Allwinner A83T Will Support HDMI With Linux 4.17

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Allwinner A83T Will Support HDMI With Linux 4.17

The Sun4i DRM driver work has been progressing a lot since its mainline introduction two years ago with Linux 4.7. With the Linux 4.17 cycle, the A83T SoC will have initial HDMI output support...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Sun4i-A83T-HDMI-Linux-4.17

[andreano]

The question to me is: Will Allwinner for the first time in history support HDMI without HDCP, aka fix their DVI compatibility? AFAIK, all boards from Hackberry A10 to Pine A64 have that flaw. They don't work on regular computer monitors, only TVs.

So they are ditching Mali for PowerVR. As the article poins out, GPU != display controller, so it doesn't have to mean anything, but my thoughts for Allwinner is that it can't get worse. Good luck, Chinese cheap board manufacturers.

[chithanh]

andreano
Huh, I thought the problem was rather with YUV (which is mandatory for HDMI but optional for DVI) which caused some older DVI monitors to display no signal. The Allwinner kernel doesn't support RGB, only YUV.

With the display set up by the (sunxi) kernel or u-boot I never have a problem. Using Orange Pi PC (Allwinner H3) and an old 19" DVI monitor which doesn't support YUV.

[andreano]

chithanh I suppose you know better than me. HDCP is just the most common explanation i've seen on the net. I never got my Hackberry A10 to work with the HDMI screen I bought for it :-(

Whatever the reason, it doesn't work. They've had this glaring problem since at least 2012, and they aren't fixing it! How many boards have they sold in the meantime? I call that unforgivable. Shame on Allwinner.

[starshipeleven]

How many boards have they sold in the meantime? I call that unforgivable. Shame on Allwinner.

please note: all mainline support and drivers for Allwinner stuff are made by Sunxi team, which is NOT affiliated with Allwinner in any way.

Allwinner provides an SDK with blob drivers that work-ish to make a decent Android system, that's the end of it.

[chithanh]

andreano
If you don't want to patch/compile things yourself: In case your board is supported, try armbian with mainline kernel builds, they are usually pretty quick in integrating sunxi patches.