Which kernel for Lite5200 based target board?

Which kernel for Lite5200 based target board?

[Andrea Galbusera]

Hi all,

I read a lot about this but I'm still confused. I have a Lite5200 based
target board and I'm experimenting with a few kernels but I can't figure
out which is the best to stay with.

Let me say something about my target system:
* It is based on the Lite5200 design
* It uses MPC5200B CPU (the one nowadays available for production)
* Need IDE to support DOM and/or Compact Flash devices (same design of
Lite5200)
* Need ethernet (same hardware design of Lite5200 apart from phy that is
AMD NetPhy AM79C874)
* We have a custom PCI device and a 2.6 kernel module to manage it
* Need some SPI and I2C basic support for system configuration at boot

I'm doing my tests with the following kernels:
* 2.6.16 from Denx git repository
* 2.6.16.11-rt18 from Freescale BSP (based on the ltib build tool)
* 2.6.11 from the same Freescale BSP (based on the ltib build tool)

I know Sylvain Munaut is/was also maintaining a kernel tree with working
support for IDE and Bestcomm. This tree seems not very active to me but
my git wisdom is very very poor and I may be wrong :-(

Unfortunately my tests tell me none of the listed kernels works out of
the box for the target: the former being not officially supported by
DENX for the Lite5200 target, the latter having a Lite5200/Lite5200B
configuration target.

I'm doing tests comparing kernels behavior on both the target board and
the Lite5200 EVB. Some problems seem related to differences between the
boards, some come up with both.

Please, consider this as a preliminary post. I'm looking for general
suggestion on the more convenient kernel to stay with. I know I will
still need some patching to make everything work fine, but I can't spend
too much time on "unpromising" solutions. If useful I can then post
details about the specific problems I have with IDE and ethernet in
particular.

Can you tell me where to find details about the status of the Lite5200
support in the kernels listed above? Or maybe suggest me another kernel
to go with?

Any help is appreciated.


-- 
Andrea Galbusera <andrea.galbusera@teamware.it>

Re: Which kernel for Lite5200 based target board?

[Grant Likely]

On 12/12/06, Andrea Galbusera <andrea.galbusera@teamware.it> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I read a lot about this but I'm still confused. I have a Lite5200 based
> target board and I'm experimenting with a few kernels but I can't figure
> out which is the best to stay with.
<SNIP>
> I know Sylvain Munaut is/was also maintaining a kernel tree with working
> support for IDE and Bestcomm. This tree seems not very active to me but
> my git wisdom is very very poor and I may be wrong :-(

Sylvain and I are actively working on the mpc52xx support in
arch/powerpc.  You can choose between an arch/ppc or an arch/powerpc
kernel (arch/ppc the old 32 bit support; and it is steadly being
migrated over to arch/powerpc).  If you want to stick with arch/ppc;
you can use any recent 2.6 kernel and search the mailing list for the
patches adding bestcomm, ethernet and IDE support.  If you want to use
an arch/powerpc kernel, look at my tree on http://git.secretlab.ca.
The lite5200 branch already contains IDE, bestcomm, ethernet, PCI,
etc.

> Unfortunately my tests tell me none of the listed kernels works out of
> the box for the target: the former being not officially supported by
> DENX for the Lite5200 target, the latter having a Lite5200/Lite5200B
> configuration target.

My tree works for me; but you'll need to update to a recent u-boot.
arch/powerpc requires passing in a flattened device tree at boot time.
 Look in arch/powerpc/boot/dts/lite5200b.dts for the device tree
source.  You'll also need to get the device tree compiler from
www.jdl.org.

Plus since Sylvain and I are actively working on this stuff; there's a
better chance that we can help.  :)

cheers,
g.

-- 
Grant Likely, B.Sc. P.Eng.
Secret Lab Technologies Ltd.
grant.likely@secretlab.ca
(403) 399-0195

Re: Which kernel for Lite5200 based target board?

[Sylvain Munaut]

> I know Sylvain Munaut is/was also maintaining a kernel tree with working
> support for IDE and Bestcomm. This tree seems not very active to me but
> my git wisdom is very very poor and I may be wrong :-(
>   
The recent work in my git tree didn't take place in the 'master' branch
so you don't
see it at first ;)

> Please, consider this as a preliminary post. I'm looking for general
> suggestion on the more convenient kernel to stay with. I know I will
> still need some patching to make everything work fine, but I can't spend
> too much time on "unpromising" solutions. If useful I can then post
> details about the specific problems I have with IDE and ethernet in
> particular.
>   
My 2cents :
 - Update to a real recent u-boot, with device tree support for the 5200.
 - Write a device tree for you board based on the lite5200.dts and
lite5200b.dts in
the kernel source.
 - This day, use gcl tree. What tree to use between gcl and mine to have
the latest
can vary from day to day depending on what we do ... but we shouldn't lag
too much behind.

And use the arch=powerpc support. That's where we're both (Grant and I)
working so ...

The 2.6.20 should have support for quite a bit out of the box. The most
notable exception being no bestcomm (so no ethernet and ATA is PIO only).
This will come later (hopefully 2.6.21 ;)
But by using our development tree (Grant and mine), you will have more
functionnality, at the price that once in a while ... it may not
compile/boot ;)

> Can you tell me where to find details about the status of the Lite520
> support in the kernels listed above? Or maybe suggest me another kernel
> to go with?
>   
It should be there www.246tNt.com/mpc52xx/ ... but I haven't written it
yet ;)


    Sylvain