Wookey <woo...@wookware.org> writes: > +++ Konstantinos Margaritis [2013-11-13 23:05 +0200]: >> Hi all, >> >> Here is some food for thought for the minidebconf that starts tomorrow >> in Cambridge [1]. Unfortunately I will not make it there, though I wish >> I did, but I'm in the process of job searching at the moment[2] and >> could not afford the expense. > > We miss you markos. > >> Upgrade 5 >> of the iMX53s with 5 Odroid-XU and be done with armhf builders for a >> long time. >> >> This is a counter-proposal to what Hector Oron (zumbi) suggested: that >> we buy or get donations for real server class hardware (arm64). > > Or arm32, for just the two 32-bit ports. > > This was discussed somewhat today, and we all agree that server-grade > hardware would be best. James from Boston told us that half a chassis > full would be about $8000 (or was that £8000?) Either way we can't afford it. > > Arm64 kit will be even more expensive/unobtanium for a while. Although I > expect the situation to be very different laster next year. > > >> 1. Terribly expensive: a single board costs ~7k USD. And it needs the >> chassis which is also expensive. So if you take redundancy in mind, you >> need 2 setups in 2 locations, so at least 14k just for the boards and >> I'd not be surprised if the chassis costs more than 5k itself. So in >> total ~25k. > > It's expensive, but not that bad. Or are you talking about 64-bit > hardware? Has anyoneannounced prices for that yet? > >
I guess he was talking about systems like highbank or midway >> 3. Liability. Right now armhf builders (iMX53 Loco boards) are in ARM HQ >> and York University, if I'm not mistaken. If something happens and that >> equipment breaks due to eg. some fault in the electrical wiring and a >> board burns, the boards are very cheap to replace and there is no >> issue there. However with $10k+ worth of equipment I'm very doubtful if >> ARM or York or anyone really would accept to host these systems and >> accept liability in case of fault. > > I think that's nonsense. If we had a box we could find somewhere to house it. > > >> So, my counter-proposal to that is that we get instead some cheap easy >> to replace boards like the Arndale [4] or the Odroid-XU [5]. Personally >> I'd prefer the XU as it's better equipped, but I'd go with either >> choice if people think it's better. > >> Finally, last but not least, there is the issue of mainline kernel >> support for exynos5 and the odroid/arndale boards. > > There was very strong resistance in the room to the use of buildds > without debian kernel support, because it's a major hassle and security > risk. That rules out odroid for the time being. > I won't say it's bad or good but I'll say again what Markos told in a previous mail: running buildd with non-mainline kernels already happened in the past (while waiting support being merged). >> If people *really* don't want non-mainline kernels, then we could go >> for the utilite boards, I would suggest the Pro version: >> >> http://utilite-computer.com/web/utilite-pro-specifications > > Or Wanda or the Nitrogen6x we've just kindly been offered. > > What's the mainline status of those? > I remember seeing some patches for wanda but I can't say the same for utilite or nitrogen. I don't remember how hard it would be to push support for them upstream / what's missing. >> Anyway, apologies for my long email, > > No need to apologise - it's a very useful summary and useful basis for > discussion. > > I think we need to bash out some criteria for deciding during the > mini-debconf. i.e deciding how we decide (or just make a decision if > possible). > > e.g hold out for server-grade kit for a while - if so how long? (0 months, 3 > months, 6months, longer?) > there are technicals issues but we have to take care about how much money can be used to buy hw imho. > Is debian kernel an absolute requirement, or are we prepared to risk a > custom kernel if we think it'll only be for 6 months? it depends also on what are the changes needed: - either hw support patches - or only a missing dts. my 2 cents, Arnaud -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-arm-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/87y54qou6v....@lebrac.rtp-net.org
