Hi Michael,
See answers below
On 24/5/18, 8:31 pm, "Michael Tremer" michael.tremer@ipfire.org wrote:
Hello,
On Thu, 2018-05-24 at 11:32 +1000, Mathew McBride wrote: > Hi Michael, > From the software side, the support in the kernel is fairly good, mainline > 4.15 and later works. We (Traverse) only maintain a patchset for some small > drivers (such as hwmon sensors not yet in the kernel - not required to boot) > and other minor fixes not yet applied upstream.
Any idea if 4.14 works? We are going to use this kernel as the next one because it is a long-term supported one.
4.14 does work, but the network drivers for the LS1043 narrowly missed the 4.14 merge window. They just need to be cherry-picked from a later kernel, i.e https://gitlab.com/traversetech/traverse-kernel-patches/blob/kernel-4-14/pat...
> If you build an image that uses UEFI boot it will work on both our hardware > (bare metal), as a VM and on the ARM64 server platforms (Ampere/XGene, > Centriq, ThunderX), or even our competitors (MacchiatoBin etc.)
I got an XGene. Not really a fan of that EFI thing it came with, but u-boot was in a horrible state a few years ago, too.
https://planet.ipfire.org/post/our-start-with-arm64-the-applied-micro-mustan...
> The big difference is that we use u-boot and it's EFI implementation - and > that is improving at a rate that we don't feel it necessary to port TianoCore > to our board.
Haven't tried u-boot in EFI mode, yet. But it is a good to have everything open and freely distributable for us. I suppose u-boot is living in the NAND flash and the OS is on SSD or SD card? Yes, u-boot is on the NAND. It will boot EFI distributions on any supported block device (SD, USB, SSD). There are some limitations - no EFI persistent variables etc. (yet) or RTC service, but I think that will eventually be solved. 'Real' ARM servers (these days) also use ACPI instead of passing a device tree, but this doesn't really make much of a difference in user space.
> The board Guy linked (LS1043-S) is our OEM/volume product, and he can brief > you on the pricing off-list.
Thanks for that.
[snip] Regards, Matt > > -------- Forwarded Message -------- > Subject: > Re: ARM 64? > Date: > Wed, 23 May 2018 10:58:00 +0100 > From: > Michael Tremer mailto:michael.tremer@ipfire.org > To: > mailto:guy@traverse.com.au, mailto:development@lists.ipfire.org > > Hello Guy, > > thank you very much for getting in touch. > > Yes, we are working on an ARM 64 port, but so far we have not seen any > hardware > that was worth doing the port for. All those small and cheap single-board > computers lack power, the bigger systems are basically unavailable and way too > expensive. > > This board is way different though. CPU, Memory and especially the NICs are > something that are way better sized and make a nice small appliance for bigger > SOHOs or small to medium-sized offices. > > Not entirely sure why there is only one 10G port. Usually where 10G goes in, > it > has to go out somewhere else again... > > The big question is what software support is like in the Linux kernel for > this. > I have seen the patches linked on the product page and can only defer to Arne > to > have a look at it. > > My question would now be: What is the desired RRP for this or wholesale? I am > just curious to find out if it is competitive or if people would find it too > expensive and buy Intel again. Then we shouldn't really bother with putting > the > time into a port. If you are not comfortable sharing prices on the list, > please > feel free to email me in private about this. > > About the sponsorship. Thank you very much for considering us. I would be > happy > to have a closer look. Would you be able to ship this into the UK or Germany? > > Best, > -Michael > > On Wed, 2018-05-23 at 12:46 +1000, Guy Ellis wrote: > > Dear list, > > > > Just wondering if there is any interest in supporting ARM 64 hardware > > moving forward? > > > > We can assist with donated hardware and support if there is interest. > > https://traverse.com.au/products/ls1043s-router-board/ > > > > Regards, > > - Guy. > > > > > > >