Hoping for Hardware Support... SIL 0680 PATA IDE

1st Official Post

    Hello,

    I am hoping this project can add support for hardware. Some more important than others. List is in order of importance.

    1. Silicone image SIL 0680 PATA Raid controller. I have this controller on a system I use as a NAS/Libraelec Kodi. I dont run my nas 24/7 like most and the plan is to have the nas on a wake up shutdown schedule. After that time I use it for kodi and have access to all of the nas files. The silicone image IDE/RAID card injects its HD into my bios using PNP. So I can set the drive to boot. However I get an error when I boot. The is error in mount_flash mount common could not mount label=system. This is because the driver for the silicone image is not loading. I wonder if Libreelec will be willing to add isupport for it? Here are drivers: siimage.c OR http://lxr.linux.no/linux+v4.6.4/driver ... a_sil680.c

    2, I have a few PCMICA wifi cards and an adapter for them to go to PCI. These cards are some of the last N cards made in that format. Anyway any chance drivers for PCMICA generic can be added? I know thats a long shot so I understand.

    3. External display adapter. I have a UGA usb display adapter. Its a UGA BVU3500. Its USB 3.0 but I was curious if libreelec could add support for these adapters. This is bottom of my list and more out of curiosity because I might want to connect a second LCD to kodi in the future.

    Please let me know if you can add the SIL 0680 card to support. That would be GREAT. Than my NAS/KOdi box will be able to dual boot!!

    Edited once, last by madhits (July 22, 2016 at 7:57 PM).

    • Official Post

    1) No to the raid controller. We aren't a NAS distro, it's better to split that out into a seperate Machine.

    2) We can possibly support pcmcia however it's an old and dead technology. You can buy a new N wifi dongle for $20 these days.

    3) Have you actually tried the adapter? On the support page it doesn't list Linux support but you never know sometimes.

    • Official Post

    LE (and OE before) have a long-standing policy of refusing to add RAID support to the OS to avoid "the death of a thousand cuts" ..because if we add one RAID driver then we're obliged to add a long list of others, then all the filesystem management tools needed for RAID, and more. We have always been a "client" focussed distro; all the fancy RAID stuff belongs in a NAS/server device.

    PCMCIA is off the list too. You're maybe the second or third person that asked for PCMCIA support in the last 4-5 years. It's niche and there is no new hardware coming so we wouldn't add it. We are generally a forwards (not backwards) looking distro when it comes to hardware support.

    The external display adapter is also unlikely. Kodi is designed to use a single display so supporting additional screens (aside from laptops and modern interfaces like Thunderbolt) isn't a big requirement for our target audience. USB devices are likely only needed on old hardware (which is not something we're aiming at) and probably doesn't deliver good performance.

    NB: LibreELEC's sources are in public github and it's not hard to create a custom image with personal changes. If you really want to use this collection of bits, that would be the best option.

    Quote from chewitt


    LE (and OE before) have a long-standing policy of refusing to add RAID support to the OS to avoid "the death of a thousand cuts" ..because if we add one RAID driver then we're obliged to add a long list of others, then all the filesystem management tools needed for RAID, and more. We have always been a "client" focussed distro; all the fancy RAID stuff belongs in a NAS/server device.

    PCMCIA is off the list too. You're maybe the second or third person that asked for PCMCIA support in the last 4-5 years. It's niche and there is no new hardware coming so we wouldn't add it. We are generally a forwards (not backwards) looking distro when it comes to hardware support.

    The external display adapter is also unlikely. Kodi is designed to use a single display so supporting additional screens (aside from laptops and modern interfaces like Thunderbolt) isn't a big requirement for our target audience. USB devices are likely only needed on old hardware (which is not something we're aiming at) and probably doesn't deliver good performance.

    NB: LibreELEC's sources are in public github and it's not hard to create a custom image with personal changes. If you really want to use this collection of bits, that would be the best option.

    Chewitt thats the same asnswer you gave me 1 yr ago about the PCMICA card over on the openelec forums.. I hoped it might have changed but expected that. I'm the guy that follows the STORY OF STUFF. I HATE sending shit to the dumps and I find all this great software online but its a constant battle to get support. Anyway I'm only considered about 1 of those items.

    The SIL 0680 Raid card its actually not the RAID part I want. I have it set to IDE and just wish to be able to boot libreelec off of it. I do not use this card for the NAS part. The NAS I am running is xpenology. So the plan is to boot xpenlogy with USB drive in and when its not in boot libreelec. Its simple to setup the bios to boot one if the other is not present. I do not wnat the nas on while im in Libreelec dispite it being able to read the files, that is just a bonus really. Anyway the support for the SIL 0680 is needed strictly for libreelec. Is there any chance you guys could add that card in IDE mode only. I actually dont want the full support like I said I just want IDE access. It almost works now as I get the mount_flash mount common could not mount label=system error. So would it be any easier to add simple universal IDE drivers to libraelec?

    I don't care about the other 2 and had suspected yours and lrusak answer would match those of openelec..

    I know you guys have suggested the build it in yourself before about a yr ago I tried and FAILED missribly. My skill set is not to strong in linux so doing a build of my own outside of a custom windows build is nearly impossible.

    Come on guys what do I have to do BEG? LoL

    Edited once, last by madhits (July 16, 2016 at 6:56 PM).

    Quote from chewitt


    Compile - LibreELEC <= Get a working development build first, then support for the RAID card is a case of making a one line change to the kernel config to enable Linux Kernel Driver DataBase: CONFIG_BLK_DEV_SIIMAGE: Silicon Image chipset support and then rebuild.

    Chewitt.. I'll give it a try. Can you tell me exactly what line needs to change? Dont I need to add a driver?

    I tried this with openelec a while ago and got kernel build errors. That was when I was trying to to get pcmica support. Maybe the IDE support will be easier. Oye..

    Edited once, last by madhits (July 16, 2016 at 8:54 PM).

    Quote from lrusak


    If you don't need the raid ability in LibreELEC then why don't you just boot it from a flash drive or something?

    I suppose I could and I did think of that. My concern was speed of USB 2.0 vs ATA133. ATA still beats USB 2.0 by 2 to 1 due to overhead 60ms/s vs 30mb/s. So If I used a USB to boot I'm guessing the performance of video playback at 720p would be greatly affected.

    I am looking into making the build, downloading a new ubuntu build just for this.. Thanks for your help

    Ok I gave this a try but FAILED. Is there any way I can simply turn on IDE access to my SIL 680 without having to build a whole new libreelec? All I want is to be able to read my extra IDE hard drive that has libreelec already installed. Anything else you can guys direct me towards? I think we got off on the wrong track with RAID coming up in this request which is NOT what I want. My silicon image Sil 680 card has both Reg IDE access along with Raid IDE. I DO NOT want HW Raid in Libreelec. All I want is IDE boot..

    Edited once, last by madhits (July 22, 2016 at 7:59 PM).

    • Official Post
    Quote from madhits

    I suppose I could and I did think of that. My concern was speed of USB 2.0 vs ATA133. ATA still beats USB 2.0 by 2 to 1 due to overhead 60ms/s vs 30mb/s. So If I used a USB to boot I'm guessing the performance of video playback at 720p would be greatly affected.

    I am looking into making the build, downloading a new ubuntu build just for this.. Thanks for your help

    This is wrong, Yes, usb 2.0 speed isn't that great, but we boot the entire system into memory. The only reading/writing that is done is to the /storage partion when runtime configuration is kept.

    see, LibreELEC.tv/init at master · LibreELEC/LibreELEC.tv · GitHub

    The only thing that will be effected is startup speed.

    Quote from lrusak

    This is wrong, Yes, usb 2.0 speed isn't that great, but we boot the entire system into memory. The only reading/writing that is done is to the /storage partion when runtime configuration is kept.

    see, LibreELEC.tv/init at master · LibreELEC/LibreELEC.tv · GitHub

    The only thing that will be effected is startup speed.

    Well the USB install failed. Could not start xorg. Err no matter which way I go it wont work. I rather use this silicon image IDE controller anyway. lrusak CAN YOU PLEASE help me with a build of libreelec that includes Ubuntu – File list of package linux-image-4.2.0-34-lowlatency/trusty-updates/amd64.. PLEASE I BEG YOU!!

    Quote from lrusak


    That probably means your graphics card is too old and isn't supported. What is the hardware you are trying to run on?

    Nope.. The graphics is NVidia Geforce 760 512mb DDR3 & it currently boots from IDE onboard ICH7R Libreelec 7.0.2.

    Like I said in the orginal post I am trying to make a dual boot Kodi/Xpenology system. I need all the onboard SATA and PATA ICH7R controllers for Xpenology.

    The pata_sil680.ko is for Libreelec or Id like it to be on that controller as it will boot faster than USB2. Once you mentioned USB boot I thought that might solve my problem. but I tried 2x 1gb and 2gb flash drives and both would not load the xorg drivers. Odd because my libreelec install currently on my 40GB IDE drive boots fine of the ICH7r & loads the Geforce 760. I just would like to move that drive to the pata_sil680.ko. I'm not sure why the USB would not boot. I could try transfering the 40GB IDE install over to USB.

    But I have this pata_sil680 PCI card just collecting dust so I'd love to use it. Can you help. Ill try to build this again but i'm still a linux noob..

    Quote from lrusak

    The 760 is quite new and is supported, you are probably thinking 7xxx series.

    Yeah its a 7900 actually not 7600. Its quite beefy with 512gb ram but I guess getting old. I'm not surprised that support will be dropped on it. Figures story of stuff. I wish you guys could or would do a legacy build and make it something that was easy to build yourself kinda how suse studio works. See: Kodilicious – SUSE Gallery

    Thats likely the furture. Be nice to make your own libreelec without having to compile and build the whole os from scratch. Did my head in when I tried..

    All I need is pata_sil680.ko and I'm golden.. Its a shame I cant place that file in the boot directory and it just works.

    Edited once, last by madhits (July 25, 2016 at 3:18 AM).

    • Official Post

    The legacy Nvidia driver is included in the build, so even Nvidia dropped support for that card from their legacy driver.

    The build system is actually quite easy to use, it's just different then most build systems. No there will never really be an automated system because everything is built from scratch and can take upwards of 4 hours to build the entire system.