support for the StarFive VisionFive SBC?

[colemickens]

Hi! I think I saw some mention on Matrix that you've been testing with the StarFive VisionFive board. I was curious if you had README instructions for that board, like you did for the Unmatched? Particularly regarding boot recommendations, u-boot/spi/etc.

Thanks!

[zhaofengli]

Hi, I was sponsored one courtesy of StarFive/RVspace but haven't received mine yet. The board has U-Boot flashed onto SPI in the factory, so I wouldn't expect there to be too much roadblock on that end. Once I receive it I'll start testing and add the instructions to the README. @ius is also working on support for the board (linked in the README), which is another place to watch.

[colemickens]

Hm, as I'm tapping out a flake.nix for @ius's repo real quick, and then looking at this repo, I'm wondering if I should just go ahead and merge the jh7100 pkgs into nixos-riscv64's flake instead? Any feedback on this? It's really not necessary to do, just that this repo has a flake already.

[ius]

I created my repository to be able to share my derivations ahead of being able to test them. My long term goal is/was to integrate them into nixpkgs where appropriate and not maintain them in a separate repository. OpenSBI has already been upstreamed there (thanks to @zhaofengli). Firmware aside (which I packaged mostly as a gimmick) it's mostly just the kernel that's a necessity for the board.

That said, I don't have any strong preference, so feel free to do whatever you see fit. Would be nice if you could add something like flake compat code for those not using flakes if you end up integrating it in this repo, though ;)

[zhaofengli]

I created my repository to be able to share my derivations ahead of being able to test them. My long term goal is/was to integrate them into nixpkgs where appropriate and not maintain them in a separate repository. OpenSBI has already been upstreamed there (thanks to @zhaofengli). Firmware aside (which I packaged mostly as a gimmick) it's mostly just the kernel that's a necessity for the board.

Yes, that's the long-term goal for me as well. Right now this repo mostly contains packages that need extensive patching, and maybe we can find some way to integrate them in nixpkgs as well.

Given how many people now have their hands on the hardware, should we move this to nix-community where we can collaborate easier?

That said, I don't have any strong preference, so feel free to do whatever you see fit. Would be nice if you could add something like flake compat code for those not using flakes if you end up integrating it in this repo, though ;)

Sure thing! Currently everything in this repo should be accessible without Flakes:

• The overlay, accessible via import ./pkgs
• NixOS modules, accessible in nixos

[zhaofengli]

An SD image is now available. You can download a prebuilt one here or build riscv64.sd-image-visionfive.

Sadly, the stock U-Boot shipped with the board is pretty broken (see comments here), and some ugly workarounds are used to get the SD image to boot. I have reported it to upstream here. It may be time to get RISC-V support going in Tow-Boot.

[colemickens]

Fantastic! Thank you @zhaofengli and @ius!

[zhaofengli]

Let's keep it open for a bit while we resolve some remaining issues.