4 ms·

Author here. Counterpoint: my HiFive Unleashed (RISC-V) experience has been extremely positive.

thomasjames 7y ago
Do you mind mentioning which RAM module you purchased? On the wiki it looks like some are officially supported and others have been added by users. Maybe if the issue is related to the RAM, others have experienced similar problems. Also, I am looking at the bundle, but don't see any RAM included with it. Was this something that had been offering in the past but since took down?
- Sir_Cmpwn 7y ago
  > Also, I am looking at the bundle, but don't see any RAM included with it. Was this something that had been offering in the past but since took down? It's an add-on. Click "Add to cart" and then you'll have the option to add it on the next page. > Do you mind mentioning which RAM module you purchased? On the wiki it looks like some are officially supported and others have been added by users. Maybe if the issue is related to the RAM, others have experienced similar problems. Not interested in troubleshooting in HN comments, but thank you. There are some leads in the IRC channel that I'll follow up on when I have the chance.
classichasclass 7y ago
I'm sorry to hear about the problems with your Blackbird. I was an early purchaser as well but my unit arrived rather earlier than yours and didn't have any hardware issues (and I had experience with the platform anyway from the Talos). Raptor support was very good in the early days but I haven't had cause to need it lately and I suspect the load is exceeding their capacity. That's a good problem to have in some respects but if your story is any indication, it could be a sign of looming trouble.
yjftsjthsd-h 7y ago
So... any chance of riscv support on sr.ht sometime in the mid-future? Especially if this undermines the plan to get POWER supported.
- Sir_Cmpwn 7y ago
  Hm, I have wanted to get RISC-V support on builds.sr.ht, but there are a couple of problems. The main blocker is that I still haven't got a good Alpine port finished for it, the main blocker for that being the lack of a good bootloader available that lets me load a kernel from the filesystem. uBoot is almost there but they need to add an mmc driver before it's ready. Once that's available (or after I have time to investigate it myself), I'll be rebuilding the Alpine port on top of a stable release, then I can start thinking about putting together support for builds.sr.ht.
seltzered_ 7y ago
To ask an odder question, why be an early adopter to new machines as someone that also wrote https://drewdevault.com/2019/01/23/Why-I-use-old-hardware.html https://drewdevault.com/2019/01/23/Why-I-use-old-hardware.ht... ?
- Sir_Cmpwn 7y ago
  I don't exclusively use old hardware. I own and regularly use a wide variety of hardware.
  - iforgotpassword 7y ago
    Kudos for that post! Exactly my way of thinking and working. My laptop isn't 11 years old since my last one died in 2014 but I specifically bought a slow Pentium as a replacement. On the up side I still get 6 hours of battery life today. My former boss always said that all devs worldwide should get the fastest machine possible for development but should be forced to use their own software on a 386. :-)
    - Porthos9K 7y ago
      > My former boss always said that all devs worldwide should get the fastest machine possible for development but should be forced to use their own software on a 386. :-) I appreciate this thinking, and have always thought that web developers should be forced to test with lynx on 9600baud dialup. But I'm just a wee bit sadistic when it comes to web developers. "No tears, please. It's a waste of good suffering."

Do you mind mentioning which RAM module you purchased? On the wiki it looks like some are officially supported and others have been added by users. Maybe if the issue is related to the RAM, others have experienced similar problems. Also, I am looking at the bundle, but don't see any RAM included with it. Was this something that had been offering in the past but since took down?

Sir_Cmpwn 7y ago
> Also, I am looking at the bundle, but don't see any RAM included with it. Was this something that had been offering in the past but since took down? It's an add-on. Click "Add to cart" and then you'll have the option to add it on the next page. > Do you mind mentioning which RAM module you purchased? On the wiki it looks like some are officially supported and others have been added by users. Maybe if the issue is related to the RAM, others have experienced similar problems. Not interested in troubleshooting in HN comments, but thank you. There are some leads in the IRC channel that I'll follow up on when I have the chance.

classichasclass 7y ago

I'm sorry to hear about the problems with your Blackbird. I was an early purchaser as well but my unit arrived rather earlier than yours and didn't have any hardware issues (and I had experience with the platform anyway from the Talos). Raptor support was very good in the early days but I haven't had cause to need it lately and I suspect the load is exceeding their capacity. That's a good problem to have in some respects but if your story is any indication, it could be a sign of looming trouble.

yjftsjthsd-h 7y ago

So... any chance of riscv support on sr.ht sometime in the mid-future? Especially if this undermines the plan to get POWER supported.

Sir_Cmpwn 7y ago
Hm, I have wanted to get RISC-V support on builds.sr.ht, but there are a couple of problems. The main blocker is that I still haven't got a good Alpine port finished for it, the main blocker for that being the lack of a good bootloader available that lets me load a kernel from the filesystem. uBoot is almost there but they need to add an mmc driver before it's ready. Once that's available (or after I have time to investigate it myself), I'll be rebuilding the Alpine port on top of a stable release, then I can start thinking about putting together support for builds.sr.ht.

seltzered_ 7y ago

To ask an odder question, why be an early adopter to new machines as someone that also wrote https://drewdevault.com/2019/01/23/Why-I-use-old-hardware.html https://drewdevault.com/2019/01/23/Why-I-use-old-hardware.ht... ?

Sir_Cmpwn 7y ago
I don't exclusively use old hardware. I own and regularly use a wide variety of hardware.
- iforgotpassword 7y ago
  Kudos for that post! Exactly my way of thinking and working. My laptop isn't 11 years old since my last one died in 2014 but I specifically bought a slow Pentium as a replacement. On the up side I still get 6 hours of battery life today. My former boss always said that all devs worldwide should get the fastest machine possible for development but should be forced to use their own software on a 386. :-)
  - Porthos9K 7y ago
    > My former boss always said that all devs worldwide should get the fastest machine possible for development but should be forced to use their own software on a 386. :-) I appreciate this thinking, and have always thought that web developers should be forced to test with lynx on 9600baud dialup. But I'm just a wee bit sadistic when it comes to web developers. "No tears, please. It's a waste of good suffering."