My progress on real RISC-V hardware

FreeBSD driver problem is mentioned here: Intel 9260 Wireless Card doesn't play nice with LM - Page 2 - Linux Mint Forums.

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Nice work on the Wifi!

I should take a moment and update on the status of the upstream Haiku support for riscv64 (aka, accepting these patches into our core git repo). Overall i’ve gotten the majority of x512’s initial patches cleaned up and merged. Currently upstream haiku boots into the kernel. :partying_face:

  • https://review.haiku-os.org/c/buildtools/+/4368 is priority 1.

    • The kernel is crashing at the moment due to this one. Disabling relax in our linker resolves one of the final kernel crashes and gets the kernel to loading PCI drivers and looking for disks.
    • The fix in 4368 is working, but disables relax optimization in our toolchain on all operating systems. We’re trying to figure out a way to limit it to haiku + riscv64 so it is somewhat upstream-able.
  • https://review.haiku-os.org/c/haiku/+/4303 is priority 2

    • Is needed to support the PCI bus (and examine all devices on the bus)
    • It’s priority 2 since fixing the relax issue gets us to trying to parse the PCI bus.
    • It needs some minor-moderate rework though since it treats the FU740 PCIe controller as “the riscv64 PCI” controller.
    • Overall this one isn’t too difficult, and I just need to get 4368 above solved before I start working on refactoring it. (I really don’t want to refactor code if I can’t test it)
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WPA2 password protected networks are also working now after disabling additional debug output. Maybe debug output caused some timeouts.

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NetSurf web browser is compiled.

Many web sites can’t be opened with NetSurf for now for unknown reason.

System has uptime about 6 hours with SMP and WiFi enabled. SSH remote access is also working.

screenshot12

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This is really beautiful, a piece of history is being written here. RISC-V is not like other architectures, it is because it is something that is taking its first steps into a new world.
Particularly here HAIKU which takes its very first steps on the web on an architecture that emerged thanks to its diffusion on the web.
It’s exciting to see these screenshots.

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HTTPS websites including Haiku website are now opening in NetSurf.

Not sure what was changed (libstdc++.so recompile?).

screenshot15

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This doesn’t have to turn in to device being released, but Apple is looking for a RISC-V developer:

https://www.applemust.com/succession-does-tim-cooks-apple-ponder-life-after-arm/

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These updates are awesome man. Keep up the amazing work.

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Shouldn’t the website document on compiling for RISC-V be updated? It currently says that only the bootloader runs. Compiling Haiku for RISCV64 | Haiku Project

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Apparently there is a new RISC-V SBC coming out soon that is a more affordable at $149 USD.

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The VisionFive doesn’t have a GPU nor a PCIe slot (it does have an “AI processor” for some reason though (why?)). I’m kinda struggling to figure out what the use-case is here. At least the Unmatched has a PCIe slot so that you can attach your own GPU.

Doesn’t it have LVDS display connector?

They mention the following specs on the page:

  • VPU with H264/H265 encode/decode for 4K@60fps or 8-channel 1080p@30fps
  • HDMI 1.4 port with audio for up to 1080p@60fps
  • The SoC is equipped with a 4K ready VPU but lacks a 3D GPU.

I think it will have graphics,even without needing a external GPU like on the Unmatched,it just won’t have 3D acceleration which Haiku doesn’t support for most hardware anyway.

A bit offtopic: But i found this yesterday: Could be very interesting also for use with Haiku soon:

Not for this thread. RasPi compute modules and the pinout compatibles are 64 bit ARM so it would fit better in a different thread.

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I just find the compromises that they have made here really strange. You get a hardware video processor for H264/H265 (a codec from the well-known patent troll MPEG-LA) and you get an AI processor, but no GPU. I don’t know if I want to watch movies without VSync personally, even if the movies are 4K. But hey, if you like the device, by all means buy it.

What do you mean? You don’t need a GPU to get VSync synchronization. It was possible since the very first CGA and MDA cards on PC, and probably a bit before that on other machines. You do, however, need hardware decoding for these video formats if your CPU is not so fast.

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Alright, now I’m a little bit more interested in the VisionFive.

There is also the Nezha by Sipeed and RVBoards.

It is only $99 USD. However considering the lack of performance optimisations for RISC-V in Haiku and the low specs, I assume that it probably would not be a wise purchase at this point and time.

Those specs look a bit too low for me.
Maybe Haiku could boot with it in a few minutes,but as soon as I open a webpage in Falkon,it will fill up the whole RAM and crash.
1GB is something you can’t really use for a desktop computer anymore nowadays,2GB is already quite difficult and you have to think twice before opening a big program.