Any plan for basic mainline linux support?

[jgmdev]

Ok, just in case this could be useful... tested the pink and grays patch but that didn't fixed the green line on the left of screen or the green border around the mouse cursor. Reverted the cursor plane patch and that did fixed the green border around the mouse cursor. As mentioned before, the green line on the left side of screen can be worked around by forcing the edid data to something else not coming from the display it self. I guess I need to take a crash course about the linux kernel to superficially understand how the code on its display drivers work and learn the hdmi standard

Note: For context this is when using the mainline u-boot and mainline (non tobetter patched) kernel.

Edit: Using a hdmi to vga adpater solves the green line issue on left of screen

[odroidn2user]

OK, someone (Razathorn) seems to have found the answer to the ugly HDMI output on quite a few monitors with the mainline N2 (and C4) HDMI drivers:

I have resolved the “hdmi output bug” issue. The issue is chroma subsampling. My monitors (different models) all support YCbCr 4:2:2 (subsampling) as well as 4:4:4 (lossless). The mainline kernel hdmi drivers are apparently selecting 422 mode with subsampling over 444. The following page was the key for me understanding what was going on: Chroma Subsampling: 4:4:4 vs 4:2:2 vs 4:2:0 - RTINGS.com . The test image clearly showed subsampling was on.

There IS a workaround, and that is to use an EDID that doesn’t have subsampling available, but it certainly feels like a kernel bug to have this behavior that chooses a lossy mode by default. With this workaround in place, my display is crisp as I would expect.

Razathorn links to: https://www.rtings.com/tv/learn/chroma-subsampling
The post was found here: https://forum.manjaro.org/t/odroid-n2-x ... ed/59575/9

So, any devs that are still here, please fix this long standing issue!?

[chewitt]

So as usual "the answer" involves an opinion on an issue, no technical data to factually prove anything through emprical testing, no code to resolve it, and the usual forum demand that a mythical user named "devs" should fix the problem. I feel sorry for devs, he/she/they are picked on mercilessly. Yay for answers!

On the positive, at Kodi devcon I nagged a fellow team member with alsa knowledge into authoring a workaround for broken audio channel maps in the AIU/AXG drivers which leads to incorrect speaker placement in multi-channel PCM audio setups. Sadly the proper fix requires invasive kernel surgery and is beyond his current knoweldge and available time, but the workaround is simple and will do until "devs" comes up with a proper fix

Here's the patch: https://github.com/chewitt/linux/commit ... c4e27cfa69

[odroidn2user]

The workaround around the hdmi driver bug about gamma subsampling from Razathorn works!
It is detailed on this thread here.
viewtopic.php?p=341045#p341045

[mad_ady]

Well, I'm back playing with my N2+ desktop.
It used to run ubuntu 21.10 via netinstall with KDE on X11 and it worked reasonably well. Now, I've upgraded to Ubuntu 22.04 (via do-release-upgrade) and it still works, but with the following issues:
1. My display twitches. The image jumps for a split second about 30 pixels to the right and then returns to normal. This happens even before X11 starts (during the boot process). It happened frequently with kernel 5.16, but I've switched to 5.19 and is much less frequent. I'm using a HDMI to dvi adapter:

Code: Select all

adrianp@n2plus:~$ DISPLAY=:0 xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1680 x 1050, maximum 3840 x 2160
HDMI-1 connected primary 1680x1050+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 473mm x 296mm
   1680x1050     59.88*+
   1280x1024     75.02    60.02  
   1440x900      74.98    59.90  
   1152x864      75.00  
   1024x768      75.03    70.07    60.00  
   800x600       72.19    75.00    60.32  
   640x480       75.00    72.81 

2. I've lost audio headjack. Since I'm not using HDMI audio, I can't seem to use the onboard audio jack. I've reinstalled odroid-alsa, but I don't get any sound cards in KDE. I do see G12B-ODROID-N2 in alsa sound mixer. Any ideas why it's not visible in KDE?

3. Not an issue - but what's the status of other DEs with X11? Like xfce? Anybody played with those recently?

Thanks

[mad_ady]

Edit - managed to solve #2 and #3:

#2 - pulseaudio failes to start with a complaint that it can't find output:hdmi-stereo. I commented out #set-card-profile 0 output:hdmi-stereo in /etc/pulse/default.pa and pulseaudio magically started to work. Until I rebooted. Now it still works, and everything looks fine (audio levels, etc), but there is no actual audio output. Hmm....

#3 - xfce runs great now! A bit of flickering of the mouse cursor when on top of opengl-es windows (glmark2-es2), but nothing too upsetting.

[odroidn2user]

8<

[elatllat]

> ... nospectre_bhb kernel option ... performance drops by 20% ...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.1 ... 64-BHI-BHB

[mad_ady]

So, this may be a bit offtopic, but I wanted to take the time to thank Hardkernel, tobetter and the whole community for their efforts to making the N2 an awesome desktop!

I got my work laptop replaced (finally, after 8 years!) and had to use an n2+ as a temporary replacement for 3 days. Everything (except a mono-based app) just worked! I'm using X11 with xfce and was able to use chromium for video playback, as well as teams (with video) in the browser. Also a touch of vscode. I use a lot of tabs and terminals and filled up the RAM, but didn't have issues. I also use Xpra to connect to a remote x11 session over ssh, which is intensive because it does video encoding/decoding.

The experience was as good as my laptop!

What was missing was dual display and maybe extra RAM (the N2 got turned off each evening).
So, a great little desktop!

[istanbulls]

So, this may be a bit offtopic, but I wanted to take the time to thank Hardkernel, tobetter and the whole community for their efforts to making the N2 an awesome desktop!

I got my work laptop replaced (finally, after 8 years!) and had to use an n2+ as a temporary replacement for 3 days. Everything (except a mono-based app) just worked! I'm using X11 with xfce and was able to use chromium for video playback, as well as teams (with video) in the browser. Also a touch of vscode. I use a lot of tabs and terminals and filled up the RAM, but didn't have issues. I also use Xpra to connect to a remote x11 session over ssh, which is intensive because it does video encoding/decoding.

The experience was as good as my laptop!

What was missing was dual display and maybe extra RAM (the N2 got turned off each evening).
So, a great little desktop!

Ever since I met the N2 (3-4 years), the HTPC has remained an accessory. It acts as a stand for sBCs and PS5.
Almost flawless desktop experience after @tobetter's work. only in chromium, after 2-3 hours there are problems and RAM is insufficient, but even in this state it is a great device. Good thing I met Odroid-N2.

[hjheins]

Dear all,

As a short intro: I have been and am using multiple Odroid devices, from the first x-series to the N and C and the handheld. I also recommended them to many other people. I love what they are and I love what they do.
However I have a gripe which is more or less being highlighted by the situation of the N-series regarding Hardware Support/Linux:

The N-series could be great as a home entertainment center with media-playback and gaming center, in fact it seems to be designed by Hardkernel for this task. The problem is however, that after several years, the software support seems to be lacking. Let me explain: We have several people here in the community working very hard to bring us software support with integrated hardware acceleration (@tobetter, @meveric, you know who you are). They do a great job at it too. However at some point in time, we need to have this stuff integrated into the projects where they belong, so there will be actual mainline support and we can "just" download an image from our favorite distro and have it working. This is the way it works on x86/x84_64 and on the Raspberry Pi. And it makes sense: at some point, Hardkernel should be able to offload the burden of these "older" hw/sw accelerators, and focus on new and better things.
As it stands, we do see Hardkernel focus on new and better things, but the handover from these "older" optimizations just doesn't seem to be happening. This is a shame, as it will bring us, the user in a situation where we either accept it for what it is, and treat our Odroids as disposable devices (like the blueray player we buy and kick out when a firmware update bodges it), or we stop buying it all together. After all: what is the value proposition here if I can get the same, be it more well rounded, when I buy an actual device for less, and kick it out as well?

I think the current situation is a shame. It forces me to rethink what I have been trying to do the last couple of years. But the situation is like this: with older Odroid devices, support is so bad, I could have better bought a slow x86 device or a consumer grade plastic box, as both would have been the cheaper proposition, and would probably outlive the Odroid devices in the current situation.
I would like to thank everybody here on the forum for your enthousiasm and your help, and a special mention for those who went above and beyond in supporting and even generating images for the devices.

cheers,

Hendrik-Jan