Re: ODROID-C2

[Karsten Merker <merker@debian.org>]

On Fri, May 06, 2016 at 02:40:22PM -0700, Martin Michlmayr wrote:
> * Phil Endecott <spam_from_debian_arm@chezphil.org> [2016-05-06 19:59]:
> > > Does anyone here have an ODROID-C2?  Anyone running Debian on it?
> > 
> > Wouldn't it be great if I could tftp a debian installer from u-boot and 
> > have it all just work :-(.  Is this *ever* going to happen for ARM 
> > systems?
> 
> This is already the case on a number of ARM devices, thanks to the work
> of Karsten Merker, Vagrant Cascadian, Ian Campbell and others in
> Debian and various upstream people.
> 
> We even provide SD card images for a number of devices which contain
> u-boot (from upstream, built by Debian), Debian installer and the
> DTB.
> 
> I don't see any support for the ODROID-C2 in Debian yet, though.

The major issue that blocks Debian support for the C2 is the lack
of upstream kernel and u-boot support, which in turn is hindered
by missing hardware documentation.

Last time I looked, there wasn't even a publicly available SoC
manual for the Amlogic S905 "GXBaby" SoC that the C2 is based on. 
The hardkernel website still states "Amlogic S905 DATA SHEET :
Available from Q2 2016", so it looks like that hasn't changed in
the meantime.

On the upstream u-boot mailinglist somebody has published some
patches based on the Odroid u-boot code, but those suffer from
the lack of hardware documentation and are still under review. 
On the kernel side, there is currently only absolutely minimal
SoC support for the GXBaby and no board support at all for the
C2.

As the debian-installer is based on upstream kernel and u-boot,
there is no way to support the C2 in the debian-installer at the
moment.

Regards,
Karsten
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