Dear Mr, McIntyre, I would not normally waste your time, as I am far from an ARM developer, but I am a retired UNIX/Linux/HP RTE-A sysop/lan/wan/IS manager since 1988. I currently have two ARM devices, a Genesi Smarttop (running Kali Linux at present) and a ENY EKB328 (quad-core Rockchip RK3288) settop box. I am comfortable with the Smarttop and I have just begun to use the settop box which, unfortunately is loaded with Android 4.4.
My problem is that while I understand the PC's BIOS very well, as well as the equivalents in UNIX such as the 64 but Alpha's SRM, I can find no reliable, readable information about the basics of the 32 bit ARM chips' equivalent, if indeed it exists, or about any reliable method of loading Linux or BSD to replace the really terrible Android without bricking my new box. (Not that it would kill me, for it cost 80 dollars!) Apparentl;y, there is nothing like the open architecture model that made IBM's PC such a universal success. For people like me, it would be a huge service if ARM could publish some more basic information about the fundamentals of booting. I am learning about uboot, but it is a generic bootloader and I have no idea how it fits when working with an ARM-based system. Once I understand how to load and hopefully, to unbrick my settop box, I will happily work at it until I get a Linux distribution, probably Slackware-based, and if not Deebian or Kali to boot and run, and to debug it as much as possible. I began with HP's RTE-A in 1986 and as a sysop from 1987-2000. I instlled and ran QNX 2,x in 1988, the qnx4 and QNX6. I have run BeOS and Haiku, BSD, Kolibri, on PCs, and I am an early Linux user (1994, Kernel 0.91), so I am not afraid of a bit of struggle. After deal with Alpha and PA-RISC in my daily work and seeing what the Genesi Smarttop cand do, I am convinced that ARM is the desktop of the future, and that Intel and similar complex instruction sets are dinosaurs waiting to disappear. In fact my next laptop will hopefully be a 64 bit ARM system with a 15> screen, when and if they become available. Once again, I want to apologise for taking up your time, bu/t /I really feel that those of us in the middle ground, between skilled developers and know-nothing users, need some basic data and support if we are to migrate to ARM. Sincerely, Edward Lukacs Georgetown, Delaware, USA On 09/14/2015 10:08 AM, Steve McIntyre wrote: > Hi! > > As so many people have been asking for it, I've decided to organise > another mini-DebConf in Cambridge this year. Again, my employer ARM is > going to host the conference for 4 days in November: > > * 2 days for a mini-DebCamp (Thu 5 - Fri 6), with space for dedicated > development / sprint / team meetings for up to 40 people > > * 2 days for a more regular mini-conf (Sat 7 - Sun 8) with space for > more general talks, up to 100 people > > I'm also hoping to find sponsors again to cover some other costs for > the conference for things like food - please contact me if you can > help! > > I'm expecting that we will end up discussing and working on the arm > ports and other ARM-related topics at the very least, but there's also > plenty of scope for other subjects for both sprint work and > talks. > > For more details and to sign up to attend, please visit the wiki page > at > > https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEvents/gb/2015/MiniDebConfCambridge >
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