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The problem is VideoCore, as the Broadcom firmware and closed libraries are 32bit only. You can very easily† pop in an ArchLinux ARM AArch64[0] in there and no
by lloeki 9y ago
The problem is VideoCore, as the Broadcom firmware and closed libraries are 32bit only.
You can very easily† pop in an ArchLinux ARM AArch64[0] in there and notice that you only get a very basic framebuffer, sound is just not working at all, and the bootloader is quite incomplete. So ARMv7 it is for me, even with ArchLinux ARM and in spite of my wish for better FOSS support from Broadcom or in Linux mainline.
† I find alarm much much better as a distro than raspbian as it's incredibly straightforward to install, maintain, and use, while vanilla debian is downright painful.
[0]: https://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv8/broadcom/raspberry-pi-3 https://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv8/broadcom/raspberry-...
- qalmakka 9y agoMan, I hate how ARM OEMs are screwing up the whole platform as a viable PC-replacement platform, and I really wish they would reconsider some of the money-grubbing choices they made. Having a standardised platform such as the x86(-64) PC platform is fantastic for tinkering and long term support and reusability of your machines; things such as binary only drivers with just 2 year support (coff coff Qualcomm) are an absolute shame.
- imtringued 9y agoThere is also the fact that UEFI is rather suboptimal. They are adopting UEFI on the server chips because they've failed to develop a new standard. They've missed a chance to improve upon UEFI. Now they are stuck inheriting UEFI's problems because otherwise there would be no standard at all.
- bnolsen 9y agough thats bad news. i can't stand uefi its more a hindrance than help.
- SmellyGeekBoy 9y agoTo be fair, drivers for most x86-compatible hardware are binary-only. Not that I agree with the practice, but there is precedent.
- slrz 9y agoI haven't seen an off-the-shelf x86 machine that actually requires binary-only drivers for essential functionality in a very long time. Sure, there is lots of specialized hardware that no one wrote an open source driver for but you don't buy those from Dell or HP. Most x86 boxen tend to run tons of proprietary firmware but at least that isn't pinning me down on ancient hacked-up kernel trees.
- vardump 9y ago> Broadcom firmware and ... are 32bit only Doesn't the firmware run on VideoCore anyways, so why would its bitness matter? Closed ARM-side libraries are of course a different beast.
- floatboth 9y ago> only get a very basic framebuffer You get 3D accelerated Wayland or Xorg with the open source VC4 driver!