Bug#950578: linux-image-4.19.67-2-arm64: Add ACPI network interface support for RPi4
I would really like to get an update on this, because I really can't
understand what the holdup is, or why non related issues seem to be be
shoved into this bug, with the apparent end result of completely
distracting from the matter at hand.
This bug is about one thing and one thing only: Enabling Raspberry Pi 4
users to perform a netinstall using the next official aarch64 ISO of
Debian 10.x. Therefore it is only about backporting the Genet ACPI
driver into the 4.19 kernel, for which an effective backport patch was
actually submitted.
It is *NOT* about tracking whether the 5.x kernel packages have Genet
support. And it is *NOT* about troubleshooting network issues with the
5.x kernel.
The sole focus for the bug, as it was opened by the submitter (myself)
is to add Genet support to the kernel that is used by the Debian ISO
installer, and, seeing that no progress appears to have been made on
that front, despite the fact that a patch to *SOLVE* the reported issue
has been submitted along with the bug report, I would greatly appreciate
if we could reframe the problem and drop all references to 5.x genet
support as being linked to this bug, as it looks to me like this is
hindering the resolution of the one and only issue that prompted the
creation of this bug.
I would also greatly appreciate if this could actually be treated with
the level of urgency it requires on account of the following.
- As of March 2020, the Raspberry Pi Foundation announced that it had
sold 640 000 Raspberry Pi 4 units, and one can reasonably expect that 1
million units will have been sold by year's end, which clearly makes the
platform one of the most popular ARM64 targets, if not the most popular,
and therefore, one can reasonably expect many of its users to want to
install Debian 10.x on it. By not applying the proposed patch and
enabling netinst from official Debian 10.x ISOs as a matter of urgency,
Debian maintainers will be doing a major disservice to their users.
- The required patch to *SOLVE* the issue has been provided, so it's not
like Debian maintainers have to invest time to create the backport
themselves. And for the record, I did work with Jeremy Linton, the
person who upstreamed the main patch for 5.x kernels, and used the code
that he was in the process of submitting at that time to create the
backport (which is actually tailored for easy review by Debian
maintainers), so the attached patch was not produced in isolation.
- Though it may look that way at first glance, this patch is not being
requested because we are using a custom/toy bootloader. On the contrary,
the very reason why we can use the official aarch64 ISO is because we
are following industry standards pretty much to the letter. We are using
both ACPI and UEFI in a very official manner, and as a matter of fact,
the UEFI firmware that is meant to be used with the official ISOs is
fully integrated with the EDK2 [1]. So this is not a "it would be nice
if Debian could do this so that it would work with our custom
bootloader" but really a "If Debian is to follow industry standards for
the Raspberry Pi 4 and other UEFI platforms that use a Broadcom Genet
NIC, then it should provide the functionality requested above, for which
we have conveniently provided a patch".
So, if the integration of the proposed patch into the kernel used by the
next Debian ISO release is going to be delayed further, I would really
like the Debian maintainers to explain why that is the case.
We have been *EXCEEDINGLY* patient about this and waited in the hope
that Debian maintainers would understand the urgency, but, seeing that
Debian 10.4, which is planned to be released in 2 days, does not appear
to integrate the patch we proposed (either that or this bug tracker was
not updated as it should), I feel that we might as well tell the
thousands of Raspberry Pi 4 users who we are seeing downloading the UEFI
firmware in the hope of using it to install GNU/Linux, that they should
just forget about Debian, because it seems Debian maintainers have
either very little interest in ensuring that their OS can be installed
on what is, by far, be the most popular ARM64 platforms out there, or
have failed to grasp the implications of not applying the patch that can
solve this very important issue and which was proposed *MONTHS* ago...
Regards,
/Pete
[1]
https://github.com/tianocore/edk2-platforms/tree/master/Platform/RaspberryPi/RPi4
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