Re: Broadcom BCM2709, ARMv8, and missing CPU features
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crowd-funded eco-conscious hardware: https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68
On Thu, Jul 28, 2016 at 5:35 PM, Gunnar Wolf <gwolf@debian.org> wrote:
> Keep in mind it's not different Debian images we are talking about —
> "real" Debian cannot be booted on Raspberry hardware. I run a Debian
> userland on top of their provided kernel (with the mystery blobs to
> control its hardware), started by their mystery bootloader. And yes,
> for us people coming from the x86 world, we expect similar devices to
> "just work", but in ARM it *is* really a different way of doing things
> per each kind of board.
i did find it very funny to learn that Linus did not understand why there
were so many ARM developers at the Cambridge Linux Conference
back in... when was it... 2007? it coincided with UKUUG at the time.
he's famously on record as saying "why are there so many of you?
go away, choose one representative and come back with just one
person!"
likewise, i _am_ on record as pointing out a long long time ago that
device-tree will not stop the proliferation or complexity of developing
device drivers for ARM: it merely *moves* the proliferation and
complexity... into dtsi files....
the only big advantage of dtb files (binary compiled) is *IF* the
decision is made to respect dtb files and treat them as inviolate
and supported forever without needing recompiles, you stand a
chance of being able to upgrade linux kernels *without* replacing
the dtb file. however i seriously doubt that the stringent testing
needed to make that work will ever be put in place. oh well.
l.
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