On Fri, 16 Oct 2015 12:01:52 -0400 Mark H Weaver wrote: > ludo@gnu.org (Ludovic Courtès) writes: > > > Hello! > > > > Gammel Holte skribis: > > > >> I would like to draw your attention to new Rockchip ARM machines (e.g. Asus > >> C201). These are very cheap, easy to reflash and can be run without any > >> blobs (except 3D acceleration, unless the Lima driver gets finished). They > >> don't even need CPU microcdes. Paul Kocialkowski (of Replicant fame) > >> recently added Libreboot support to the C201 [1]. > >> > >> In my opinion, it'd be really nice to have GuixSD polished on this > >> architecture, so that users can buy one and get things going with minimal > >> effort. Sort of a few reference devices like what BSD does with some > >> Thinkpads. If running linux-libre, and wishing to have libreboot as a > >> bootloader, there are not that many choices. > > > > I think many of us are interested in having GuixSD on those devices. > > > > Mark recently ported GuixSD to mips, which allowed him to identify > > architecture-specific assumptions need to be addressed. That was an > > important first step. > > > > There’s also the question of whether we can use GRUB on these platforms, > > since GuixSD pretty much relies on it. Latest GRUB reportedly works on > > (some) ARM platforms: > > . > > If I understand correctly, GRUB has been ported to the 'arm-uboot' > platform, but not yet 'arm-coreboot'. Poking around github a bit I came across rockchip's github codedump account, and they have a u-boot repository for some of their rk3X88 (and rk3066) chips. https://github.com/linux-rockchip/u-boot-rockchip If I understand the boot process correctly, depending on the board, the "boot order" is u-boot => "ZImage" kernel => rootfs. > > > It would be good to see if GRUB can be used as the LibreBoot payload on > > the C201, as a replacement for ‘depthcharge’. This I don't know anything about > > I guess this won't be possible until either GRUB is ported to > 'arm-coreboot', or u-boot is ported to the C201. If the chromebook is anything like my arm board (which is probably a big assumption) then all we need to do is worry about getting the C201 to boot up, and the kernel/electricity/magic will get all the "peripherals" powered up and ready for instructions from the kernel. Since the C201 has an RK3288, it might already be ready. > > Mark > Efraim -- Efraim Flashner אפרים פלשנר GPG key = A28B F40C 3E55 1372 662D 14F7 41AA E7DC CA3D 8351 Confidentiality cannot be guaranteed on emails sent or received unencrypted