| davesp | agneli: This pulse-on-an-odd-Android-device discussion between you and gnarface is, IMO, "arm-adjacent" in that it seems to be an embedded device of sorts, so the resolution could be informative for other embedded devices. (Again, IMO.) | 00:47 |
|---|---|---|
| gnarface | well it'd be nice to get full access to the hardware through devuan even for this exact device, but i'm at a loss to even identify an alsa driver candidate for it | 02:05 |
| gnarface | it'd also be nice to put the wifi device into host mode, but the audio is more important to my use case | 02:07 |
| gnarface | i'm not clear it's actually android, it really looks like a stripped down linux kernel with some proprietary interface literally obfuscated inside it | 02:08 |
| gnarface | SoC brand seems to be Marvell, if that helps anyone speculate further... | 02:08 |
| gnarface | i'm sure people would want to unlock the bootloader so you could boot a real kernel directly instead of having to kexec for fear of bricking the thing, but i'm not asking for miracles here | 02:09 |
| gnarface | i just want to bolt a couple features back onto it | 02:10 |
| gnarface | (features i feel like they must have actually spent time and money on planning how to remove from it) | 02:11 |
| agneli | davesp: thank you for your support :) | 06:35 |
| agneli | I was thinking more or less the same too, but well | 06:35 |
| agneli | we can conrtinue on the main channel until somebody objects | 06:35 |
| agneli | hopefully without banning us ;) | 06:36 |
| agneli | gnarface: you could always try to compile same kernel using the config of that device | 06:37 |
| agneli | and see what happens | 06:37 |
| agneli | then it _might_ be possible to taint the kernel and load whatever proprietary drivers are there | 06:38 |
| agneli | i remember doung so in 2.4 times | 06:38 |
| agneli | also is it not so taht the kernell tree used fro that deivce is published on the manufacturer site | 06:39 |
| agneli | it shoudl be if they claim this is a linux based device | 06:39 |
| agneli | tjat os how Asahi Linux was born | 06:40 |
| agneli | using apple open source code | 06:40 |
| gnarface | agneli: yea, i heard that despite the dire warnings it gives you that you'll brick it without the Valve-signed kernel, Valve seemed to be providing a way to rebuild their signed kernel from source, which should in theory allow safe replacement of the stock one and maybe also the ability to turn on normal open source audio drivers, but i haven't had the guts to try yet nor heard any first-hand confirmation of the | 17:13 |
| gnarface | possibility | 17:13 |
| gnarface | and it's super fragile | 17:15 |
| gnarface | like, it advises you to set a root password if you enable ssh, but if you try to disallow root login, or set a password on the steam user instead, it won't even boot right and you have to trigger a factory reset and download all the patches again from scratch | 17:17 |
| gnarface | it seems to be super easy to brick | 17:17 |
| gnarface | it seems like they were really on the fence about whether they wanted it to be "open" or not and did a crappy job of fencing | 17:18 |
| gnarface | i'm afraid of messing it up so bad that i can't even reach the GUI factory reset button | 17:18 |
| agneli | do you have access to the serial console of the device? | 18:06 |
| agneli | and these guys that installed arch | 18:06 |
| agneli | they did not replace the kernel too? | 18:06 |
| gnarface | no idea about the people who installed arch on it, and no i don't have access to the serial console, it's entirely housed in a plastic brick that i'm unwilling to saw open just yet | 18:07 |
| agneli | you presented a link the other day | 18:09 |
| gnarface | to an arch install? | 18:09 |
| agneli | that somebody has managed to get some sort of linux there | 18:10 |
| gnarface | hmm.... | 18:10 |
| agneli | did they managed to replace the kernel? | 18:10 |
| gnarface | no i think i presented a link to the official valve SDK, that's all | 18:10 |
| agneli | if yes then what stops you to do that and then push devuan? | 18:10 |
| agneli | while building your own kernel | 18:10 |
| agneli | nonono | 18:10 |
| agneli | you did to some way to get a linux onto that | 18:11 |
| gnarface | all i did was chroot into a debootstrapped devuan instance mounted on a USB key | 18:11 |
| gnarface | that part works | 18:11 |
| gnarface | but i was still using the stock kernel to do it | 18:11 |
| gnarface | i heard a rumor you could safely kexec to any other kernel after boot but haven't tried it myself | 18:11 |
| gnarface | i think i did hear a rumor someone got some linux booting on them somehow, but i don't remember having a link... | 18:12 |
| agneli | heh | 18:12 |
| agneli | because it was me | 18:12 |
| agneli | https://github.com/regmibijay/steamlink-archlinux | 18:13 |
| agneli | repasting | 18:13 |
| gnarface | ah, yea haven't tried that one yet, not sure what they're doing about the kernel part | 18:13 |
| agneli | so it seems possible to replace the kernel | 18:13 |
| agneli | either bootloader is not loced or the keys are avaliable | 18:13 |
| gnarface | not sure if they jailbreak it or just kexec after boot from a startup shell hook or something | 18:13 |
| gnarface | well, it's possible that they don't enforce the signed kernel thing and just warn you you might brick it if you do it wrong | 18:14 |
| gnarface | i don't really know for sure about that part | 18:14 |
| agneli | you even have dtb there | 18:14 |
| agneli | https://github.com/regmibijay/steamlink-archlinux/blob/main/berlin2cd-valve-steamlink.dtb | 18:14 |
| gnarface | hmm.... | 18:14 |
| agneli | https://git.zx2c4.com/linux-dev/tree/arch/arm/boot/dts/berlin2cd-valve-steamlink.dts\ | 18:16 |
| agneli | you have dts | 18:16 |
| agneli | so this is your hardware | 18:16 |
| gnarface | hmm, interesting | 18:17 |
| agneli | just check if that dts in in the vanilla kernel | 18:17 |
| gnarface | wait, does that dts help us identify the model of the audio device? | 18:17 |
| gnarface | or what driver it would use if there's an open-source one? | 18:17 |
| agneli | that could be the case | 18:19 |
| agneli | but I do not see that dts in the 6.13 tree | 18:20 |
| agneli | maybe it is somewhere deeper | 18:20 |
| gnarface | hmm | 18:20 |
| agneli | or maybe it is called firrerently | 18:21 |
| agneli | anyway you have dts and dtsi now | 18:21 |
| agneli | you can study maybe you will find something interesting there | 18:21 |
| agneli | but this arm script does the kexec thing | 18:22 |
| agneli | it does not replace anything vital on you device | 18:22 |
| agneli | at least the authors claim so | 18:22 |
| gnarface | yea, so they're still afraid of bricking it too, then | 18:23 |
| gnarface | nobody has managed to crack that part | 18:23 |
| agneli | they claim bootloader is locked | 18:24 |
| gnarface | it probably is | 18:24 |
| gnarface | and if there's any way around it, it probably like you suggested involves finding the serial console connector | 18:24 |
| gnarface | (if furnished) | 18:24 |
| agneli | you can always solder it :) | 18:25 |
| agneli | but serial console will not get you around a locked bootloader | 18:25 |
| agneli | unless somebody knows a way to unlock it | 18:25 |
| gnarface | oh, hmm | 18:26 |
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