How to get a working kernel

a1d3s

hi everyone
i need a kernel 3.14+ , there some new drivers for webcams included like mine.
i read much of tuturials on linux-sunix and here in the forum.
i get all compiled u-boot kernel 3.18-rc2 and merge them all in an debian but it doenst boot.
i build kernel with dtb an write an boot.cmd + parse them to boot.src , but nothing works
i tried many versions from git denx sunix and much other .
tried kernel 3.14 and sunix-next everything with same result, no booting system.

silentcreek

I can't really help you much, but I do have a few hints for you:

1) Kernel 3.19 is supposed to bring support for BananaPi. You can try to find and apply the planned patches to a Kernel 3.18 source, if they are not already in sunxi-next.
2) Forget about Kernel 3.14. The sunxi repos for Kernel 3.14 haven't been touched in quite a while and LeMaker also didn't patch the 3.14 branch in their fork of the sunxi-repo to add support for the BananaPi.
3) Aside from a working Kernel image, you also need a compatible and recent u-boot image. Support for BananaPi in mainline U-boot is supposed to be introduced in early 2015. So you might check the developement versions of uboot-sunxi to see if BananaPi support is already added there.
4) Fedora 21 for ARM is supposed to run on Banana Pi and have a working kernel (3.16 or 3.17) for it. You could try beta images or wait for the official release expected in December and use that uboot, kernel and dtb for BananaPi. I read that they successfully booted a Kernel 3.16 on BananaPi already. But who knows which features are supported and which are missing. Don't expect anything more than support for a headless system.

a1d3s

i think my worst problem is uboot and the boot.cmd files

kernel today i used was sunix-next

1. git clone -b sunxi-next https://github.com/linux-sunxi

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this is now 3.18-rc2 with sun7i-a20-bananapi.dts inside

1. make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabihf- LOADADDR=0x40008000 uImage modules dtbs

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for u-boot i test different sources
https://github.com/jwrdegoede/u-boot-sunxi
lemaker and some other
boot.cmd (dont know what earlyprintk mean

1. fatload mmc 0 0x46000000 uImage
   
2. fatload mmc 0 0x49000000 sun7i-a20-bananapi.dtb
   
3. 
   
4. setenv bootargs console=ttyS0,115200 <earlyprintk> root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 rootwait panic=10 ${extra}
   
5. 
   
6. bootm 0x46000000 - 0x49000000

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a1d3s

Update :
i build a working kernel 3.18-rc2 with an debian jessie

seblucas

Great !

With working GMAC ethernet ?

a1d3s

i can only test 100mbit , that works , have to rebuild the kernel , forget some wifi driver lol
will upload later an image for testing

seblucas

You can check with Igor, IIRC when he tried GMAC was not working

silentcreek

Apart from an image, I guess it might me more interesting and helpful if you provided instructions on how you built the kernel and u-boot. Thanks.

a1d3s

The most things(steps) explained before but i used for u-boot an tree from denx. I will write it later in my blog.

a1d3s

ok for now , will post here all steps i do without the debootstrap thing for my jessie

1. 
   
2. cat <<EOT | sfdisk --force --in-order -uS /dev/mmcblk0
   
3. 2048,524288,L
   
4. 526336,,L
   
5. EOT
   
6. 
   
7. mkfs.vfat /dev/mmcblk0p1
   
8. mkfs.ext4 /dev/mmcblk0p2
   
9. 
   
10. apt-get install bc libncurses5-dev gcc-arm-gnueabihf u-boot-tools build-essential binutils-arm-linux-gnueabihf libusb-1.0-0 libusb-1.0-0-dev git wget fakeroot
    
11. 
    
12. mkdir bpi
    
13. cd bpi
    
14. 
    
15. git clone -b sunxi-next https://github.com/linux-sunxi/linux-sunxi
    
16. 
    
17. cd linux-sunxi
    
18. 
    
19. make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabihf- sunxi_defconfig
    
20. make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabihf- menuconfig
    
21. 
    
22. enable loadable module support
    
23. enable some usefull drivers like webcam or wifi
    
24. 
    
25. make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabihf- LOADADDR=0x40008000 uImage dtbs
    
26. make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabihf- INSTALL_MOD_PATH=output modules && modules_install
    
27. 
    
28. mkdir /mnt/boot
    
29. cp arch/arm/boot/uImage /mnt/boot
    
30. cp arch/arm/boot/dts/sun7i-a20-bananapi.dtb /mnt/boot
    
31. 
    
32. nano /mnt/boot/boot.cmd
    
33. 
    
34.         fatload mmc 0 0x46000000 uImage
    
35.         fatload mmc 0 0x49000000 sun7i-a20-bananapi.dtb
    
36.         setenv bootargs console=ttyS0,115200  root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 rw rootwait panic=10 ${extra}
    
37.         bootm 0x46000000 - 0x49000000
    
38. 
    
39. mkimage -C none -A arm -T script -d /mnt/boot/boot.cmd /mnt/boot/boot.scr
    
40. 
    
41. mkdir /mnt/rootfs
    
42. mount /dev/mmcblk0p2 /mnt/rootfs
    
43. cp output/* /mnt/rootfs/
    
44. 
    
45. cd ..
    
46. 
    
47. git clone http://git.denx.de/u-boot-sunxi.git
    
48. cd u-boot-sunxi
    
49. make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabihf- Bananapi_defconfig
    
50. make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabihf-
    
51. dd if=spl/sunxi-spl.bin of=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=1024 seek=8
    
52. dd if=u-boot.img of=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=1024 seek=40

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