Panfrost With Linux 5.10 To Support Mali GPU On Amlogic G12B SoCs

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Panfrost With Linux 5.10 To Support Mali GPU On Amlogic G12B SoCs

Sent out on Monday were a last batch of drm-misc-next changes to queue for the Linux 5.10 merge window opening next month...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Panfrost-Amlogic-Linux-5.10

[Baguy]

I really hope the NVIDIA deal doesn't go through. I have a feeling stuff like this would end.

[polarathene]

ODROID-N2 uses this right? How has it progressed since release if anyones been keeping up with development there? Are there any notable issues still? I remember USB being problematic at least with external storage if you wanted to use it for NAS purposes. Or is the ROCKPro64 still a better experience? (which hardware isn't as good IIRC, but without decent software and mainlining support kinda matters less..).

[elatllat]

ODROID-N2 ... issues ... USB ...

was fixed and mainlined;

https://patchwork.kernel.org/patch/11325417/

[chewitt]

ODROID-N2 uses this right? How has it progressed since release if anyones been keeping up with development there? Are there any notable issues still? I remember USB being problematic at least with external storage if you wanted to use it for NAS purposes. Or is the ROCKPro64 still a better experience? (which hardware isn't as good IIRC, but without decent software and mainlining support kinda matters less..).

If you consider that until ~two weeks ago panfrost didn't properly work on Amlogic bifrost using hardware without barfing a ton of errors, it's now in great shape (the reason for the errors was found and fixed). Bifrost support in Panfrost is still behind blobs, but it has come a long way quickly and now devs have better access to info, things can only get better and better

[bobim]

I’ve got a N2 with dietpi running Nextcloud since one or two years with 2.5in drives. The only issue at the beginning was with the ethernet adapter requiring a firmware update. This little sbc is fantastic, and it does its job under a 10W power budget. It’s running headless for me, so the GPU driver was never that much an issue. I also have a RK3399 based sbc and it’s making much more heat, for half the computing power. So yes the N2 can make a nice low power NAS.

[MastaG]

If only Samsung and/or Arm could contribute a bit to get the T-628 working correctly for the Odroid XU3/4..

For having only 2GB of ram and being 32bit.. they're still pretty powerful being capable of emulating the Sega Dreamcast.

[polarathene]

I’ve got a N2 since one or two years with 2.5in drives. So yes the N2 can make a nice low power NAS.

How are the drives connected? When I looked into it there wasn't a way to do so via SATA, and besides the USB controller chipset issues on the N2 around release (which persisted for at least a few months I think when I was following that), there was also the issue of USB-SATA bridges being a bit of a minefield especially when powered from a low powered SBC, what did you end up using?

You've not had any notable issues at all?

[polarathene]

was fixed and mainlined;

https://patchwork.kernel.org/patch/11325417/

Great from the description it's not entirely clear for me, I recall one of the "fixes" being a tweak to slow down I/O otherwise the activity would cause problems and the device would disconnect or data corrupt, something like that. Can a decent external drive like Samsung T5 over USB 3 still manage 350-400MB/sec sequential?

[polarathene]

If you consider that until ~two weeks ago panfrost didn't properly work on Amlogic bifrost using hardware without barfing a ton of errors, it's now in great shape

I think I haven't checked on development progress for some time on the board, I remember reading up on Panfrost and being excited about that making progress, so it's great that it's working on the N2 now!

Do you know if it would be able to handle KDE Plasma alright? Similar to a Chromebook? Or is it mostly only suited for headless use and media playback?