Fedora Drafts Plans For Retiring ARMv7 Support

[Alexmitter]

On the one hand, everybody wants to drop 32 bit support from all the distros. On the other hand, 32-bit arm is probably going to continue to be manufactured and sold for several decades.

Yes and no. It is correct that 32 Bit ARM systems are continued to be manufactured and sold, but not Cortex Chips. 32bit Cortex Chips basically vanished, all that is remaining are the M type chips for micro controllers.

[rmfx]

As a Pi user I don't find Fedora being useful at all. That's may be a good thing for them but also not a thing for Pi user.

ok let’s spend hundred of thousands of dollars to continue armv7 support then, because 300 old raspberry pi users don’t want to spend 30 dollars to upgrade but they expect the very latest software available for them…

[andresdju]

Yes and no. It is correct that 32 Bit ARM systems are continued to be manufactured and sold, but not Cortex Chips. 32bit Cortex Chips basically vanished, all that is remaining are the M type chips for micro controllers.

A lot of 32 bit Cortex-A systems are manufactured and running in production. There are even new 32 bit SOCs in the market, like the very interesting STM32MP15x series that started delivering in volume in 2021. This are industrial SOCs designed for running Linux, including GPU and video output.

[TheOne]

Meanwhile, besides armv7 and armv8 ArchLinuxARM has support for armv5 and armv6, convering a nice range of exotic hardware. I doubt any arm v5 or v6 is been produced (haven't researched) and given the low power consumption of such devices their life span is really long. For that fact many people still use these older arm devices on networking applications. Their is now the new shiny armv9, What will happen to armv8? Will it also be retired in 1 - 2 years?

[antonyshen]

ok let’s spend hundred of thousands of dollars to continue armv7 support then, because 300 old raspberry pi users don’t want to spend 30 dollars to upgrade but they expect the very latest software available for them…

Pi users know what they need, why should they follow the rule or will set by Fedora?

[tuxd3v]

Meanwhile, besides armv7 and armv8 ArchLinuxARM has support for armv5 and armv6, convering a nice range of exotic hardware. I doubt any arm v5 or v6 is been produced (haven't researched) and given the low power consumption of such devices their life span is really long. For that fact many people still use these older arm devices on networking applications. Their is now the new shiny armv9, What will happen to armv8? Will it also be retired in 1 - 2 years?

Arch is not the only one..
Debian/Devuan also has support for armv5T and armv6, its armel..
In Debian stretch it used to support also arm4T, but 4T was dropped in Debian 10 (buster).

There are tons and tons of armv5/6/7 hardware out there, because they are long term devices..

Agree, with your question about armv9, and if they will drop armv8 too?

[tuxd3v]

ok let’s spend hundred of thousands of dollars to continue armv7 support then, because 300 old raspberry pi users don’t want to spend 30 dollars to upgrade but they expect the very latest software available for them…

If you tell me that you will drop armv4/5 even 6 I would not agree much with 6, but at least it could make some sense.. now dropping the last 32 bits version of ARM 32 bits..is just stupid..remember that armv7 is the last iteration of arm32 bits, and probably will be the last ever..

[chithanh]

remember that armv7 is the last iteration of arm32 bits, and probably will be the last ever..

That is not entirely correct. There is a 32-bit only implementation of ARMv8, namely Cortex-A32. But its commercial relevance is low.

[pigpen]

I hope they continue to build Fedora for ARMv7. I have 2 devices (Beagle bone black and Udoo Neo) that have CANbus that are useful. I have a "shield" w/ CANbus transceivers for the BBB. The Udoo Neo is nice because it takes 6 to 15 VDC, which is useful for cars & boats.

[tuxd3v]

I hope they continue to build Fedora for ARMv7. I have 2 devices (Beagle bone black and Udoo Neo) that have CANbus that are useful. I have a "shield" w/ CANbus transceivers for the BBB. The Udoo Neo is nice because it takes 6 to 15 VDC, which is useful for cars & boats.

For what I understand Udoo Neo, have a integrated Vivante GC400T 2d/3d Graphics card.. I was thinking if you can use the open source etnaviv driver to have 3d acceleration with it?
STMicroelectronics STM32MP15x also incorporate a Vivante 2d/3d Graphics card on it, and I still have the same doubt about etnaviv support?
does you experimented with etnaviv driver?
thanks,