SUSE Working On Upstream Linux Kernel Support For Booting The Raspberry Pi 5

[phoronix]

Phoronix: SUSE Working On Upstream Linux Kernel Support For Booting The Raspberry Pi 5

While the Raspberry Pi 5 debuted last September already, sadly the mainline Linux kernel still lacks support for booting this popular single board computer... The support on Raspberry Pi OS and other downstream distributions/kernels is good, but the mainline kernel support for the Raspberry Pi SBCs remains a sore spot for this popular ARM single board computer. SUSE engineers have been working on implementing minimal boot support for the Raspberry Pi 5 that will hopefully make it to the mainline kernel...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/SUSE-Upstream-Linux-RPi-5

[pWe00Iri3e7Z9lHOX2Qx]

Nice work SUSE! It's a shame that the most widely used ARM boards for random projects don't have full mainline support closer to their release.

[toves]

Hopefully I can use the same kernel patches for Almalinux 8.9 on a RPi 5.
The kernel &c binaries plus the device tree files from Raspberry Pi OS / Debian grafted on to AL8.9 (mostly) work but the SuSE patches should be closer to tbe *EL8 requirements.

[timofonic]

I did lose a lot of interest in the Raspberry Pi ecosystem due to not having proper FOSS and mainline hardware drivers. It's a nice and cheap device, but too much binary blobs.

[OmniNegro]

I currently use MX Linux. A Raspberry Pi 5 has been on my wish list for a long time now since MX has a Raspberry Pi respin. If my computer dies and I cannot afford a new system, I can probably manage to buy a Raspberry Pi 5 and it will hold me over for a good while.

https://mxlinux.org/download-links/

If you have a RP4, Rp400, or a RP55, be aware of the option. I wish you all the best.

[Quackdoc]

while this stuff sure is neat, every time I see arm in linux news sites, it just makes me hopeful about riscv instead. there is still some fragmentation don't get me wrong, but it seems like "everyone" is playing along trying to get upstream good, and the major differences between stuff boards is figured out quite a bit better with bootloaders (device tree shenanigans for instance), hoepfully SBCs can just be wise and not ship half broken DTs

[NeoMorpheus]

Pi foundation needs to drop Broadcom and use a more FOSS friendly ARM SOC.

[mangeek]

I'm not an expert in this realm, but I've watched this play out with raspberry Pis for over a decade now.

Could they make an SBC that boots UEFI and allows detection of devices using mechanisms similar to PC standards, rather than need bespoke kernel builds, blobs, and distro spins? I can understand why the first few generations were stripped way down to save costs, and that it was OK for them to be 'weird', but it feels like maybe at the scale they're at now, that aspect of their product might be 'externalizing' impacts on the Linux ecosystem and users that ought to be reconciled.

[Kjell]

I did lose a lot of interest in the Raspberry Pi ecosystem due[...]

Are there any good alternatives to Raspberry Pi with FOSS and mainline hardware drivers?

[Quackdoc]

Pi foundation needs to drop Broadcom and use a more FOSS friendly ARM SOC.

none of them are particularly foss friendly