Re: Dropping support for the smallest armel machines
Ben Hutchings <ben@decadent.org.uk> writes:
> We have a recurring problem with building kernels for armel: three
> flavours (iop32x, ixp4xx, orion5x) require the kernel image size to be
> less than 1.4-1.5 MB in order to fit into a fixed flash partition.
>
> As more features continue to be added to Linux and cannot always
> configurable as a module, it is necessary to override and disable them
> on these three configurations[1]. I don't think this is sustainable
> unless someone who particularly cares about these older platforms steps
> up to take on this task.
>
> The iop32x and ixp4xx hardware appears to been discontinued in 2008. If
> we remove these flavours now, they will still be supported in Debian 7
> until 2016. I think 8 years of support is pretty good.
btw, iop32x is used on n2100 which are used on buildd/porter boxes. If
we stop supporting it, I'm not sure how the DSA people will react about
that.
>
> According to comments in the current configuration, the current size
> limit of 1.5 MB for orion5x is due to the DNS-323, while other models
> have a ~2 MB flash partition for the kernel. Dropping support for the
> DNS-323 would make it possible to raise this limit. However, this model
> was only discontinued in 2012[2]. Perhaps it could be supported by
> putting a second stage uboot in flash which would load the kernel and
> initramfs from disk, as suggested in [3]?
afaik, there's work upstream to get the same binary kernel running on
armel Marvell SoCs (with DT) so if we merge the corresponding flavours,
it may result in bigger kernels (it may result in smallers kernels but
it's unlikely). We'll know that when it'll be working/available.
Arnaud
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