Gentoo on Jetson TK1

Autonomous Machines Jetson & Embedded Systems Jetson TK1
#1

Hi,

I am currently trying to get Gentoo to work on my Jetson TK1. However so far, I did not get a completely usable system.

Here is what I have tried so far:

  1. Install u-boot and the system following http://elinux.org/Tegra/Mainline_SW/Gentoo_From_SD_Card.
    -> No success. The board does not start, nothing is shown over UART.

  2. Modify the instructions at http://archlinuxarm.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=7493 for installing a gentoo rootfs. I used a 3.17 and 3.17.1 mainline kernel.
    -> System starts, I can log in, but I get strange graphics faults (normally works). Also most HW does not work (e.g. ethernet). Looks like PCIe support is still missing.

  3. Try to use the kernel sources from https://developer.nvidia.com/linux-tegra-rel-19 together with U-Boot and a gentoo rootfs.
    -> Kernel wont start, last message on UART “starting linux kernel” or something similar.

From other postings I have gathered, that support for jetson-tk1 is still rudimentary in mainline. So this probably explains why PCIe does not work. So I should probably focus my efforts on the nvidia kernel.

However, what could be the reason why the kernel provided by nvidia does not work from u-boot? Looking through the kernel sources, I found that there are differnet device tree files for the nvidia kernel (tegra124-pm375) and the mainline one (tegra124-jetson-tk1). I tried to use both device trees, but I am not sure how to check in u-boot which DT was loaded.

Has anybody else had success starting the nvidia kernel from u-boot, or is there any other version of the kernel which has better HW support than the mainline one?

#2

I have managed to get Gentoo to work from eMMC the NVidia kernel. A tutorial can be found here http://elinux.org/Tegra/Downstream_SW/Gentoo_From_eMMC.

With small modification this tutorial should also work for the Grinch kernel.

#3

Thanks for the wiki page but I think you should move it to a different location as I think the Mainline_SW refers to using the upstream kernel and u-boot which your instructions are not using.

And yes, the upstream kernel is still missing a lot of features that are working in the NVIDIA’s downstream kernel. Fortunately upstream kernel is making nice progress and new features are being added all the time.

#4

Moved it to downstream for now (although the distro is mainline, the kernel is not, so it’s somewhere in between). I’ll have a look at it once we get more input and more categories.