mamba/venom: increase kernel partition size #3852

SkewedZeppelin · 2021-02-09T03:25:19Z

This merge request contains four commits:

Increases mamba kernel partition from 3MB to 4MB
Increases venom kernel partition from 3MB to 6MB.
This is accomplished by shrinking their root partitions by 1MB and 3MB respectively.
Re-enables these devices for buildbots
Adds a compatibility version check and message

3MB is not enough for building with many kernel modules included and is not enough for Linux 5.10.
Both of their uboots from factory load up to those respective values.

I have tested mamba working with a 3.2MB 5.4 kernel.
I have tested mamba working with a 3.1MB 5.10 kernel.
@anomeome has tested mamba with a 3.2MB 5.10 kernel.
@solidus1983 has tested venom with a <3MB 5.4 kernel.

Compatibility can be checked like so:
mamba: fw_printenv | grep "pri_kern_size"; must equal 0x400000
venom: fw_printenv | grep "priKernSize"; must equal 0x0600000

Flashing process:
A factory style image is necessary when flashing to or away from a resized build

backup
flash a factory style image via sysupgrade, with force set and keep settings unset
restore backup
afterwards, you can flash normally.

Flashing from normal OpenWrt to resized has been tested to work.
Flashing from resized OpenWrt to normal has been tested to work.
Flashing from OEM firmware to resized has been tested to work (via user report).
Flashing from resized to OEM firmware has been tested to work (via user report).

There is more information in the forum thread post:
https://forum.openwrt.org/t/increasing-mamba-and-venom-kernel-partition-to-6mb/87807

adschm · 2021-02-09T11:09:55Z

Please update the Signed-off-by with your full real name.

adschm · 2021-02-09T11:11:39Z

Be aware that buildbot images will be bigger, so final numbers for kernel sizes should be acquired with buildbot settings and all feeds installed (unless you did that already, but number reported seem to low from my experience).

SkewedZeppelin · 2021-02-09T16:16:46Z

@adschm I've updated the Signed-off-by, GitHub seems to be slow.

buildbot images will be bigger

I will test this soon.

SkewedZeppelin · 2021-02-09T16:52:25Z

Building 5.4 with

CONFIG_ALL_KMODS=y
CONFIG_ALL_NONSHARED=y
CONFIG_STRIP_KERNEL_EXPORTS=n
CONFIG_KERNEL_CC_OPTIMIZE_FOR_PERFORMANCE=y

yields a 3,203,306 byte kernel.

Tested booting on mamba.

Current OpenWrt snapshot for WRT3200ACM kernel size is 3,208,600.

SkewedZeppelin · 2021-02-09T18:33:34Z

I pushed again and GitHub seems to have finally updated the PR.

Should I create a patch that undoes a1eb2c4 and ac9730c, or should I create a revert for each of them?

Should I also create a patch for a 1.2 compatibility version? Like 494f12c

adschm · 2021-02-09T20:52:01Z

Building 5.4 with
CONFIG_ALL_KMODS=y
CONFIG_ALL_NONSHARED=y
CONFIG_STRIP_KERNEL_EXPORTS=n
CONFIG_KERNEL_CC_OPTIMIZE_FOR_PERFORMANCE=y
yields a 3,203,306 byte kernel.

Tested booting on mamba.

Current OpenWrt snapshot for WRT3200ACM kernel size is 3,208,600.

With all feeds installed?

./scripts/feeds update -a
./scripts/feeds install -a

adschm · 2021-02-09T20:57:17Z

Should I create a patch that undoes a1eb2c4 and ac9730c, or should I create a revert for each of them?

Just enable them in a patch, don't think you need to refer to the older ones for that.

Should I also create a patch for a 1.2 compatibility version? Like 494f12c

If sysupgrade still works, yes. If reflashing is required, the version should be bumped to 2.0.
In the latter case, you would not use board.d, but uci-defaults like in this case:
07aa858
(relevant changes are at the bottom)

adschm · 2021-02-09T20:58:41Z

And please do all the changes in one commit per device, i.e. adjust partitions, remove DEFAULT=n, adjust compat version.

SkewedZeppelin · 2021-02-09T23:01:56Z

Done.
It doesn't seem like compatibility messages stack? Might causes issues for those migrating from swconfig?

And yes that was with feeds installed.

solidus1983 · 2021-02-09T23:05:30Z

So far no issues after flashing a resized image. Hopefully all goes well on the buildbots.

anomeome · 2021-02-10T00:14:00Z

Tested the latest push:

option compat_version '2.0' to only the 2 targets of interest?
patch version number on mamba target, 3xx , 4xx?
backup restore of config deserves some elaboration, as you will get a message on the second flash due to the compat still being 1.1 post restore, until you do the second upgrade

adschm · 2021-02-10T01:01:26Z

target/linux/mvebu/image/cortexa9.mk

@@ -112,6 +118,7 @@ TARGET_DEVICES += linksys_wrt1900acs
 define Device/linksys_wrt1900ac-v1
  $(call Device/linksys)
  $(Device/dsa-migration)


dsa-migration can obviously be dropped now, as it's the same two variables you reset with the new include.

adschm · 2021-02-10T01:06:51Z

Please put the relevant changes directly in the first two patches; they belong together.

backup restore of config deserves some elaboration, as you will get a message on the second flash due to the compat still being 1.1 post restore, until you do the second upgrade

Well, essentially the compat_version is a property of the config; just consider swconfig vs. DSA. For backup/restore, you would have to change the uci config value manually similar to what uci-defaults does.

Still, in this very case we are left with the strange situation that /etc/board.json and /etc/config/system will have different explicit version numbers stored. I will have to think about that ...

SkewedZeppelin · 2021-02-10T01:12:00Z

dsa-migration can obviously be dropped now

Updated

Please put the relevant changes directly in the first two patches

To confirm, just two commits total?

nitroshift

Run-tested on 2 WRT1900AC v1 (mamba). Confirmed as working.

nitroshift

SkewedZeppelin · 2021-03-01T17:45:17Z

@adschm
Kindly, what changes do I need to make to see this merged?

hauke · 2021-03-19T00:22:21Z

Please use the same name as commit author and in the Signed-off-by line.
You can change it with git commit --author="" or fix it in your ~/.gitconfig

It is good that you do this in separate commits for venom and mamba.
Could you add the call to $(Device/kernel-size-migration) in the commit which changes the dts file. You can add the define Device/kernel-size-migration in the commit which changes the dts file for the first device.

mamba has a 3MB kernel partition as specified by the DTS. 3MB is not sufficient for building with many kernel modules or newer kernel versions. mamba uboot however as set from factory will load up to 4MB. This can be observed by looking a uboot log: NAND read: device 0 offset 0xa00000, size 0x400000 4194304 bytes read: OK and from uboot environment variables: $ fw_printenv | grep "pri_kern_size"; pri_kern_size=0x400000 Resize the root partitions from 37MB to 36MB to let kernel expand into it another 1MB. And set kernel target size to 4MB. Lastly add a compatibility version message: kernel-size-migration. And set it on mamba to prevent sysupgrading without first reinstalling from a factory image. Signed-off-by: Tad Davanzo <tad@spotco.us>

venom has a 3MB kernel partition as specified by the DTS. 3MB is not sufficient for building with many kernel modules or newer kernel versions. venom uboot however as set from factory will load up to 6MB. This can be observed by looking a uboot log: NAND read: device 0 offset 0x900000, size 0x600000 6291456 bytes read: OK and from uboot environment variables: $ fw_printenv | grep "priKernSize"; priKernSize=0x0600000 Resize the root partitions from 120MB to 117MB to let kernel expand into it another 3MB. And set kernel target size to 6MB. Lastly set the kernel-size-migration compatibility version on venom to prevent sysupgrading without first reinstalling from a factory image. Signed-off-by: Tad Davanzo <tad@spotco.us>

Kernel size limits have been dealt with. Effective revert of a1eb2c4 and ac9730c. Signed-off-by: Tad Davanzo <tad@spotco.us>

SkewedZeppelin · 2021-03-19T01:39:18Z

@hauke I have made the changes you requested.

hauke · 2021-03-19T14:54:49Z

Thank you for the pull request, I pushed it to master.

dominick-han · 2021-03-19T17:51:18Z

Thanks everyone for making this patch! Finally can run clean no-patch truck builds on my mamba :)

adschm added the target/mvebu pull request/issue for mvebu target label Feb 9, 2021

adschm reviewed Feb 10, 2021

View reviewed changes

nitroshift approved these changes Feb 17, 2021

View reviewed changes

SkewedZeppelin mentioned this pull request Feb 18, 2021

mvebu: add linux 5.10 support #3886

Closed

SkewedZeppelin added 3 commits March 18, 2021 21:35

mvebu: enable WRT1900AC v1 and WRT32X for buildbots

eff3474

Kernel size limits have been dealt with. Effective revert of a1eb2c4 and ac9730c. Signed-off-by: Tad Davanzo <tad@spotco.us>

hauke closed this Mar 19, 2021

SkewedZeppelin deleted the mamba-increase_kernel_size branch March 19, 2021 18:32

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mamba/venom: increase kernel partition size #3852

mamba/venom: increase kernel partition size #3852

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mamba/venom: increase kernel partition size #3852

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