Fines Double In This Area

This kernel has been superceded by the git repository. Please go use that. For more information see this blog post.

An experimental kernel source release (linux-2.6.31-TO3-efikamx.tar.xz) is now on PowerDeveloper for the Efika MX TO2 and TO3 boards. To clarify, despite the name, it does work on older boards.

This represents a clean port to the Freescale 10.05 BSP release, which offers a lot of cleanup opportunity. Platform files have been split into subsystem. It will probably give us the first kernel with working multimedia and GPU acceleration support that doesn't suck. And the Smartbook kernel will be the same source tree to unify it all. But, it's source only.

This kernel is being put out there because we really would like to see enterprising individuals to get bored of the missing features and add the support. Areas that need work:

• It's a big blob and some seperate patches would be nice. The FSL BSP is on the Freescale Website. We're still working on a git repository.
  
• Audio doesn't work
• MMC light doesn't point to the right port, but the code is there to switch it. Odd.
  
• Wireless drivers crash wildly (can someone compile the very latest RT3070STA driver?)
• No attempt to appease developers with custom config options or point releases has been made (this is a stock 2.6.31 with the FSL BSP patches and some minor things like "epoll" support , any extras from other mainline trees have been taken back out)
• Anyone who can make it standby or suspend to ram (echo mem >/sys/power/state) and come back again will be rewarded with a basket of kittens*
  

Any improvements or patches anyone makes will be graciously accepted so that we can bring this kernel up to be world-class. We are working on it too, don't worry, but there's a big difference between a small team and the whole open-source community. Have fun.

* kittens and basket are not real.

Kernel for new "TO3" units

We are prepping a release for TO3, in the meantime anyone using a TO3 will have to live with the kernel shipped on the units. In the meantime PLEASE DO NOT use any of the kernels on PowerDeveloper for TO3 boards. There have been some design changes on the board between chip revisions which means the SD card slots have moved around, and some other minor but fairly important changes to the layout of the board and use of peripheral units which means booting a TO3 unit with a kernel made for TO2 is going to basically not operate at it's best. You can't burn it, but.. you will be annoyed :)

The release will come near the end of the week hopefully. The kernel on the boards is "2.6.31-008" which is Pegatron's revision. We are backporting our PowerDeveloper kernel with these changes, all the patches we pushed in, and have some problems with the new BSP which should be resolved fairly shortly. If you are desperate for a new kernel or want to help out testing you can contact matt at genesi-usa dot com.

* (FYI TO2 = Tape-Out 2, TO3 = Tape-Out 3, these are chip designations from Freescale which mark the chip revision based on what they send to the fab to be built)

Quickstart Guide

A quickstart guide has been posted to the Efika MX Linux support pages. It is still a draft version but will be updated as time goes by and guide users from booting their Efika MX once they get it to installing packages and desktops and upgrading the software.

Future guides will explain how to install other Linux distributions and operating systems (using the SD card or SSD installed system as a base). Any suggestions on guides or application notes pertaining to installation of the Efika MX, expandability, Linux kernel etc. would be appreciated and can be left in the comments section here or posted to the forums on PowerDeveloper.

Kernel Release 2.6.31.12.3-ER1

Changelog:

• 2.6.31.12.3
• Patched in devtmpfs - however it is disabled in the config because it conflicts with Ubuntu Karmic's boot procedure
• Enabled DVI sink mode in the display driver when defaulting with no cable connected (will go to 1024x768@60Hz)
• Added back the SPI chipselect bugfix - should make the MTD driver happier
• Miscellaneous tweaks to MTD partitioning data
• Config updates
  • Enabled OSS PCM driver (ALSA emulation) to provide /dev/dsp
  • Enabled Magic SysRq keys
  • Enabled MAC80211 LED Triggers
  • Disabled module versioning to prep for 3D
  • Enabled forced module loading

This version will have GPU modules available and a prebuilt rt3070sta driver (since that works much better still than the mainline rt2800usb driver). The release was meant to be Monday (and if you look - it's online already) but it will have to be re-rolled as I made a mistake building some modules.

There is also a U-Boot release (1.1.8) on the Firmware page which adds a small ARM errata fix plus some very minor changes to behavior which most people won't ever notice, but it needed to be published.

Both these kernel and u-boot revisions will ship on any Efika MX going out of the door from Wednesday

Kernel Release 2.6.31.12.2-ER1

Kernel release for March 30th.

Changelog snippet:

• Updated to Freescale BSP 10.02.00 snapshot
• Patches from Arnaud Patard at Mandriva
  
  • Divide by zero on booting without a monitor cable, fixed
  • rt2800usb driver updated to work - sometimes disconnects, not perfect
  • remember you need rt2870.bin to get the mainline wireless driver to work
  • switch from mxc_i2c to imx-i2c driver, more stable, ACK error gone
  • miscellaneous display driver fixes
• Increased kernel log buffer shift from 14 to 16 so dmesg contains the whole log now (note: this is in the config file)
• Added Freescale's SST25VF MTD driver, although it is not detecting properly yet
• Replaced kernel ASIX USB ethernet driver with ASIX website version (2.5.0)

You can find the latest tarballs and so on at the PowerDeveloper EfikaMX Kernel page. 3D driver compiled for this kernel coming shortly. Apologise for the clumsy "big tarball" release, a version with more complete patches will probably come after the next Freescale BSP snapshot.

Efika MX Smartbook Information For Interested Parties

bbrv posted some information on the Efika MX Smartbook and we got a few questions we feel we have to answer just to point out. Let's start with the specifications (update 2010-02-28):

• 800MHz Freescale i.MX515 CPU with OpenGL and OpenVG GPU
• 1024x600 10.1" laptop panel
• 512MB RAM
• 2x USB ports
• 8GB to 32GB of SSD storage
• 1x SD card slot (side) and 1x MicroSD slot (behind battery)
• Built-in Stereo Speakers, Microphone, external headphone port
• Ralink RT3070 Wireless, same as the Efika MX, and Bluetooth 2.0 EDR
• 3G Cell modem option (SIM card is behind battery slot)
• GPS module
• 3-cell removable battery giving ~6 hours battery life.
• There will be a larger battery available in the near future, if you think 6 hours isn't long enough. The units we have peter out at just over 5 hours and 50 minutes of actual use.
• >92% full size, low-travel keyboard (like Sony or Apple's)
• Buttonless Touchpad
• Webcam (1.3 Megapixel)
• Light weight (around 2 lbs, or 1 Kg)

You will have seen the photo and thought to yourself "what on earth? there are no mouse buttons!!" and you'll be right. There was some objection to initial designs where the touchpad buttons were off to the left and right of the touchpad. This is the usual Netbook Cop-Out you see on Acer devices for example and it really makes the whole thing less easy to use.

The touchpad we have is something of a novel experience. While it supports single touch tap and the usual touchpad features, it also has two integrated mouse buttons; hold down the left hand side of the pad and it will click. That's a left mouse button. The same for the right. The keyboard "Menu" key finally has a use, and doubles as a right mouse button for most common application where you need a right click context menu or have to hold it down and drag.

In terms of size, it's about 1/3 the lid-closed height and weight of an Acer Aspire One Netbook, but about the same width/height dimensions (Acer's netbook is an 8" panel with a large bezel) - a little wider to support the widescreen panel and the bigger, more comfortable keyboard. It's very portable!

The nearest "PC" equivalent is the Asus Eee 1008 series (standard, $399.99), with the keyboard of the 1008P (Karim Rasheed Edition) (a designer edition netbook) which hasn't got a hope in matching the battery life even if it says it can get 6 hours (the battery is a 6-cell standard and is three times the power rating), and doesn't have any HD playback capability - retail price, $499.99.

Yes, the Efika MX Smartbook comes with a "designer edition" keyboard, awesome trackpad and HD video playback and 6 hours battery life as standard and we're hoping you will like the price too (hint: cheaper than those two Asus netbooks :)

Kernel Development Status

Some bugs in the last release:

• Some poking around with the DMFC made codecs and accelerated X11 not work. 3D would probably have been hosed too. Since we've not released the codecs yet it's not a huge problem but, the next release should be more sound and allow us to do a release
• Enabling "Improved Transaction Translator Scheduling" broke the build - a patch I fixed for Ubuntu a long while ago but didn't seem to drag it into the new kernel

There are some other things but those were the most annoying. Freescale released a new BSP snapshot for February so we are rebasing on that. The result:

• Efika MX: Integrates RT3070 Wireless properly
• Efika MX: CompCache (ramzswap) working
• A REAL patchset against 2.6.31 mainline (to bring up to BSP level) and then Efika patches on top, a special present for distro maintainers
• More stable
• Finally, HW accelerated codecs!
• Finally, 2D Acceleration for X11 (but not OpenVG, sorry)
• Finally, OpenGL ES 1.1 and 2.0!
• steev@gentoo requested devtmpfs which should speed up boot and be much nicer to work with. We have to thank Canonical for backporting that to 2.6.31 :)

Those are the goals anyway. We will keep you posted. This is going to be kernel version 2.6.31.12-ER2-efikamx to differentiate between the ER1 releases (ER means "Engineering Release" for the curious). We're working our way up to PR (Production Release) which should square everything away for non-Aura kernels.

Secondly: we may release a kernel build based on Con Kolivas' "BFS" Scheduler to go with it, and for everyone who got (or still wants) a "1.0" Efika MX Developer Edition (the one with no case, flakey PATA and flakey ethernet) to make clusters, compile farms and generally do cool things with a lot of Cortex-A8s connected together, a custom kernel build that will Just Work (tm).

Long Term: Aura release (developer preview) and a kernel to go with it (2.6.32 or 2.6.33).