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On 10/05/2011 11:43 PM, Sven Vermeulen wrote: |
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> On Wed, Oct 05, 2011 at 02:46:54PM -0400, wireless wrote: |
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>> What currently links to the Gentoo handbook for ARM is |
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>> deprecated! |
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>> |
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>> http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-arm.xml?part=1&chap=5 |
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>> |
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>> |
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>> |
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Why not link to this doc? |
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>> http://dev.gentoo.org/~armin76/arm/trimslice/install.xml |
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>> |
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>> Lots of new arm netbooks are here and no doubt many different |
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>> offerings are on the way! |
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> |
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> Raúl, |
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> |
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> Apart from owning an Eepad Transformer, I know nothing of Gentoo |
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> Linux/ARM installations. Any thoughts on your part on how we can |
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> ensure that our documentation stays of high quality here? |
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> |
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> Wkr, Sven Vermeulen |
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> |
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|
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Hi Sven, |
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|
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Unfortunately i do not have any suggestion of how we could enhance our |
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documentation in this aspect. |
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|
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ARM is very different from other, more common, architectures. If we |
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look at the handbook, we have some troubles at the beginning. Each SoC |
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has its own specific stuff regarding installation. For example, most |
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of the OMAP SoCs require an SD-card with specific partition layout. |
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Some devices have the kernel in the flash memory, some devices lack |
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flash memory(pandaboard f.ex), so the kernel+bootloader is in external |
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storage. |
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|
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Every different SoC needs its own kernel and unfortunately most of the |
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devices aren't supported in the mainline kernel(yet). |
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|
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If you look at the documentation i've done: |
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http://dev.gentoo.org/~armin76/arm/pandaboard/install.xml |
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http://dev.gentoo.org/~armin76/arm/sheevaplug/install.xml |
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http://dev.gentoo.org/~armin76/arm/tegra2/install.xml |
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http://dev.gentoo.org/~armin76/arm/trimslice/install.xml |
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|
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you'll see that only some small parts are common among all of them. |
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|
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And although the tegra250 dev kit and the trimslice use the same SoC |
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as your Transformer or the also famously known Toshiba AC100, |
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different procedures are required for all of them, and the kernel for |
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each device only supports said device. |
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|
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These big differences makes one page per device the only option, IMHO. |
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I'm open to alternatives. In other distros, the use of |
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installers(ubuntu) or device/SoC-specific images(archlinuxarm) hide |
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this issue. |
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|
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On our case, we do architecture-specific stage3s. armv7a is one |
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architecture, in the market there are different SoCs that are |
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compliant to such architecture: TI OMAP4, Freescale i.MX5, Nvidia |
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Tegra2, etc... |
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And those examples i just said use, for example, different serial |
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ports: OMAP4(ttyO2), i.MX5(ttymxc0) and Tegra2 uses the default ttyS0. |
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|
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The current ARM handbook was written in 2004 or so, and was designed |
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for a device that is uncommon nowadays, old, and slow. |
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|
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IMHO removing the current handbook and pointing to one page per device |
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handbooks would be the way to go. |
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|
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Thanks |