wiki/docs/events/meeting-notes/2024-01-12.md

# SIG/AltArch meeting 2024-01-12

## Attendees:
    * Sherif
    * Bryan
    * Neil Hanlon
    * Skip Grube
    * Jason Rodriguez
    * Jonathan Maple

## Follow Ups

* SBC Testing with *vendor* uboot - https://git.resf.org/codedude/SBC-Testing
    * Basically everything is working except one of the Libre boards (Frite)
    * https://git.resf.org/codedude/SBC-Testing/src/branch/main/testing/details.md
    * Whack-a-mole with kernel options and support for different kernels
        * Might be possible to patch for RK3389, as enabling this board breaks Libre borads 
        * Also is possible to disable USB2 for RK3389, but this is not preferable
    * Kernel Config - RHEL vs Kernel KConfigs
       * SIG/Kernel kernel is based on the Fedora Rawhide branch of kernel, but uses the KConfig named ['.redhat'](https://gitlab.com/cki-project/kernel-ark/-/blob/os-build/Kconfig.redhat)
        * We want to use this as a base, and change config options as needed to enable SBCs
* January 2024 UBoot is out with fixes, should help with some of the reliance on Vendor UBoots
    * Bryan will work on testing new uboot with these boards for next meeting
* OSU OSL has arm hardware available for us, this will help enable armhfp/arm7vl/32-bit arm
    * Hoping to have this ready to build things in the beginning of February
* RISCV hardware
    * Should look at getting a few more SiFive VF2

## Open Floor

* Raspberry Pi 5 Support
    * check upstream for firmware, throw into our repo, rebuild image and test

## Action Items

* Build Jan 2024 UBoot - Sherif
* Raspberry Pi 5 Support - Skip
* Order RPI 5 hardware for testers/altarch - Neil
    * ~~Maybe buy this locally in London instead for Pablo~~ -- nevermind they're not in London...
        * Pimironi or pihut - ship to Sherif
* Neil to actually make tickets for the follow ups / decisions. But, like, for real this time
    * I'm really going to do it this week, I promise.
* Setup ARM hardware for armhfp - neil
* Neil to figure out what RISCv hardware we need

## Old business

### 2023-12-15

* Neil to actually make tickets for the follow ups / decisions. But, like, for real this time.
* Neil to reach out to people re: ARMHFP hardwares
    * Ampere
    * OSUOSL
    * Fabian (arrfab)
* Neil to figure out what RISCv hardware we need
* Announce Dec 29th meeting cancelation

### 2023-10-20

#### Action Items

* Libre Compute - Try/Investigate using vendor tree to build uboot  - Pratham
* Investigate `arm-image-installer` script/tool for helping write disk images for specific boards - Sherif (?)
* Odroid N2 - Track installability
* Orange Pi 5 - Track installability
* Rock5b - Track installability
* Libre Computing Boards (3)
* Maintenance - Importing dependencies from Fedora/EPEL
* Document process on backporting uboot and kernels - Pablo
    * To include information on how we work and interact with upstreams, with examples! - Sherif
* Check and investigate which boards have hardcoded grubx64 paths in their uboot; address them
* Acquire armhfp (arm7vl) hardware - Neil to reach out to OSU OSL
* Neil - Investigate what and how much riscv hardware we need.. and where we'll host it

#### Decisions
    * Images should be generic so as to be able to be installed on any board, where possible.
        * uboot can live on SPI or external flash
        * We need to help document this for our users and have guides on how to get the SBCs working. This is a big pain point for many SBC users as there is so much variation.
            * To this end, we should investigate some tooling to aid in writing images for boards which will boot on the first try.
    * Uboot should similarly be generic and work for all boards, insofar as it is practical to do so.
        * Some boards this doesn't make sense for, e.g., ones that have uboot from 2014 + hundreds of patches, however, these are few and far between. For these, we can package them as RPMs and provide them (see note below re: licensing)
    * We will wait for the next Kernel.org LTS to be cut, as that should have all the changes for the boards we're talking about.
    * We will engage with our upstreams (Fedora, ELRepo, etc) for changes we make with the Kernel SIG for AltArch/SBC support.
        * This necessitates participating in SIG/Kernel to represent our needs in these kernels.
    * We should strive to perform native builds when possible, but recognize that emulation is a necessary evil.

!!! note "uboot and other licensing"
    We need to ensure that we are careful about the licensing of softwares we wish to include in the SIG distribution.