On 2014/05/01 11:45, dam...@thiriet.web4me.fr wrote: > Hello, > > Thanks for all your advices regarding my board choice. Since you said > beagleboard or panda could not support video, I decided to look for > some other open-source project and found OLinuXino A20.
It isn't the case that the boards don't support video; it's that OpenBSD does not support video on these boards. Currently the only ARM platform where OpenBSD supports video is the Zaurus (which is rather limited, to say the least..). > AFAIK, it is not yet supported by OpenBSD. The project claims it is > 100% open source and easier to manufacture in small quantity, which I > hope means it will be also easier to support, but I am a totally noob > so I may be wrong. A20 system-on-chip, so it's a similar target to the Cubieboard/pcDuino supported by sunxi and it's not going to be any easier to get video working on this than the existing sunxi systems. "Open hardware design" doesn't mean that the chips they use are fully documented and usable without either proprietary vendor code or significant reverse-engineering work. Supporting video on any of this type of system is not simple. It's not just a case of the (already difficult) "port a driver from Linux" as is done for the main x86 GPUs. And when it's done, then what? The vendors will change their chips and the old one will no longer be available... > The question is: do you think this board might be technically > supported by openbsd in the future? If so, I am interested in helping > devs offering one board to OpenBSD foundation. Technically supported, could well be, maybe it even already works. But video is unlikely. > Best regards, > > > Damien Thiriet > > Links: > https://www.olimex.com/Products/OLinuXino/open-source-hardware > https://www.olimex.com/Products/OLinuXino/A20/A20-OLinuXino-MICRO/open-source-hardware > For your suggested use in the "which board would you suggest?" mail, personally I think you'll be happier with an x86-compatible netbook and ignore the built-in screen/keyboard except in the cases where you particularly need them. Otherwise use a nettop, NUC, or thin-client box; most of the current models (AMD G-series [T40e etc] and newer Atoms) will support running amd64 which has some major advantages (including security-related) over running i386. Or if you wanted something less common (with the compromises that brings), there's loongson.
