[S905X3] How to correctly compile own DTS

    Hi.

    I would like to try compile dts for x96 Max Plus (S905X3 with IP1001N ethernet).
    I have dts for it, but I'm still fighting with compilation.
    The box is able to start with meson-sm1-x96-air-gbit.dtb, but without any network.

    I have working build environment and I made first image build without any changes (12.2).
    Now I'm struggling with the dts compilation (I'm pretty new to compiling whole Linux).
    I found steps for coreelec, but it doesn't work with LibreElec: https://discourse.coreelec.org/t/step-by-step…e-files/18792/3

    When I tried to build the dtb manually (using cpp and dtc), even the air-gbit.dtb doesn't work for me (bootlooping, no display output).

    Can you please share right steps to do it? I tried to search online but without success :/

    Thank you

    Fork my amlogic-6.16.y branch on GitHub then checkout a branch for your change, and then add your device tree file to arch/arm64/boot/dts/amlogic/ with a matching entry in the Makefile. Commit the change to your branch and then generate a patch with “git format-patch HEAD~1” and then rename from 0001-* to 9999-* and copy the patch file to projects/Amlogic/devices/AMLGX/patches/linux/ .. then rebuild the image and it should be compiled. If there are issues compile will fail with line/char references to the first failing problem. Note that you will not be able to just reuse a dts from CE as their kernels are diverged from upstream.

    Thank you for the reply!

    I see, I will test it out :)

    Yes, I noticed that Coreelec has some custom dtb, but there is also unifreq kernel, which has dts for Max+, so I will try it out.
    I will also try to pull original dtb from the Android system to check it.

    Ok, I have partial success :)

    IP1001M works, but only in 100Mbit. What I found, it's common problem (in 1Gbit mode the eth looks working but it's not linking).

    Now I fight with the wifi. From dmesg it's correctly detected (BCM4354), but it fails with
    brcmfmac mmc2:0001:1: Direct firmware load for brcm/brcmfmac4354-sdio.bin failed with error -2
    which I found is also common and it should load default driver, which is not happening :/

    The brcmfmac driver needs to load a firmware (.bin) and nvram (.txt) file from /usr/lib/firmware/brcm but we have no firmware files for BCM4354 in the AMLGX image. If you find files, add them manually: https://wiki.libreelec.tv/how-to/add-firmware

    Most mentions of IP1001M found via Google seem to point back at either unifrequ/ophub device-trees, which look to be a hack job that only partially works, or CE forum threads which fizzle out with the recommendation to avoid X' boxes.

    I did also find https://blog.csdn.net/zuiaikg703/article/details/120350194 which (translated) has some hacky changes for an IP1001C variant, but Google AI claims the difference between IP1001C and IP1001M is that C is multi-mode (copper/optical) while M is single-mode (copper). The current ICPLUS PHY kernel driver only implements a relatively basic level of support for registers, so I would assume it was written around the M variant, but AI also flagged some differences in support for Jumbo frames and other items between C and M that I don't see registers being defined for, which leaves scope for unknown defaults that could leave the PHY misconfigured.

    One thing I did notice is the current kernel driver does not support the 0x02430d91 hardware identifier that I see mentioned in the unifreq dts, so the MDIO bus will not auto-discover and configure the chip automatically.

    This should add the identifier: https://github.com/chewitt/linux/…9d8517b2529ebd4 but no guarantees that helps? You may also need to undo some of the ethernet_phy/mdio hackery from ophub dts files.

    The latest AMLGX images in my test share have a kernel with that patch, but not a dts for the X96-max-plus box.

    Thanks!

    Yeah, I didn't know about this problem when I was buying the box...

    I will try the Linux patch of identifier, when I will have again some free time :)
    I will also try to find and add the brcmfmac driver.

    I want also try to load the armbian image, if the same problem exists there.

    I had some time again to play with it.
    It looks like the kernel patch doesn't have effect to ethernet.
    What I found, it's linked properly to 1Gbit. I can even see in my router log, that if offers IP to the box. But it's not received.
    This also corresponds with counter from ethtool, where are errors on rx side:
    mmc_rx_crc_error: 10
    mmc_rx_ipv4_hderr: 2
    mmc_rx_ipv4_hderr_octets: 270
    phy_eee_wakeup_error_n: 31085

    WiFi is working fine after copying of files from unifreq. Bluetooth also works (tested with Xbox controller).