We're hiring!
*

Upstream Linux support for new NXP i.MX 8

Robert Foss avatar

Robert Foss
April 17, 2018

Share this post:

Reading time:

A quick look into the 2018Q1 status of the i.MX 6 & 8 platforms.

The i.MX 6 platform has for the past few years enjoyed a large effort to add upstream support to Linux and surrounding projects. Now it is at the point where nothing is really missing any more. Improvements are still being made, to the graphics driver for i.MX 6, but functionally it is complete.

Etnaviv driver development timeline

The i.MX8 is a different story. The newly introduced platform, with hardware still difficult to get access to, is seeing lots of work being done, but much still remains to be done.

That being said, initial support for the GPU, the Vivante GC7000, is in place and is able to successfully run Wayland/Weston, glmark, etc. This should also mean that running Android ontop of the currently not-quite-upstream stack is possible using drm_hwcomposer.

An upstream display/scanout driver does currently not exist, since the display IP in the i.MX 8 is different and more capable than the IP in the i.MX 6 platform, the current imx-drm driver is not capable of supporting it.

A driver is provided by the NXP base support package. This BSP driver is based on KMS Atomic and supports most of the bells and whistles one would hope for, but is currently not in an upstreamable shape.

i.MX8 Kernel Support

But patches for the gpio, clk, netdev & arm-kernel subsystems have been submitted to their respective mailing lists by Lucas Stach.

The direct support for the i.MX8 that has landed in the kernel at this point is mostly done by NXP engineers.

But there are lots of components that currently have no support. The Video Processor Unit IP, the Hantro G1/G2, does not have any upstream support.

i.MX8 U-Boot Support

Looking at bootloader support, U-Boot has good support for the i.MX 8M platform since early 2018, and can be expected to just work.

Looking forward

While lot's of support is still missing for the i.MX 8, the platform is under active development, with many new pieces of the hardware seeing attention.

Purism is one of the vendors who currently is actively working towards full Open Source support of the i.MX 8 platform.

Devboards

WandPi 8M is a series of 3 different boards based on the i.MX 8M platform.

Nitrogen 8M is another i.MX 8M based option, made by Boundary Devices who also made the popular Sabre Lite series of boards for the i.MX 6.

Thanks

This post has been a part of work undertaken by my employer Collabora.


Visit Robert's blog.

Comments (0)


Add a Comment






Allowed tags: <b><i><br>Add a new comment:


Search the newsroom

Latest Blog Posts

Automatic regression handling and reporting for the Linux Kernel

14/03/2024

In continuation with our series about Kernel Integration we'll go into more detail about how regression detection, processing, and tracking…

Almost a fully open-source boot chain for Rockchip's RK3588!

21/02/2024

Now included in our Debian images & available via our GitLab, you can build a complete, working BL31 (Boot Loader stage 3.1), and replace…

What's the latest with WirePlumber?

19/02/2024

Back in 2022, after a series of issues were found in its design, I made the call to rework some of WirePlumber's fundamentals in order to…

DRM-CI: A GitLab-CI pipeline for Linux kernel testing

08/02/2024

Continuing our Kernel Integration series, we're excited to introduce DRM-CI, a groundbreaking solution that enables developers to test their…

Persian Rug, Part 4 - The limitations of proxies

23/01/2024

This is the fourth and final part in a series on persian-rug, a Rust crate for interconnected objects. We've touched on the two big limitations:…

How to share code between Vulkan and Gallium

16/01/2024

One of the key high-level challenges of building Mesa drivers these days is figuring out how to best share code between a Vulkan driver…

Open Since 2005 logo

We use cookies on this website to ensure that you get the best experience. By continuing to use this website you are consenting to the use of these cookies. To find out more please follow this link.

Collabora Ltd © 2005-2024. All rights reserved. Privacy Notice. Sitemap.