Allwinner Has Many DRM Changes Queued For Linux 4.13

[chithanh]

Anyone knows if they have fixed the mystical HDMI problem with the A10 that you couldn't use a computer screen, only a TV screen?

Is there a bug report somewhere?

My Orange Pi PC (Allwinner H3) does not work with some computer monitors but it does work with others. TVs all work fine.

I haven't quite pinned down what is the reason, but it seems that monitors that have only DVI input are likely to not work, while those that I natively connect via HDMI do. Some indications exist that has to do with HDCP: Disabling HDCP seems to work in some cases. In other cases this still does not work. Maybe something to do with RGB vs. YCbCr, but that is just a wild guess.

[blackiwid]

The c.h.I.p. is alwinner too, right?

What I miss most would be suspend to ram, then you could use something like the pocketchip as tablet replacement.

[andreano]

Is there a bug report somewhere?

Wikipedia's comparison lists some Allwinner boards as "DVI incompatible", including the new PINE A64. My report on the hackberry forums is also linked to from there, but appears to be down.

[chithanh]

"DVI incompatible" seems to be a misnomer. DVI and HDMI use the same TMDS signaling.

The only differences I am aware of is that

• HDMI optionally supports HDCP, while this is not part of the DVI standard. And some Allwinner boards enable this by default.
• HDMI supports YCbCr color formats, while DVI mandates only RGB. This is mentioned in the Hackberry forum post as found on archive.org

Monitor support for either can be easily checked, YCbCr is even listed in the EDID field.

[AndyChow]

How are they trying to improve? What exactly have they done in that direction?
At least in the early stages of the Pine64, their stance was something like: it's not our responsibility to develop drivers, only hardware. get over it!
After many people started complaining in the forums, they admitted to have meeting with the Pine devs and see what could be done.
A few months later withno official word/results from the meeting it was clear that it was fruitless.
I stopped following the Pine board soon after that, but unless they really change their ways, there's no way in hell they're trying to improve! From what i can tell, their stance is to give that impression as to keep people buying their stuff in hopes that some day they will fulfill their promise, when in all truth they seem to have no intention...

I wasn't talking about Pine, lol, they aren't players in any sense of the word, and can't do anything. I was talking about Allwinner. And Allwinner are taking steps, small ones. They reply to emails now, and, as all things Chinese, it's going to take patience, but they are showing goodwill.

Even Rockchip is trying, I feel. But these companies are fighting for their lives. They are up against Samsung and Intel. It's not that they don't want to cooperate, it's that they are between a rock and a hard place. I'm not excusing their behavior.

In many ways you are correct, and your choice to not buy their product until they do the right thing is honorable. I like to believe they are trying, and that they have good intentions, but they don't live in a vacuum.

[nomadewolf]

Many of these SoC's users are interested in their headless server function and IMO the most important lacking parts of upstream kernel ATM are DVFS and ethernet support. Ethernet support is ready but I'm still wating for the DVFS support (my orange pi pc's runs really hot)

There are also many users concerned with the GUI part of things and interested in viewing HD Youtube videos without lag... so let's not diminish the importance of proper/complete support.
That said, it makes all the sense to start with the basic stuff...

[nomadewolf]

I wasn't talking about Pine, lol, they aren't players in any sense of the word, and can't do anything. I was talking about Allwinner. And Allwinner are taking steps, small ones. They reply to emails now, and, as all things Chinese, it's going to take patience, but they are showing goodwill.

Even Rockchip is trying, I feel. But these companies are fighting for their lives. They are up against Samsung and Intel. It's not that they don't want to cooperate, it's that they are between a rock and a hard place. I'm not excusing their behavior.

In many ways you are correct, and your choice to not buy their product until they do the right thing is honorable. I like to believe they are trying, and that they have good intentions, but they don't live in a vacuum.

I know you're talking about Allwinner and not Pine. The reason i used the Pine example was because they use an Allwinnner SoC and i somewhat followed that project in the early stages.
That said, replying to emails is just that: replying to emails. And it's the basic etiquette expected from a 21st century company...
Trying is what Steam is doing: actively hiring developers and assigning them to even work on AMD drivers. I might get them somewhere, or it might not. But they ARE trying. See the difference?

[AndyChow]

I know you're talking about Allwinner and not Pine. The reason i used the Pine example was because they use an Allwinnner SoC and i somewhat followed that project in the early stages.
That said, replying to emails is just that: replying to emails. And it's the basic etiquette expected from a 21st century company...
Trying is what Steam is doing: actively hiring developers and assigning them to even work on AMD drivers. I might get them somewhere, or it might not. But they ARE trying. See the difference?

Yeah, I know what you mean. (...). I know the difference. At the same time, different companies have different realities. You are right, of course, but I am not completely wrong. The companies I mentioned, some will need lawsuits against them, and they will resist, but in the end the right thing will happen, I believe. I have faith. If you compare Steam or some other corporation that actually shows a profit, and aren't mostly controlled by bureaucrats, then yes, they can actually try. But the former corporations, they have very little actual freeway. And the small freeway they do have, they try and go the GNU way. That is half what I actually see, half my observation. Call me naive if you want, and no one will ever prove you wrong.