v1.1.0 — Ethernet (LAN9500A) works 🎉

[1.1.0] - 2026-06-22

Added

• Ethernet (LAN9500A) now works 🎉 — the soldered on-board SMSC LAN9500A
  USB-ethernet enumerates and carries traffic. Two kernel changes did it:

  • 0006-usb-ehci-omap-steelhead-keep-ethernet-port-alive-ulp — steelhead
    host-init in ehci-omap: INSNREG01 burst thresholds, a ULPI Function-Control
    soft reset of the USB3320 PHY before usb_add_hcd(), and
    usb_disable_autosuspend() on the root hub so the idle port is not
    clock-gated away.
  • 0008-mfd-omap-usb-host-steelhead-UHH-HOSTCONFIG-connect — program
    UHH_HOSTCONFIG to the vendor's 0x11c (set P1_CONNECT_STATUS, leave
    APP_START_CLK clear) so the EHCI latches the port-1 connect. Measured
    mainline default was 0x1c; the stock Android 3.0 kernel uses 0x11c.

  The long-standing "ethernet is dead hardware" verdict was wrong — the stock
  kernel enumerates the same chip on this unit, proving the HW is fine and the bug
  was ours. Verified on hardware (#8 kernel): eth0 (0424:9e00 → smsc95xx)
  links at 100 Mbps/Full and passes bidirectional traffic — 0% packet loss over a
  direct cable, zero rx/tx/CRC/frame errors after ~660 MB moved. Throughput
  ~30–60 Mbps (USB2 / single-core OMAP4 bound, not a link fault). Reach the device
  over ethernet with the persistent eth-direct NetworkManager profile
  (static 10.42.0.2/24).

• Kernel patch 0007-clk-ti-composite-implement-divider-round-set-rate — OMAP4
  ti,composite-clock nodes (gate + divider) had stub round_rate/set_rate
  returning -EINVAL, so any clk_set_rate() on them failed. Delegated both to
  ti_clk_divider_ops (as recalc_rate already did). Fixes the TAS5713
  amplifier MCLK: dpll_per_m3x2_ck now sets to 61.44 MHz →
  auxclk1_ck = 12.288 MHz (256 × 48 kHz). Verified on hardware (#4 kernel):
  clock rates correct, ALSA card 0 NexusQ-Speaker registers cleanly, no
  couldn't set dpll_per_m3x2_ck error.

• CONFIG_SRAM=y in the defconfig (OMAP4 on-chip SRAM driver).

• Tooling: scripts/regen-dts-patch.sh (regenerate patch 0003 from the working
  DTS) and scripts/extract-and-repack.sh (pull kernel+DTB from the build
  chroot pkgdir and repack a partition-sized boot image — a fast path that skips
  the rootfs build).

• Build fix: the recurring abuild create_apks "Permission denied" on
  /home/pmos/packages//pmos/armv7/...apk is fixed. On a reused nexusq-workdir
  volume $WORK/packages was owned by the container pmos (uid 1000) while
  abuild inside the chroot runs as uid 12345, so it could not write its .apk.
  docker-build.sh Phase 7a now chowns $WORK/packages to 12345 before the
  build, so linux-google-steelhead-*.apk is created cleanly and pmbootstrap install runs. extract-and-repack.sh is kept as a fast path, no longer a
  required workaround.

• Build fix: clearing the armv7 ccache out-of-band leaves its directory owned
  by uid 1000, so abuild inside the chroot (uid 12345) then hits ccache: error: Permission denied at make olddefconfig. docker-build.sh Phase 7a now also
  chowns $WORK/cache_ccache_armv7 to 12345 (alongside $WORK/packages).

Changed

• DTS: delete the upstream cpu@1 node to match the single-core build
  (CONFIG_SMP=n). Clears the early-DT nodes greater than max cores 1 warning
  and the resulting kernel taint (was 512, now 0). Re-add together with the
  deferred OMAP4460 SMP / CPU1 bring-up. Patch 0003 regenerated accordingly.
• Device root password is now read at runtime from a gitignored .nexus_pw
  (no hard-coded credential in the SSH/flash helpers).

Known limitations

• Rootfs image build (pmbootstrap install, Phase 9) currently fails on a
  device-google-steelhead post-install step (exit 127); the kernel .apk and
  boot image build fine, so kernel/DTB iteration is unaffected. Reflash boot only.

---

Install: flash nexusq-boot-v1.1.0.img to the 8 MB boot partition
(dd … of=/dev/mmcblk0p9 conv=fsync from a running system, or fastboot flash boot). The root filesystem is unchanged since v0.1.0 — reuse
nexusq-rootfs-v0.1.0-sparse.img. The boot image is kernel #8; it prints the
UHH_HOSTCONFIG values once at boot (diagnostic) and is functionally identical to
the cleaned 0008 source patch in this tag. sha256 in sha256sums.txt.

Note: the rootfs image build (pmbootstrap install, Phase 9) currently fails on
a device post-install step; the kernel/boot image build is unaffected.

Full Changelog: v0.1.0...v1.1.0