Re: [Gnewsense-dev] Current Status (and Wiki Performance)

[Sam Geeraerts]

Op Thu, 1 Sep 2016 00:18:47 +0200
schreef Paul Boddie <address@hidden>:

> So I guess there were gNewSense builds for mipsel at some point to
> support the Lemote products, and that these worked with the various
> kernels provided for the Ben NanoNote?

I don't remember if I used the gNewSense kernel or another one.

> Fortunately/unfortunately, it was shown that the A20 card can most
> likely be endorsed, thus eliminating any urgent need for the jz4775
> card. But that would also mean that the A20 card could be used
> instead (to support ARM systems, obviously).

Hm, considering the problems we've had with mipsel, I'm not keen on
adding another architecture to the repo.

> The reference you provide [1] is somewhat confusing, partly because I
> don't really know that much about the Yeeloong, but also because I
> thought that it was a MIPS64 system. Maybe only the later
> models/variants are MIPS64, but it then confuses me that this change
> would seek to affect MIPS32 systems, too.

As I understand it, it can run 32 bit and 64 bit ABIs [1] and the "one
size fits all" MIPS I o32 instruction set that Debian provided, but not
the MIPS II instruction set to which they're switching now.

> Interestingly, Guix(SD) supports mips64el presumably for Yeeloong 
> compatibility, but I'm not too familiar with Guix at the moment, so I
> don't know what architecture version restrictions that system imposes
> in its build environment. I can always dig up some more information
> about that.

It's good to know that there are other options that still support the
Yeeloong.

> In addition, the jz4780 uses widely-disliked PowerVR technologies,
> but maybe they are not mandatory for it to be used in a productive
> way. And Imagination Technologies seem to have moved on to the CI40
> (which is less suitable as a build host), and I don't see a
> particularly large amount of obvious support for the CI20 any more.

So that's a dead end, then. So if I understand you correctly, then with
regards to current and near-future hardware options, there's no real
reason to continue mipsel support in gNewSense post-Yeeloong.

> Maybe it's some other kind of server issue. Anyway, if you need any
> assistance then I'd be happy to take a look.

Ack.

[1]
https://blogs.gentoo.org/blueness/2014/07/02/continued-support-for-the-lemote-yeeloong-gentoo-mips-is-alive-and-well/