Posts by chewitt

    The wireless drivers used in the 3.14 kernel codebase for WH and WP2 do not support being software switched into AP mode. It's possible to force the card into AP mode at boot time by setting some driver options (which I have long-forgotten) but when tested a few years ago the card doesn't perform that well in AP mode. So the conclusion is .. the tethered hotspot feature is not supported on WH.

    WeTek's business is focussed on the OTT middleware market and they (and most similar manufacturers in that market) are making a strategic shift towards AndroidTV as that's the direction Google is pushing everything now. As such the latest generation of their devices are not using AOSP and the boot process is locked down per AndroidTV spec. I swapped email with the CEO on this topic a few months ago when the next generation of 'Hub' sized box was announced and WeTek have no plans to release 'Linux' versions of these products.

    It's also a market trend that will continue. Over time more manufacturers will become AndroidTV only and the number of manufacturers with AOSP products will concentrate on the low end of the market with cheaper manufacturers who source lower-grade components and take more design short-cuts to increase their profit. This long-term reality is one of the reasons why LibreELEC started to focus more on SBC "board" devices where the manufacturers are invested in Linux support than Android "box" devices where manufacturers are not, and where we see significantly more end-user support issues. Boards aren't as cheap as boxes, but at some point users will realise the experience is much better.

    NB: WeTek delivered Netflix 4k support on Android. It was never promised on Linux. One of the "lessons learned the hard way" with dual OS support is that users read the spec for one OS and blindly assume the other OS works the same. It was never the case and WeTek burned a lot of support man-hours dealing with people that can't read. It's definitely a factor in their decision to not release more Linux devices.

    For what it's worth the old issue of the `current` Nvidia driver in Generic build hanging the machine when entering suspend is also present in Leia v8.95.2 Beta (the workaround of forcing the ancient legacy driver still functions)

    I think we will have removed nvidia support from our codebase before the suspend issues (which go back to OE days) will ever be resolved.

    Assumptions about availability of Amlogic documentation and how various relationships inter-relate aren't correct, but that's understandable as there are layers within layers and it's not a straightforward topic. Baylibre are an independent (kernel focussed) software development company. Amlogic has subcontracted development tasks to Baylibre in the past, e.g. core board support for the AXG platform used in smart speakers. LibreComputer also outsources a range of development and support tasks to Baylibre which is awesome because the quality of work is high and it's been done in a way that benefits the entire Amlogic ecosystem not just LibreComputers own products. Several of the Baylibre team are kernel maintainers so they are not Amlogic's Linux support team, but they are involved in whatever action is happening. IMHO Amlogic have been quite supportive considering Linux is not their primary OS interest and we are not their customer. As with most large commercial organisations you need to understand their business model and be talking to the right people and asking the right questions to get the right response.

    LibreComputer claiming "full media support" with 4.19 is over-reaching. The status quo continues to improve but there are still major items to check off the list and users testing mainline kernel images will quickly discover missing capabilities. Amlogic users tend to have high expectations so we aren't going to commence significant public testing until we reach a "feature complete" state and are ready to switch focus to bug-fixing.