

Thank you for your answer !
I had already tried with fbdev and I have nothing that appears : http://pastebin.com/6SqT1DpQ

I also received a response from Amlogic, and I think their support is coming from poor quality :

Dear Sylvain,

According to our limited resource, we don't freely provide any technical support.

Please go to your ODM for the solution.

I even warned that the driver MXL101 for DVB-T tuner does not work with w_scan, and they said nothing about it.
I was trying to change the manufacturer to go to Allwinner but from what I've seen, their book CedarX is not open source, so it is impossible to find a FFMPEG patch for this VPU is the only good thing has done AMlogic with AMFFMPEG even if it breaks the GPL license.
This allows multiple Player...

I will try tonight to give me a Mali course package with this DRM, I will keep you informed of the outcome !

[martinredolatti]

Thank you for your answer !
I had already tried with fbdev and I have nothing that appears : http://pastebin.com/6SqT1DpQ

I also received a response from Amlogic, and I think their support is coming from poor quality :

Dear Sylvain,

According to our limited resource, we don't freely provide any technical support.

Please go to your ODM for the solution.

I even warned that the driver MXL101 for DVB-T tuner does not work with w_scan, and they said nothing about it.
I was trying to change the manufacturer to go to Allwinner but from what I've seen, their book CedarX is not open source, so it is impossible to find a FFMPEG patch for this VPU is the only good thing has done AMlogic with AMFFMPEG even if it breaks the GPL license.
This allows multiple Player...

I will try tonight to give me a Mali course package with this DRM, I will keep you informed of the outcome !

Sometimes framebuffer devices are inverted (i have no clue why)

Try this (it's horrible but fast and worth a try:

mv /dev/fb0 /dev/fbtemp ; mv /dev/fb1 /dev/fb0 ; mv /dev/fbtemp /dev/fb0

then try xinit

---

sorry, like this

mv /dev/fb0 /dev/fbtemp ; mv /dev/fb1 /dev/fb0 ; mv /dev/fbtemp /dev/fb1

[CSylvain]

It does not give better result :

Code:

Backtrace:
[957834.248] Segmentation fault at address 0x30
[957834.249]
Fatal server error:
[957834.249] Caught signal 11 (Segmentation fault). Server aborting
[957834.249]
[957834.249]
Please consult the The X.Org Foundation support at http://wiki.x.org for help.
[957834.249] Please also check the log file at "/var/log/Xorg.0.log" for additional information.
[957834.249]

You made ​​your tests HDMI or composite ?
Another question, you made ​​your tests with the buildroot from j1nx / Gbox ?
For certainly the fb1 is used for the analog output ?
I would end tomorrow the package for the drm I hope that the result will be better.
And no result I would do full compilation with Xorg 1.7.5, because I had to switch to 1.8.2 for that is compatible with the driver Mali X11.

[martinredolatti]

i Have random segfaults and illegal instruction errors.
sometimes i have to run xinit 3 or 4 times in order to load correctly


try this in order to determine which framebuffer is mapped to the hdmi output


cat /dev/urandom > /dev/fb0
cat /dev/urandom > /dev/fb1

the one that fills the tv with colours is the one you should be using.

[CSylvain]

This is the "/dev/fb0" because I had already done this test with this :


I was testing with this command :

Code:

lzopcat /usr/share/splash/stopping.fb.lzo > /dev/fb0

I also tested the composite and it does not work, even fb1.
I hope to have better results after testing drm module.

Thank you again for your advice.

[CSylvain]

Verdict, it is impossible to activate the DRM on their Kernel 2.6.34, so I made ​​the decision to permanently stop using AMlogic because I think there is no interest in use for the "Linux" saw that lack full module (DRM Alsa ...).
I look upon this side of "Rockchip RK3066" (NEO MiniX X5).
Or as i.MX 6 (only bad point, there are only Dongles GK802) that brings a great community, I think that even it will have a very good future, there is everything available, even builroot includes i.MX 6
Plugin GStreamer, Xorg, Firmware : http://download.ossystems.com.br/bsp/freescale/source/

I.MX6 GK802/Hi802 - A working Kernel with Ubuntu :
http://jas-hacks.blogspot.fr/2013/02/imx...-with.html
http://jas-hacks.blogspot.fr/2013/04/imx...image.html

GK802 - Ubuntu with VPU and GPU Accceleration :


I hope that "XBMC" will focus on these processors to ensure a better future !

[martinredolatti]

I intend to play a little with newer kernel versions 3.7 and onwards, which have generic support for ARM processors.

If I happen to reach some kind of useful results, i'll let you know