WM8505 Kernel Issues

[Matthew Travous]

I've been having some issues with kernels for my WM8505-based netbook. I have tried several kernels, but none work right for what I want. 

I have tried this fatpart: http://crux-arm.nu/files/devices/wm8505/

Result: Hangs at a blank screen. A single red pixel in the top-left hand corner of the screen blinks.

I have also tried this fatpart: http://projectgus.com/files/abrasive_mirror/wm8505_linux/1.0/

Result: Same as the first, except the num lock and caps lock flash together once.

I also tried to build my own kernel from the kernel_wm8505 repo on github: github.com/projectgus/kernel_wm8505

Result: The single red pixel flashes a few times, and then the WonderMedia logo gets blitted onto the screen, and then mostly overwritten by text. The kernels declares, "Warning: Unable to open an initial console."  and hangs. (perhaps I need to include an initramfs in the kernel?)

I also tried a fatpart that was built from 3.0.0 as 3.0.0-yus: https://code.google.com/archive/p/yus-repo/downloads

Result: Boots. Modules from 2.6.29 don't load (not really surprising), WiFi doesn't work (I installed firmware-ralink in the Debian enviroment but it complains about not finding a firmware), and there is no audio through ALSA (not killer, but it would be nice to have...).

I just want a kernel that will be able to use the wireless, and, if possible, audio. Any help it is appreciated.

[Alexey Charkov]

Hi Matthew,

Looks like your device could have different amount of RAM vs. what your kernels expect - do you know how much you have?

Please also try mainline kernel (mind that currently you need to apply an extra patch for built-in keyboard and touchpad support and adjust brightness via sysfs, and there is no built-in sound support).

If you can attach a serial console to the device, it would greatly help with debugging. You'll need a USB-TTL 3.3V cable which are quite abundant these days.

Cheers,
Alexey

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[Matthew Travous]

Well, this is weird. I retried the 3.0.0-yus kernel and it is working with wireless now. For all the kernels, mem=112M.

I would like to run a mainline kernel, but after reading that the projectgus 2.6.29 kernel requires a blob to be built into the kernel for mmc, I am afraid that a mainline kernel wouldn't have SD card support (which I need, because where I am running Linux from).

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[Alexey Charkov]

Glad that it worked, these devices can be unpredictable at times.

Mainline has a proper SD/MMC driver, thanks to Tony Prisk. WiFi and Ethernet should also work fine (although WiFi should be enabled first by changing a GPIO pin state via sysfs). It also works better with more recent userspaces.

Cheers,
Alexey

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[Matthew Travous]

Okay, I got a kernel 4.6-rc7, and I took the kernel configuration from the 3.0.0-yus kernel and used "make oldconfig" to configure the kernel. I then built it, but it hangs like the others (flashing red pixel).

I've attached the kernel configuration, if they are of interest (wm8505debian.config is the 3.0.0-yus config, and .config is mine).

[Alexey Charkov]

Oldconfig won't work here unfortunately, as the config options are somewhat different, and the build steps are somewhat different too (due to Device Tree). So please do a menuconfig manually.

Please have a look here for some instructions:

https://github.com/linux-wmt/linux-vtwm/wiki/Build-the-source

Cheers,
Alexey

On 10 May 2016 05:55, "Matthew Travous" <thebatma...@gmail.com> wrote:

Okay, I got a kernel 4.6-rc7, and I took the kernel configuration from the 3.0.0-yus kernel and used "make oldconfig" to configure the kernel. I then built it, but it hangs like the others (flashing red pixel).

I've attached the kernel configuration, if they are of interest (wm8505debian.config is the 3.0.0-yus config, and .config is mine).

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[Matthew Travous]

Thanks for the link! I built a booting kernel based on 4.6-rc7, and the only real issue I have is the internal keyboard and touchpad. I found the commit on Linux-vtwm (branch testing-i8042) that enabled the keyboard and mouse, but when I tried to make a patch of it, I got a 545MB patch (which I believe is too large for a commit with 181 additions and 6 deletions). Is there a patch file somewhere else I could download?

[Alexey Charkov]

You just need the single commit at the tip of that branch, so you can do git cherry-pick, or git format-patch, or even just git show > /tmp/patch

Or check out Roman's version e.g. here (with a bit more general approach):

http://lists.openwall.net/linux-kernel/2015/07/05/64

On 11 May 2016 22:15, "Matthew Travous" <thebatma...@gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks for the link! I built a booting kernel based on 4.6-rc7, and the only real issue I have is the internal keyboard and touchpad. I found the commit on Linux-vtwm (branch testing-i8042) that enabled the keyboard and mouse, but when I tried to make a patch of it, I got a 545MB patch (which I believe is too large for a commit with 181 additions and 6 deletions). Is there a patch file somewhere else I could download?

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