Linux 5.15 Further Tunes Its RISC-V Support

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Linux 5.15 Further Tunes Its RISC-V Support

The RISC-V architecture updates have landed in the Linux 5.15 kernel with more software features now being supported...

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-5.15-RISC-V

[elatllat]

But now that BeagleV is no longer there is no resonable hardware due.

[Paradigm Shifter]

But now that BeagleV is no longer there is no resonable hardware due.

Their forum seems to indicate that something else will come to replace it next year.

Of course, if wishes were fishes...

[uid313]

Are We RISC-V Yet?

What's left?
Is it supported by GNU GRUB and systemd-boot?
Is it supported by Go, Python, Perl, Ruby, Rust, Lua? Java?
It is not supported by .NET.
Is it supported by any BLAS?
Is it supported by Flatpak, Snap, and Docker?
Is it supported by KVM, QEMU and VirtualBox?

Can you run GNOME on it? Can you run Chromium or Firefox on it?

What's done?
What's left?

[Alexmitter]

Is it supported by GNU GRUB and systemd-boot?

Grub should work just fine as a payload to uboot, as a .efi binary. Though I did not try it yet, uboot directly is enough to me.

Is it supported by Go, Python, Perl, Ruby, Rust, Lua? Java?

So far I only know that Rust is a pain in the ass due to the low quality LLVM compiler that the rust people force onto us.

It is not supported by .NET.

Officially no.

Is it supported by any BLAS?

No idea what that even is.

Is it supported by Flatpak, Snap, and Docker?

Flatpak is now supported as the official Freedesktop base got Risc-V support. No idea what Snap and Docker do.

Is it supported by KVM, QEMU and VirtualBox?

QEMU should run in software mode, KVM seems to be wired up though I am not sure how complete it is.

Can you run GNOME on it? Can you run Chromium or Firefox on it?

Yes, you can run Gnome, it runs very well on my Unmatched. Idk if Chromium runs but Firefox seems to be a no no right now due to the Rust fillings, again being blocked by the low quality of the LLVM compiler.

[uid313]

What else is missing for RISC-V?

Grub should work just fine as a payload to uboot, as a .efi binary. Though I did not try it yet, uboot directly is enough to me.

I wonder if it can boot with systemd-boot.
Or if it can use UEFI to boot GRUB.

So far I only know that Rust is a pain in the ass due to the low quality LLVM compiler that the rust people force onto us.

I thought LLVM was a great compiler. I like that the Rust compiler is so helpful in its error messages.
The bad thing about the Rust compiler is that it is slow though.

No idea what that even is.

BLAS is Basic Linear Algebra Subprograms, it is what has optimizations to do algebra effectively on the CPU and there are many libraries for that, and it is something that is used by programming languages to do math. Without BLAS support for RISC-V math operations will be slow. With BLAS support it can use ISA-specific extensions such as SSE4 and AVX2 maybe to have fast performance.

[Alexmitter]

What else is missing for RISC-V?
I wonder if it can boot with systemd-boot.
Or if it can use UEFI to boot GRUB.

Generally u-boot can act as a standard EFI implementation, so it should be able to start various .efi binaries including grub. Thats what I use on my Pinebook Pro to boot generic arm iso's.
While you could make a fancy interface so it acts like a standard AMI Uefi or something like that, I am quite custom to the terminal interface u-boot has, especially if I can simply use my pinebook's display and keyboard to control it instead of the serial adapter as it had to be done previously. typing "run boot_usb0" instead of pressing F11 or whatever and selecting a drive is ok.