14:32:22 #startmeeting State of ARM 14:32:22 Meeting started Tue Aug 2 14:32:22 2016 UTC. The chair is suehle. Information about MeetBot at http://wiki.debian.org/MeetBot. 14:32:22 Useful Commands: #action #agreed #halp #info #idea #link #topic. 14:32:22 The meeting name has been set to 'state_of_arm' 14:33:06 Core toolchain and features: Not much to say now. 14:33:16 Now we've got everything from golang and even rust all the way through 14:33:24 The only currently missing on 64 is mono 14:33:35 Since the MS purchase, that's all ended up upstream, waiting for release of patches 14:33:42 Should be in F25 cycle 14:34:06 #meetingname flock2016 14:34:06 The meeting name has been set to 'flock2016' 14:35:17 #info server edition to become primary architecture 14:35:36 #info cloud edition, alongside docker images, producing qemu images 14:35:48 doing nightly docker images 14:36:19 #info workstation edition: all the stuff's there, runs on arm v7, incl accelerated graphics stack (primarily nvidia) 14:38:06 if anyone else wants me to addchair lmk 14:41:26 Kernel: A few releases ago we carried a patch of 100,000 lines 14:41:56 We currently have 1 patchset for aarch64 which provides pcie support, needed for some enterprise hw 14:42:38 Some like odroid are still dealing with upstreaming stuff but are improving a lot 14:43:19 Bootloaders: Couple of major bootloaders supported 14:43:51 UEFI on Aarch 64. one of the things working on for about 4 years, an open source UEFI implementation called TianoCore 14:43:58 Couldn't ship it because of licensing problems 14:44:29 Microsoft as part of agreement with FOSS community and in conjunction with Intel fixed that problem so they can ship that version of UEFI stuff on OpenStack 14:44:35 Now have firmware that works out of the box with vms and such 14:45:21 UBoot, the other bootloader we use a lot, such as on Odroid 14:45:42 Should soon be easier to support 14:46:14 Intend to be working in F25 14:47:37 Question: Do we envision being able to put a stub on an SD card to run Anaconda? Answer: Yes, you can now. 14:48:04 UBoot on the SD card pxe boots off the network and kickstart installs to the HD w/Anaconda 14:49:07 #info Ian McLeod writing a blog post about Anaconda on SD card 14:49:50 In the process of doing a proposal, which has a FESCo ticket, for redefining what constitutes a secondary architecture, or an "alternative architecture." 14:50:08 At the moment, the designation is the instance of Koji it runs in, but doesn't hold true anymore. 14:50:27 In the case of Aarch64 it makes sense to promote to primary bc a lot of people are using it as such and have that expectation 14:50:42 PRomotion of, say, Workstation on Aarch64 doesn't make sense bc not a lot of out of the box for that. 14:50:46 Watch devel list for more info 14:51:05 (Sorry, missed a few words there about specific uses of AArch) 14:52:54 #info Hoping to move Aarch64 to primary architecture 14:53:04 #topic questions 14:53:25 Q: What about Raspberry Pi? 14:53:33 A: We support Raspberry Pi in F24 on the Pi 2 and 3. 14:53:52 It all works. The only thing that never got around to doing is producing an image that you could just dd onto a card and "just work." 14:54:26 You need a vfat partition at the beginning set up a special way. The toolchain that builds the nightly images in Koji is "an antiquated pile of crap," which we are working to replace with Live Media Creator. 14:54:45 Intend to make that change for ARM disk images, but some functionality didn't work in time for 24. 14:54:58 Hope to do Pi images that people could consume for 2 and 3. 14:55:22 In F25, we will have disk images to enable the support with fully accelerated gnome stack and gpio support. 15:00:04 Q: What are the best devices to buy now? 15:00:10 A: What do you want to use it for? 15:00:33 For desktop users, Jetson TK1 will give you fully accelerated Wayland desktop. It is not cheap. About $2-300. 15:01:06 AllWinner A20 devices, Banana Pi are good devices for server-related stuff because SOC attached gigabit ethernet port, a real SATA port, so you can get real performance if you want to do something like Gluster 15:01:10 BeagleBone for IOT 15:02:11 We now support about 180 devices, so which one depends on what your use is. 15:03:36 Q: When you were proposing moving AArch 64 to primary, you mentioned objections--what are you anticipating? 15:03:53 A: It is usual community bickering from a handful of ppl who will just object. 15:04:24 First floated proposal at Flock last year, have done a lot of discussions, and have answered a lot of questions. The people I first expected to object have been largely positive. 15:05:31 We have in Phoenix racked up a moonshot chassis with 30 blades in it. Waiting on firmware fix from manufacturer. And we should have that shortly. Hoping within 2-3 weeks we'll have the first batch of ARM v7 virtual builders. 15:05:49 On the test building the kernel and the Java stack on a mustang, which is a similar hw spec w/slow hard disk, have cut build time in half. 15:08:02 The moonshot blades have ssds, may be even better. May be even faster. 15:08:26 Internet dropped--can somebody tell me what my last visible line was? 15:08:32 before that moonshot line 15:10:32 Q: Has there been testing on mobile phones? 15:10:44 A: No, but yes. It's not a device form factor we're actively aiming for. 15:12:35 Hope for getting Nexus 7 tablet working, but bootloaders are "an utter trainwreck" 15:13:02 If you screw up a kernel update, you have a bricked device, which is contrary to the Fedora experience 15:13:47 The # of people working on ARM hardware is small, so we're focusing on IOT devices and other things, RasPi, things people are interested in and are cheap and easily supportable. 15:14:12 Nexus 7, if you build your own kernel, you could have a decent experience. 15:15:25 #endmeeting