the system image on my personal mnt reform is originally from 2021, so running for 4 years now through 3 generations of ARM processor upgrades from different manufacturers (NXP -> Amlogic -> Rockchip) and many versions of the linux kernel (and countless debian packages) without having to ever reinstall the system (which is on encrypted NVMe)
How do you handle firmware and kernel/DT switches? AFAIUI, your kernel is a custom one, right? Do you have a single generic one, or one per platform? How do you decide what device tree to use? Are you using FIT images for the kernel+DT+initrd, by the chance?
@CyReVolt for kernel, we use the debian kernel package but add some patches to it and build it ourselves in CI, and it's available in our debian apt repo (shipped with the system image). the kernel is generic/unified for all platforms.
the device tree is iirc chosen depending on /proc/device-tree/model by flash-kernel which is integrated with update-initramfs. so far afaik we don't use FIT. u-boots for each device are separate gits, we have a tool reform-flash-uboot that knows how to flash each
I did something similar with my Debian for about 20 years, only changing from i386 to amd64 while keeping the package selection and configs, just installing the packages and booting into the new-old system. Otherwise no new installation. My MNT Reform only has one processor upgrade and even less changes on the software side - for me it's a factor of good usability.
You think so? My Debian installs always last for a whole computers life, usually around 10 years or so. I must be a really, really boring person @iamreinder @lukas/lucie "minute" hartmann
@andi Hehe, I was joking. I’m not much of a distro hopper myself. But most of Linux is so stable that distro hopping and new hardware are pretty much the only reasons to ever do a fresh install 😅
killed2 🇪🇺
Als Antwort auf lukas/lucie "minute" hartmann • • •Username
Als Antwort auf lukas/lucie "minute" hartmann • • •Daniel aka CyReVolt 🐢
Als Antwort auf lukas/lucie "minute" hartmann • • •That is so cool, and I have a few questions:
How do you handle firmware and kernel/DT switches? AFAIUI, your kernel is a custom one, right?
Do you have a single generic one, or one per platform?
How do you decide what device tree to use?
Are you using FIT images for the kernel+DT+initrd, by the chance?
lukas/lucie "minute" hartmann
Als Antwort auf Daniel aka CyReVolt 🐢 • • •@CyReVolt for kernel, we use the debian kernel package but add some patches to it and build it ourselves in CI, and it's available in our debian apt repo (shipped with the system image). the kernel is generic/unified for all platforms.
the device tree is iirc chosen depending on /proc/device-tree/model by flash-kernel which is integrated with update-initramfs. so far afaik we don't use FIT. u-boots for each device are separate gits, we have a tool reform-flash-uboot that knows how to flash each
Daniel aka CyReVolt 🐢
Als Antwort auf lukas/lucie "minute" hartmann • • •Marcel(le)
Als Antwort auf lukas/lucie "minute" hartmann • • •iamreinder
Als Antwort auf lukas/lucie "minute" hartmann • • •AndiS 🌞🍷🇪🇺
Als Antwort auf iamreinder • •iamreinder
Als Antwort auf AndiS 🌞🍷🇪🇺 • • •AndiS 🌞🍷🇪🇺 mag das.
Christopher Obbard
Als Antwort auf lukas/lucie "minute" hartmann • • •