| 20 Apr 2024 |
 samueldr [Tow-Boot][NixOS] | In reply to @luiz.sdf:matrix.org
are there issues? yeah, number 1 is lack of someone caring and tending for it, and otherwise it's a bit of a cumbersome target to deal with... other targets end-up proving more useful to focus on since they share commonalities with other devices | 18:22:12 |
 luiz | "someone caring and tending for it" - what would that involve? | 18:25:02 |
| luiz | are you aware of any critical issues? | 18:26:03 |
| samueldr [Tow-Boot][NixOS] | (site-note: threads don't work well with many matrix clients) | 18:26:49 |
| luiz | oh, sorry, first-timer here | 18:27:11 |
| samueldr [Tow-Boot][NixOS] | no worries :) | 18:27:17 |
| samueldr [Tow-Boot][NixOS] | In reply to @luiz.sdf:matrix.org
are you aware of any critical issues? it was untested with the last release, so it's relying on the trust that U-Boot generally works well on it | 18:27:47 |
| samueldr [Tow-Boot][NixOS] | non-coincidentally, part of caring is testing | 18:27:57 |
| luiz | ok, i can test it | 18:28:40 |
| luiz | quick question: is it just like u-boot? | 18:28:52 |
| luiz | you know, just copy u-boot.img and setup boot.scr | 18:29:07 |
| samueldr [Tow-Boot][NixOS] | Tow-Boot is U-Boot, with opinionated configuration and patches | 18:29:09 |
| luiz | in this case I guess i don't need boot.scr | 18:29:17 |
| samueldr [Tow-Boot][NixOS] | so it is a distribution/soft-fork of U-Boot | 18:29:27 |
| luiz | right, i meant setup-wise | 18:30:03 |
| samueldr [Tow-Boot][NixOS] | that would be one way to do it, yeah, though ideally the whole platform firmware should be updated at once (the "boot" partition) | 18:30:13 |
| samueldr [Tow-Boot][NixOS] | and noting that the partition where the platform firmware and raspberry pi blobs lives should not be mounted at /boot, but treated as an opaque blob instead | 18:30:46 |
| luiz | yeah i saw it on the website, part of the problem is that you can't "flash" a pi firmware right?! | 18:30:49 |
| luiz | as opposed to, say, a rockpro64 | 18:31:34 |
| luiz | so the kernel lives on the ext4 partition then? just like x86? | 18:32:08 |
| samueldr [Tow-Boot][NixOS] | it's a bit more nuanced than that, with regard to "flashing", but I think your description is close enough to be fine | 18:32:38 |
| luiz | yeah, tow-boot can't fit in the eeprom on a pi4, and other pi's don't have it '-' | 18:33:33 |
| samueldr [Tow-Boot][NixOS] | and basically yeah, you can use any of the boot methods U-Boot supports by default, though there is strong preference in using the EFI boot method first, extlinux-compatible second | 18:33:36 |
| samueldr [Tow-Boot][NixOS] | In reply to @luiz.sdf:matrix.org
yeah, tow-boot can't fit in the eeprom on a pi4, and other pi's don't have it '-' and even then, there are other challenges to solve if it had a big enough dedicated storage area | 18:34:30 |
| samueldr [Tow-Boot][NixOS] | the rpi project seems dedicated to their non-standard boot method :( | 18:35:01 |
| samueldr [Tow-Boot][NixOS] | note that in theory (assuming perfect hardware support) you could have a small microsd card with only tow-boot on, and assume the raspberry pi boot in a standards-based manner (e.g. UEFI) from USB | 18:37:49 |
| samueldr [Tow-Boot][NixOS] | in practice, YMMV, especially on the raspberry pi 4, where USB isn't reliable enough for use with storage :/ | 18:38:32 |
| samueldr [Tow-Boot][NixOS] | * in practice, YMMV, especially on the raspberry pi 4, where USB isn't reliable enough for use with storage :/ (in my experience) | 18:39:49 |
 CRTified | In reply to @samueldr:matrix.org
the rpi project seems dedicated to their non-standard boot method :( One of the reasons I'm kind of favoring every alternative to the raspi, even if it's often the main platform for some project where deviating from the decision of using a raspi causes suspicion on its own 😄 | 20:32:01 |
| 25 Apr 2024 |
|  glennmesel joined the room. | 19:23:42 |
