Hi Chris, Daniel,

Subject: RE: [cip-dev] Status of cip-core

Hello Daniel,

Apologies for the slow response. Lots of ramblings below, happy to set
up a call if it's easier to go through the details.

From: Daniel Sangorrin [mailto:daniel.sangorrin@...]
Sent: 24 October 2017 06:17

Hello Chris,

-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Paterson [mailto:Chris.Paterson2@...]
Sent: Tuesday, October 24, 2017 3:23 AM
To: Daniel Sangorrin; cip-dev@...; 'Jan Kiszka'
Subject: RE: [cip-dev] Status of cip-core

Hello Daniel,

Thank you for the update.

- modules.tgz is not generated for iwg20m (for bbb it is): I
have to investigate why but I think it is not a big problem
since they are included in the file system images. Probably the
reason is just that shmobile_defconfig has modules disabled.

Correct :)

I have noticed that the shmobile_defconfig from the official
linux-cip repo is quite different from the one at
https://github.com/renesas-

rz/renesas-cip.

Let me explain...

The renesas-rz github website is used to host the complete Yocto BSP
package for the RZ/G iWave platforms. This is used as a basis for the
"Renesas RZ/G Linux Platform" which was launched in October.

This BSP is based on the CIP Kernel, but as you can see has a lot of
patches applied on top. The main reason for these additional patches
is that the iwg20m platform is not yet fully supported upstream.

If using the above BSP for your testing, I'd recommend that you stick
with the
v4.4.55-cip3 branch. This has been fully verified and should be working.

Whilst Renesas are continuously working on the renesas-rz github
repository, in tandem we are also upstreaming support to the mainline
Kernel for the iwg20m platform. Periodically once a new Kernel release
has been made we are backporting support to the official CIP Kernel.

The latest CIP Kernel (v4.4.92-cip11) includes support for clk,
pinctrl, GPIO, Ethernet and eMMC on the iwg20m platform.

Previously I tested the official kernel using a ramdisk and it was
successful so I didn't notice the difference. But today I've tried
to boot the official kernel with the SD Card file system and it didn't work.

Currently the official CIP Kernel does not support SD on the iwg20m.
Support upstream will be included in Kernel v4.15. We plan to backport
support once
v4.15 is released, but can backport when v4.15-rc1 is out if there is
an urgent need.

One problem was that EXT3/4 wasn't enabled.

Yes. Historically shmobile_defconfig doesn't have ext3/4 enabled
upstream :( I guess one option would be to enable this on the CIP Kernel?

I decided to use renesas-cip's
shmobile_defconfig to build the official linux-cip kernel. However,
I got a build error because
https://gitlab.com/cip-project/linux-cip/blob/linux-4.4.y-
cip/drivers/usb/host/xhci-rcar.c
references a firmware called "r8a779x_usb3_v1.dlmem" which wasn't
available on the official kernel. I could solve that either by
copying the firmware from renesas-cip or by commenting out the
corresponding configuration flags.

There may well be other differences between the config used in the
renesas- rz BSP compared to the upstream/CIP version. It might be best
to stick with the version in the CIP Kernel and just enable EXT3/4 as
required. This is what we use to test when backporting to the CIP Kernel.

I managed to build the official kernel but still I couldn't get it
to boot from the SD Card.

Again, due to lack of SD support in the official Kernel (see
r8a7743-iwg20d- q7.dts).

# By the way, I noticed that the mmc numbering also changed
(mmcblk0p2 was working on renesas-cip kernel as the 2nd partition of
the SD Card, but for the official kernel that was a partition on the
eMMC and the kernel could not recognize mmcblk2p2).

I wonder if this problem comes from the device tree. On the
renesas-cip repository there was a r8a7743-iwgm.dts file that worked
fine, but on the official repository the one with the closest name
was

r8a7743-iwg20d-q7.dts.

This one worked fine when I boot from a ramdisk but not when I boot
from the SD Card.

Should I use renesas-cip kernel again?

As you have no need for the entire BSP (you only need the Kernel), I'd
recommend using the official CIP Kernel. For now this would mean that
you'd need to either use NFS or eMMC for your RFS. If using eMMC
you'll need to enable EXT3/4 on top of shmobile_defconfig.

This has the added benefit that CIP Core will use and test the
official CIP Kernel, rather than Renesas' out of tree BSP version.

I noticed that the new versions are been merged. I was using
renesas-cip's
v4.4.69-cip4 but I can see a newer branch called v4.4.83-cip8

v4.4.55-cip3 is the only version properly tested. I think the other
versions are just rebases.

Binh-san, could you confirm the current status of the newer branches
on renesas-rz?

v4.4.55-cip3 was fully tested, including UT,IT,ST.
v4.4.69-cip4 , v4.4.75-cip6 also worked with just some simple tests.

Best regards,
Binh Nguyen

Kind regards, Chris

Thanks,
Daniel