Updated 64-bit Gentoo Image for RPi3 Released (now also for RPi3B+ and RPi4B)

[sakaki]

All,

FYI, last night's weekly autobuild update saw a significant version bump to www-client/chromium (to 78.0.3904.50-r1).
Also, per a user request, the IRC client net-irc/konversation (plus supporting KDE deps) has been added to the binhost.

To get both (plus a number of other updates), as usual run:

Code: Select all

pi64 ~ # genup

This may take a number of hours to complete, and is best run overnight. It will also upgrade your kernel and boot firmware, so once complete, reboot. Then, if you want the new IRC client too, issue:

Code: Select all

pi64 ~ # emerge -v net-irc/konversation

best, sakaki

[ronmon]

I ran genup this morning because I wanted to monitor it the first time I did it. Took just over 3 hours with a gigabit internet connection. The slowest part seemed to be when it was writing to the SD card.

Anyway, no dramas and everything works great. Thanks!

[6by9]

@Sakaki If you had a moment could I ask you to have an experiment with https://github.com/raspberrypi/userland/pull/586 ?
It's only had a very brief test, and I know it is leaking client_context handles for all standard buffers, but I think it's pretty close.

[sakaki]

@Sakaki If you had a moment could I ask you to have an experiment with https://github.com/raspberrypi/userland/pull/586 ?
It's only had a very brief test, and I know it is leaking client_context handles for all standard buffers, but I think it's pretty close.

Wow, 64-bit MMAL userland, how cool is that ^-^

Anyway yes, no problem, I'll take a look over the weekend at making an experimental build of media-libs/raspberrypi-userland with this PR applied as a patch, and see what happens.

Best, sakaki

[geev03]

All,

....
This may take a number of hours to complete, and is best run overnight. It will also upgrade your kernel and boot firmware, so once complete, reboot. ....

best, sakaki

The upgrade is now completed ( in less than 2 hours )

[BRX7]

Hi Sakaki,

Can you advise if webmin is installable by unmasking?

Thanks

[sakaki]

Hi Sakaki,

Can you advise if webmin is installable by unmasking?

Thanks

This package no longer appears to be in the main Gentoo tree. It is available via a 3rd-party overlay still, however.

So, if you add e.g. the spikyatlinux overlay (for example, via layman), and add the webmin package itself to package.accept_keywords as normal, chances are it will build fine (although I haven't tried it myself).

Always check third-party ebuilds before using them, to ensure nothing malicious is hidden in them. Most are perfectly fine, but it is always good hygiene to look first.

best, sakaki

[sakaki]

@Sakaki If you had a moment could I ask you to have an experiment with https://github.com/raspberrypi/userland/pull/586 ?
It's only had a very brief test, and I know it is leaking client_context handles for all standard buffers, but I think it's pretty close.

So, as I just noted on your PR thread, I've built the raspberrypi-userland-1.20191025-r1 package with (a trivially tweaked version of) your PR#586 patch, and then rebuilt ffmpeg-4.2-r1 with the mmal USE flag unmasked and enabled.

Result: basic mmal-codec playback now seems to work from the Gentoo 64-bit userland!

Screenshot of using ffplay with -vcodec h264_mmal:

(not my car, sadly ^-^)

Note that as this is preliminary (per your PR coments) I haven't merged these changes for use generally on gentoo-on-rpi-64bit yet. Nor have I tested e.g. transcoding or camera usage. But, since the essential plumbing now seems to basically be up, I'm hopeful most stuff should be fine.

Thanks so much for your work on this btw! It'll be a major step forward for 64-bit OSes once this functionality is in and stabilized.

hth, sakaki

[sakaki]

Automated VL805 (USB) EEPROM / bootloader EEPROM updater now available for gentoo-on-rpi-64bit

All,

as you are no doubt aware, unlike its predecessor, the RPi4B contains a bootloader EEPROM (which replaces bootcode.bin) and also has another EEPROM region holding its VL805 USB chip's firmware. Several updates to both have been made available since launch, offering various bugfixes, additional features, improved power efficiency etc. (e.g., [1,2,3]), so it is well worth keeping them current.

On the Raspbian OS, the package rpi-eeprom may be used to automatically keep both of these on-board firmware components up-to-date, which is very convenient.

Well, I'm pleased to announce this automated update facility is now also available for Gentoo also! To get it, just run:

Code: Select all

demouser@pi64 ~ $ sudo emaint sync --repo genpi64

to refresh your repository metadata, then:

Code: Select all

demouser@pi64 ~ $ sudo emerge -v rpi4-eeprom-updater

to install the EEPROM update service (and current images [4]).
Once complete, reboot.

That's it! Now, each time you boot, your bootloader EEPROM and VL805 firmware EEPROM image versions will automatically be checked, by the rpi4-eeprom-updater package's startup service, against the current version images provided by the RP{F,T} (themselves pulled in via the dependency package dev-embedded/rpi4-eeprom-images). If either has changed, appropriate files will be written to your /boot partition (the script that does this is taken directly from the Raspbian rpi-eeprom package) such that on the next boot, a one-time recovery.bin bootloader will cause the image(s) to be (safely) reflashed. You can check the end of the file /var/log/rc.log after boot, to see if any updates are pending.

A weekly cron job on my build server checks the upstream rpi-eeprom package for updated debs, and, if any are found, automatically creates new counterpart ebuilds (dev-embedded/rpi4-eeprom-images and dev-embedded/rpi4-eeprom-updater), and pushes these to the genpi64 repo. That, in turn, means they will automatically get propagated to your machine via the usual weekly genup process (and then installed, on next boot, by the rpi4-eeprom-updater service as just described).

By default, only "critical" updates to the boot EEPROM and VL805 firmware are applied. If you would like (at your own risk) to apply even beta firmware as soon as it is available, edit the file /etc/default/rpi-eeprom-update and change:

Code: Select all

FIRMWARE_RELEASE_STATUS="critical"

to:

Code: Select all

FIRMWARE_RELEASE_STATUS="beta"

For avoidance of doubt, the updater may safely be used on the RPi3 (where it has no effect), on cards swapped between the RPi4 and RPi3, on 'full' and 'lite' images, and on gentoo64 images installed via PINN.

Any problems, please let me know!

Best, sakaki

[1] https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/view ... 8&t=250990
[2] https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/view ... 9&t=252501
[3] https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/view ... 9&t=255001
[4] The EEPROM images may be found at /lib/firmware/raspberrypi/bootloader/...

Edited to remove kernel upgrade step (now unnecessary).

[cjan]

so, its time to update 1.5.2.img?

[sakaki]

so, its time to update 1.5.2.img?

I'm at the early stages of pulling a v1.5.2 together now, yes, but release will be sometime in the second half of November. Have a few other features & issues that I want to address first.
Best, sakaki

[k3lt]

I just installed gentoo64 on my pi3b+ using PINN but i have no connectivity with Wi-Fi, cannot resolve hostnames...
On first boot i have set my Wi-Fi region to "PL" and rebooted, i can confirm it's set properly in /etc/conf.d/rpi3-wifi-regdom , connected to Wi-Fi successfully but as i said no connection available, can't ping anything, SSH is not reachable, can't open any website or update.
busybox udhcpc eth0 gives me ip adress 0.0.0.0 on eth0
Any suggestions.. what i'm doing wrong?

[sakaki]

Hi k3lt,

sorry to hear you are having problems with this ><

Are you running the full or 'lite' variant of the image?
What does "sudo ifconfig" and "sudo iwconfig" show (just from the regular terminal window)?

It may be that you just need to delete your connections details from NetworkManager (for your WiFi access point) and then reconnect. But please post the results of the above commands first.

Best, sakaki

[k3lt]

Hi k3lt,

sorry to hear you are having problems with this ><

Are you running the full or 'lite' variant of the image?
What does "sudo ifconfig" and "sudo iwconfig" show (just from the regular terminal window)?

It may be that you just need to delete your connections details from NetworkManager (for your WiFi access point) and then reconnect. But please post the results of the above commands first.

Best, sakaki

I'm running full image, below is output of "sudo ifconfig" and "sudo iwconfig".

[sakaki]

OK, try running the command:

Code: Select all

demouser@pi64 ~ $ nmtui

in the terminal window. When the text-based UI comes up, select "Edit..." and delete your desired SSID. Then use the tool to activate your desired SSID again, entering the password when prompted.
Once done, exit and try running the ifconfig and iwconfig commands again.

Best, sakaki

[k3lt]

OK, try running the command:

Code: Select all

demouser@pi64 ~ $ nmtui

in the terminal window. When the text-based UI comes up, select "Edit..." and delete your desired SSID. Then use the tool to activate your desired SSID again, entering the password when prompted.
Once done, exit and try running the ifconfig and iwconfig commands again.

Best, sakaki

Still can't resolve hosts, below is output of ifconfig and iwconfig again.

[sakaki]

OK, but this is progress, you now have a connection to your access point at least! Next, try

Code: Select all

demouser@pi64 ~ $ sudo ping -c 3 8.8.8.8

to see if basic connectivity is available (hopefully it will be).

Please then paste the output of:

Code: Select all

demouser@pi64 ~ $ cat /etc/resolv.conf

You can next try using 8.8.8.8 (one of Google's DNS servers) temporarily as your name resolver, by issuing:

Code: Select all

demouser@pi64 ~ $ echo "nameserver 8.8.8.8" | sudo tee /etc/resolv.conf

and then check if name resolution now works by running e.g.:

Code: Select all

demouser@pi64 ~ $ sudo ping -c 3 www.gentoo.org

(NB this is only a temporary hack, to see if there is an issue with using your AP's DNS somehow)

Best, sakaki

[k3lt]

Seems like it didn't help.. These IP's in resolv.conf are default DNS servers of my ISP and they are correct AFAIK.
Also i checked router settings and my rpi is not shown as connected Device.

[sakaki]

OK, that is odd. Please double check that your AP is definitely up (you can connect out to the internet via it using another device, a laptop or whatever). Please also post the output of:

Code: Select all

demouser@pi64 ~ $ sudo route -n

Thanks, sakaki

[k3lt]

OK, that is odd. Please double check that your AP is definitely up (you can connect out to the internet via it using another device, a laptop or whatever). Please also post the output of:

Code: Select all

demouser@pi64 ~ $ sudo route -n

Thanks, sakaki

AP is definitely up, i'm connected to it with my Phone and TV. Also i checked router settings and my rpi is not shown as connected Device.
Output of sudo route -n below:

[sakaki]

OK, can you reach the gateway?

Code: Select all

demouser@pi64 ~ $ sudo ping -c 3 192.168.0.1

Best, sakaki

[k3lt]

OK, can you reach the gateway?

Code: Select all

demouser@pi64 ~ $ sudo ping -c 3 192.168.0.1

Best, sakaki

Same error as before "Destination Host Unreachable".
Btw. i'm not sure if this is something abnormal but when booting the log says that the NetworkManager is started but not active.

Edit:
I also disabled IPv6 to make sure it's not being used by editing /etc/modprobe.d/aliases.conf but that also didn't help.

[k3lt]

Ok so uhh.. i tried connecting to 2.4GHz AP instead and now the internet connectivity is back, i can ping, access websites etc..
So it seems to be some compatibility issue with 5GHz AP's? My 5GHz AP is configured to use channel 36 and the mode is set to 802.11a/n/ac on my router.

[sakaki]

OK, good to hear!

Not sure about 5GHz compatibility in your locale, but I use a number of RPi4s here in the UK on the 5GHz band without issue. Are any of the other devices connected to your AP (phone etc.) using the 5GHz band? Is Raspbian able to connect on 5GHz to the same AP, if you boot the same RPi (in the same location) with it?

Best, sakaki

[k3lt]

OK, good to hear!

Not sure about 5GHz compatibility in your locale, but I use a number of RPi4s here in the UK on the 5GHz band without issue. Are any of the other devices connected to your AP (phone etc.) using the 5GHz band? Is Raspbian able to connect on 5GHz to the same AP, if you boot the same RPi (in the same location) with it?

Best, sakaki

There is a phone and tv connected to same 5GHz band, and yes i had no issues on Raspbian. I'll try disconnecting these extra devices and check if that changes anything.. will edit the post.

Edit:
Disconnecting extra devices didn't help, still no connectivity using 5GHz AP. Oh well i guess 2.4GHz is better than nothing..