SARPi64 updates

Exaga · 02-09-2020, 03:16 PM

A new batch of SARPi64 [Aarch64] kernel, kernel-modules, boot-firmware and Linux kernel-source packages for the Raspberry Pi 4 can be downloaded here: http://sarpi64.fatdog.eu/index.php?p=rpi4downloads

Please note that these new packages run kernel 4.19.102 and kernel 5.4.18 versions and are strictly prototype by nature and experimental by design.

NB: The Aarch64 kernel 5.4.18 source code had to be patched in order for it to build successfully without any errors on the RPi4. All patches used have been included in an extra directory which can be found in '/usr/src/linux/sarpi64-patches' after the sarpi64-kernel-source*.txz package has been installed. These notable changes are reflected in the README file within that directory and slack-desc:

Code:

sarpi64-kernel-source (Linux kernel 5.4.18 source)

This is the source code for Linus Torvalds' Linux kernel - which has
been patched for the Raspberry Pi 4. The source is available from the
RPi GitHub repository: https://github.com/raspberrypi/linux
 
* An additional /usr/src/linux/sarpi64-patches directory is included
which contains any applied patches and a README file.

giomat · 02-10-2020, 02:48 AM

Hey Exaga,
I got interested in this project since I purchased a raspberry 4 a couple of weeks ago.
It came with a 32bit raspbian preinstalled and I was looking into ways to put slackware in it.
As I understand looking at the project website there's only 32bit version of slackware available,
with the option of having a 64bit kernel and modules (like the raspbian).
Yesterday I came across a gentoo image which is a full 64bit gentoo (kernel, toolchain, userspace etc.),
and it seems to work really well, so that left me wondering: is the sarpi project eventually moving toward
a full 64bit release? I understand that the system packages (beside kernel, firmwares and blobs) are coming
from the main slackware arm tree, even just having a 64bit toolchain would be enough to start building stuff on my own.
I also thought about setting up a cross compilation environment for aarch64 on my slackware box, but that would be
a little project on its own somewhere in the future.

Exaga · 02-10-2020, 07:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by giomat

Hey Exaga,
I got interested in this project since I purchased a raspberry 4 a couple of weeks ago.
It came with a 32bit raspbian preinstalled and I was looking into ways to put slackware in it.
As I understand looking at the project website there's only 32bit version of slackware available,
with the option of having a 64bit kernel and modules (like the raspbian).
Yesterday I came across a gentoo image which is a full 64bit gentoo (kernel, toolchain, userspace etc.),
and it seems to work really well, so that left me wondering: is the sarpi project eventually moving toward
a full 64bit release? I understand that the system packages (beside kernel, firmwares and blobs) are coming
from the main slackware arm tree, even just having a 64bit toolchain would be enough to start building stuff on my own.
I also thought about setting up a cross compilation environment for aarch64 on my slackware box, but that would be
a little project on its own somewhere in the future.

Hi giomat. I think it's great that you are interested in running Slackware on ARM devices! I love to read about users building their own stuff! The Raspberry Pi 4 is a bit of a beast and Slackware ARM installs and runs extremely well on it. Some of your questions are a little awkward for me to answer but I shall endeavour to be clear and make sense. If possible.

Yes. Only an official 32-bit Slackware ARM version exists. The SARPi Project - http://sarpi.fatdog.eu - deals with Slackware ARM in that respect and follows the work of Stuart Winter [MoZes], the creator and maintainer, very closely. SARPi is an installer which is a facilitating method of getting Slackware ARM installed on a Raspberry Pi device. The source media which you download and install is Slackware ARM proper = official source. The difference being that the official kernel and modules built by Stuart are replaced by ones I have built (using the Raspberry Pi GitHub repository sources) during Slackware ARM installation. Plus the SARPi boot-firmware package(s) contains proprietary firmware blobs from Broadcom, which are required to boot the RPi devices [comes from the same RPi GitHub repository] and are not shipped with any official Slackware ARM source media.

The SARPi64 Project - http://sarpi64.fatdog.eu - is a rogue-maverick ARM64/AArch64 affair which probably breaks [and has broken] every tradition and standard that Slackware [ARM] has ever endorsed. As you correctly understand, it's a 64-bit kernel and modules running on a 32-bit Slackware ARM OS once it's been installed. It does not follow the work of any developer or individual and should be considered as "entirely experimental" in any and all cases. In order to create these images and packages initially I had to start from scratch as there was nobody's work to follow or build for in that sense. The whole concept behind the SARPi64 Project was an attempt to gather interest in all things Slackware ARM64 some 3-4 years ago and last year I decided to create a website so there was a web-presence and any work could be shared easier. In the event that users may have (or find) a use for any of the work/information available then they are more than welcome to it. At the moment there isn't a great deal of interest in SARPi64 so I don't spend a lot of time with it, but if more users with mindsets like yours arrived on the scene I'm sure that would change very quickly.

Building a 64-bit toolchain under Slackware ARM is a walk in the park when you have build scripts. If you don't already have any, I hope this page helps or at least points you in a more positive and productive direction: http://sarpi64.fatdog.eu/index.php?p=howto - * You might also be interested in: https://docs.slackware.com/howtos:hardware:arm:start

Cross-compiling on the same architecture [e.g. using Slackware ARMv7-a to compile for ARMv8 on a RPi3] is how I discovered success. Compiling natively is preferable. Cross-compiling on x86 [Ubuntu] systems for ARM was a very bad experience for me personally. I haven't done that since. LOL!

SARPi/SARPi64 Project has no aspirations to develop and distribute a full Slackware ARM64 OS.

Gentoo 64-bit was running kernel 4.4.x last time I looked (some years ago) and was somewhat broken back then. Not sure about the current state of affairs with it. Sorry to inform you that I'm not a fan of that OS at all. If Gentoo was the only ARM64 OS in existence I would most likely give it a miss, for personal reasons.

I noticed recently that the RPi guys have the kernel8.img included in their https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmw...ee/master/boot repository. I've actually ran it to test it out on Raspbian Buster and to compare it with Slackware ARM running a similar setup. It will be interesting to see where they go with this.

giomat · 02-10-2020, 08:16 AM

Hey Exaga,
thanks for the super detailed reply, I really couldn't ask for any better one

So there's no official 64bit version of slackware for ARM, that's really a surprise for me!
Indeed it must be an herculean task to build one, all the slackbuilds must be modified, the whole system rebuilt
(something like the Slackware From Scratch project of user nobodino) and on top of that, everything preferably done on the pi
side to avoid x86-arm mixing woes, it could take several days just for that to spew a random error and force a restart of the process.

So I think that for now I will start playing a bit with SARPi and SARPi64, at least setting up the toolchain and getting to know
the quirks of the architecture, build some little packages and see how it goes. It's nice to have the slackware option available,
I really don't like raspbian and gentoo seems to be very complicated to mantain.

Thanks for your efforts in the project, its really valuable for me.

Exaga · 02-10-2020, 08:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by giomat

So there's no official 64bit version of slackware for ARM, that's really a surprise for me!

So I think that for now I will start playing a bit with SARPi and SARPi64, at least setting up the toolchain and getting to know
the quirks of the architecture, build some little packages and see how it goes. I

Alas, there's no official Slackware ARM64 version... yet!

BTW... the build scripts for SARPi/SARPi64 were initially created from Dave Spencer's 'raspi-SlackBuild' work which is available here: https://github.com/idlemoor/raspi-slackbuild

You might find it useful. 'raspi-SlackBuild' is where it all started for me.

Exaga · 02-11-2020, 12:42 PM

A few users have mentioned that the wireless NIC on SARPi64 packages running kernel 5.4.x on a Raspberry Pi 4 isn't working (or detected) as expected. Well now it is.

First remove any existing brcmfmac module thats loaded:

Code:

root@torq:~# rmmod brcmfmac

Download the latest *.txz package files from: http://sarpi64.fatdog.eu/index.php?p=rpi4getcurk5

Upgrade these packages using 'upgradepkg' OR use 'installpkg' if no previous versions are already installed.
NB: the important file here is 'sarpi64-hacks-4.0-armv8-1_slackcurrent_11Feb20_sp64.txz' which contains the firmware required for the wireless NIC. Any existing firmware in '/lib/firmware/brcm/' on your system will be replaced by this package!

Reload the brcmfmac module:

Code:

root@torq:~# modprobe -vvv brcmfmac
modprobe: INFO: custom logging function 0x19c94 registered
insmod /lib/modules/5.4.18-v8-aarch64/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/broadcom/brcm80211/brcmfmac/brcmfmac.ko
modprobe: INFO: context 0x444320 released

Run the 'iwconfig' command and you should see your wireless interface:

Code:

root@torq:~# iwconfig
eth0      no wireless extensions.

lo        no wireless extensions.

wlan1     IEEE 802.11  ESSID:off/any
          Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated
          Retry short limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:on

NB: Mine shows 'wlan1' but yours might be 'wlan0' (etc.) so just replace 'wlan1' with the correct ID of your interface for this purpose.

So, now run 'ifconfig wlan1' to check out the wireless interface:

Code:

root@torq:~# ifconfig wlan1
wlan1: flags=4098<BROADCAST,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        ether dc:a6:32:67:c4:2c  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

So, I'm guessing your existing '/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf' looks a little like this:

Code:

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=root

Next , you need to edit and modify this file so the content looks like this:
(NB: your country-code should be NL US GB IT DK IE SE etc.)

Code:

ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=wheel
update_config=0
country=<your_country-code_goes_here>

Exit and SAVE the '/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf' file. Then initialise 'wpa_supplicant' using the following command:
(Remember to replace 'wlan1' with the ID of your wireless interface.)

Code:

root@torq:~# wpa_supplicant -B -i wlan1 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
Successfully initialized wpa_supplicant

Now use 'wpa_cli' to setup the wireless interface:

Code:

root@torq:~# wpa_cli
wpa_cli v2.9
Copyright (c) 2004-2019, Jouni Malinen <j@w1.fi> and contributors

This software may be distributed under the terms of the BSD license.
See README for more details.


Selected interface 'wlan1'

Interactive mode

Type 'scan' to search for available wireless connections:

Code:

> scan
OK
<3>CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-STARTED
<3>WPS-AP-AVAILABLE
<3>CTRL-EVENT-NETWORK-NOT-FOUND

Then type 'scan_results' to view any available connections:

Code:

> scan_results
bssid / frequency / signal level / flags / ssid
12:34:56:ab:cd:ef       5180    -36     [WPA-PSK-CCMP+TKIP][WPA2-PSK-CCMP+TKIP][WPS][ESS]       EXAGA5G
12:34:56:ab:cd:ef       2412    -30     [WPA-PSK-CCMP+TKIP][WPA2-PSK-CCMP+TKIP][WPS][ESS]       EXAGA2G

Now look in the code below carefully and copy it to add your network, ssid, and psk [password] then enable it:
(NB: you might be offered a different number network instead of '0' - if so use that value instead)

Code:

> add_network
0
> set_network 0 ssid "<your_network_SSID_goes_here>" 
OK
> set_network 0 psk "<your_wifi_password_goes_here>"
OK
> enable_network 0
0K
<3>CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-STARTED
<3>WPS-AP-AVAILABLE
<3>Trying to associate with SSID 'EXAGA2G'
<3>Associated with 12:34:56:ab:cd:ef
<3>CTRL-EVENT-CONNECTED - Connection to 12:34:56:ab:cd:ef completed [id=0 id_str=]
<3>CTRL-EVENT-SUBNET-STATUS-UPDATE status=0
> quit

Quit the 'wpa_cli' and exit to command prompt. Next, enable the 'wlan1' interface and assign it an IP address and netmask. NB: This is only MY example - you must fill in your own IP address and netmask here!:

Code:

root@torq:~# ifconfig wlan1 192.168.1.157 netmask 255.255.255.0 up

Finally, check out the wireless connection using 'ifconfig wlan1' again:

Code:

root@torq:~# ifconfig wlan1
wlan1: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        inet 192.168.1.157  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 192.168.1.255
        inet6 fe80::dea6:32ff:fe67:c42c  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x20<link>
        ether dc:a6:32:67:c4:2c  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 31  bytes 2416 (2.3 KiB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 40  bytes 5428 (5.3 KiB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

You should see that the wireless interface 'wlan1' has an IP address assigned (with netmask) and is up and running.

For clarity and confirmation:

Code:

root@torq:~# uname -a
Linux torq 5.4.18-v8-aarch64 #18 SMP PREEMPT Tue Feb 11 16:31:16 GMT 2020 aarch64 BCM2835 GNU/Linux

If you have any further problems or questions with your wireless NIC using the updated SARPi64 packages just post in this thread.

Exaga · 02-11-2020, 02:15 PM

The SARPi64 (kernel 4.19.x) installer images and packages have been rebuilt! [Read below]

Download them here: http://sarpi64.fatdog.eu/index.php?p=rpi4getcurk4

The wireless NIC is now working. For a 'how-to' achieve it see the above post re: kernel 5.4.x wireless NIC - it's the same procedure.

NB: The Aarch64 kernel 4.19.102 source code had to be patched! All applied patches have been included in an extra directory which can be found in '/usr/src/linux/sarpi64-patches' after the sarpi64-kernel-source*.txz package has been installed. These additions are reflected in the README file within that directory and in slack-desc:

Code:

sarpi64-kernel-source (Linux kernel 4.19.102 source)

This is the source code for Linus Torvalds' Linux kernel - which has
been patched for the Raspberry Pi 4. The source is available from the
RPi GitHub repository: https://github.com/raspberrypi/linux
 
* An additional /usr/src/linux/sarpi64-patches directory is included
which contains any applied patches and a README file.

* If you are intending to build/compile using this kernel source there is no need to apply any of the patches before doing so.

Exaga · 02-23-2020, 11:29 AM

The SARPi64 (kernel 4.19.105 and kernel 5.4.21) installer images and packages are available [Read below]

Download them here: http://sarpi64.fatdog.eu/index.php?p=rpi4downloads

NB: The Aarch64 kernel sources code had to be patched in order to build successfully! All applied patches have been included in an extra directory which can be found in '/usr/src/linux/sarpi64-patches' after the sarpi64-kernel-source*.txz package has been installed. These additions are reflected in the README file within that directory and in slack-desc:

Code:

This is the source code for Linus Torvalds' Linux kernel - which has
been patched for the Raspberry Pi 4. The source is available from the
RPi GitHub repository: https://github.com/raspberrypi/linux
 
* An additional /usr/src/linux/sarpi64-patches directory is included
which contains any applied patches and a README file.

* If you are intending to build/compile using this kernel source there is no need to apply any of the patches before doing so.[/QUOTE]