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what do you mean by "software support"? it's a linux capable 10 dollar chip
by Shadonototra 5y ago
what do you mean by "software support"?
it's a linux capable 10 dollar chip
- teraflop 5y agoThere are tons of SoCs that theoretically support Linux, but in practice rely on binary blobs or out-of-tree drivers. Getting them to work with anything other than the hand-picked, patched kernel versions provided by the manufacturer can be a nightmare.
- bradfa 5y agoYes, but you can also look at it as a great way to start contributing to the upstream Linux kernel. Take the vendor's horrible drivers and clean them up, then submit them upstream. You get to learn new things and contribute to Linux, which has varying amounts of value depending upon who you ask, but also you'll make the next person who buys one of these less likely to complain that mainline Linux doesn't support it. Not a ton can easily be done about binary blobs, especially if those blobs have EULAs which prohibit reverse engineering. But there are always ways and doing so would be a great school or hobby project.
- IshKebab 5y ago"You can also look at this lack of support as a great way to start doing all the work yourself!"
- imtringued 5y agoUpstreamed kernel drivers. A lot of companies just fork the kernel, throw in their modifications and then make you run their "official" image available in some random person's google drive. This was particularly common with Allwinner but everyone with the proprietary ARM GPU drivers also had the problem that they only supported old kernel versions.
- IshKebab 5y agoCan you blame them? It's mostly Linux's driver model that is to blame here.