add minutes for 2024-01-12

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

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+# 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.
+