Re: GuixSD and free hardware

[Mark H Weaver <mhw@netris.org>]

ludo@gnu.org (Ludovic Courtès) writes:

> Hello!
>
> Gammel Holte <gammel.holte@gmail.com> 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:
> <https://wiki.linaro.org/LEG/Engineering/Kernel/GRUB>.

If I understand correctly, GRUB has been ported to the 'arm-uboot'
platform, but not yet 'arm-coreboot'.

> It would be good to see if GRUB can be used as the LibreBoot payload on
> the C201, as a replacement for ‘depthcharge’.

I guess this won't be possible until either GRUB is ported to
'arm-coreboot', or u-boot is ported to the C201.

      Mark