narmstrong changed the topic of #linux-amlogic to: Amlogic mainline kernel development discussion - our wiki http://linux-meson.com/ - ml linux-amlogic@lists.infradead.org - official channel moved from Freenode - publicly logged on https://libera.irclog.whitequark.org/linux-amlogic
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<chewitt> Pinchiukas Amlogic hard-wires the SoC (BL1) to look for something bootable in SPI > eMMC > NAND > SD > USB
<chewitt> something bootable = signed boot firmware; a combination of Amlogic closed-source and semi-closed souce blobs and u-boot
<chewitt> the "Power on flow chart" is in the datasheet which can be found from either Hardkernel or Khadas wikis (depending on which SoC you want)
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<chewitt> there's plenty of prior-art for building signed boot firmware and u-boot; both upstream and vendor flaavours
<chewitt> booting distros via UEFI needs upstream
<chewitt> if you want guided advice, it's best to share the specific board/device you have?
<Pinchiukas> My device is the MXQ Pro with the S905(W?).
<chewitt> the +ve for tvbox devices is .. they are cheap
<chewitt> the -ve for tvboxes is .. they are cheap
<chewitt> cheap means you don't have and can't get the closed source bits needed to sign your own boot firmware
<chewitt> the challenge is that cheap boxes mostly use recycled or lower-bin RAM parts that have unique ram timings
<Pinchiukas> I get that it's a challenge/impossible to sign it but didn't get the part about RAM.
<Pinchiukas> I'd hope that the default uboot config would have entries for booting from USB so that I didn't have to change it.
<chewitt> here's a repo of files used when signing boot firmware https://github.com/LibreELEC/amlogic-boot-fip
<chewitt> one of the files is called acs.bin
<Pinchiukas> This was complicated before I knew signing is an issue. :|
<chewitt> and the acs.bin used by the manufacturer of your box almost certainly tweaked ram timing data to match the parts used in the box
<chewitt> if the ram timing is off, things don't boot
<Pinchiukas> What the hell, how does RAM timing come into the whole booting things picture?
<chewitt> I'm not 100% sure myself, but I'd guess that the boot process loads data from storage into ram and then executes it
<chewitt> hence, if you don't have the ram hardware setup correctly, that process fails
<chewitt> TL/DR .. you are stuck with vendor u-boot
<chewitt> it works, and it can be manipulated to boot something other than Android
<chewitt> what is the use-case for the box?
<Pinchiukas> I want to install linux on it. :)
<Pinchiukas> To be a router and a sort of PVR.
<Pinchiukas> Is there a way to check the uboot config from Android?
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<hexdump0815> Pinchiukas: in some case it is possible to extract the ddr timings from the old boot blocks - i did it for some sm1 tv boxes: https://github.com/hexdump0815/u-boot-misc/blob/master/readme.gxy#L153
<hexdump0815> Pinchiukas: https://github.com/hexdump0815/u-boot-misc/blob/master/readme.gxl#L134-L153 might be interesting for you too and the irc link in it
<hexdump0815> as long as the original boot blocks are not securely signed and/or encrypted it should work in most cases to use bl2 and bl30 and combine it with your self built mainline atf and u-boot
<hexdump0815> so if a hexdump of your boot loader looks completely random without any kind of structure there is not much you can do
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