Re: orion5x housekeeping

[Roger Shimizu <rogershimizu@gmail.com>]

Happy 2016 new year folks!
Sorry for the late reply. I'm just back from vacation.

> 1) Linkstation: these were added by various people over the years but
> I don't think we had a formal maintainer in a long time.  Roger
> Shimizu put in some effort recently but I'm not sure which devices he
> has to test.

I have a few linkstation boxes, and contributed 3 linkstation DT to
upstream kernel. [0][1][2]. Those models listed in DTS file are
confirmed working on Jessie.
I'd be happy to contribute more on this platform.

>> > * Buffalo LinkStation Pro Duo (LS-WTGL)
>> > Mine still has the stock firmware.
>> > I didn't even know that it was supported by the mainline kernel.
>> > But I just checked and support was added recently in 4.3 :)
>>
>> Roger Shimizu recently tried to add support for this device but the
>> Debian kernel doesn't boot because of some limits in u-boot:
>> "However, I found another issue, the kernel image size for orion5x is
>> already exceed the u-boot limit of LS-WTGL, the only orion5x box I
>> have on hand."
>> https://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2015/10/msg00219.html
>
> I think this turned out to be something other than the size:
>     https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=803159#34
>
> I think this platform is working today, but I might be wrong, copying
> Roger.

Yes, LS-WTGL is working well on Jessie + patch_from_Bug#803159 +
backported flash-kernel.
I didn't try the latest 4.4 yet.
Maybe there's problem on the size of kernel/initrd, which is reported
as Bug#809476.
I'll also try the XZ-solution then report the result.

>> I wonder if, for armel generally (or even arm* generally), we should
>> take a leaf out of the u-boot package's book[0] and require a specific
>> person from the community to agree to be listed as a tester for any
>> platform we intend to Support, meaning that they would agree to
>> occasionally try things on the named system or to do so when prodded
>> regarding a specific change (e.g. big kernel transition).
>
> I like the idea and this is one of the reasons I posted the original
> message.  In fact, we used to track testers for various platforms in
> the past, see debian-installer/doc/devel/testers.txt - but the last
> change was in 2009 so this is very out of date.

I suggest to create a wiki page for this purpose.
The wiki may contain the following info:
- device model name
- active maintainer (contact) if meet any issue
- starting to support this device
  * debian version
  * kernel version
  * flash-kernel version
  * confirmed-by
- some change (if any) of supporting this device (such as converted to DT)
  * debian version
  * kernel version
  * flash-kernel version
  * confirmed-by
- latest (sid/experimental) status of supporting this device
  * kernel version
  * flash-kernel version
  * confirmed-by

[0]: https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/arch/arm/boot/dts/orion5x-linkstation-lswtgl.dts
[1]: https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/arch/arm/boot/dts/kirkwood-lswvl.dts
[2]: https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/arch/arm/boot/dts/kirkwood-lswxl.dts

Cheers,
Roger