kernel module for armel

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Thu, Aug 02, 2012 at 09:13:24AM -0400, Giles Orr wrote:
> As mentioned at Ian Darwin's presentation, I have a Rikomagic(?) mk802
> "Mini Android 4.0 Computer" (what's in quotes is ALL the information
> you get on the box).  I've added a somewhat rambling page about it on
> my website if anyone is interested:
> http://www.gilesorr.com/misc/mk802.html .  I'm not really recommending
> the page, but I know there was some interest in the device.
> 
> I've got the Lubuntu armel distro (
> http://rikomagic.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=90 Ubuntu precise
> 12.04 ) working reasonably well on the mk802.  But not all kernel
> modules are included.
> 
> # uname -a
> Linux miniand 3.0.36-t1+ #14 PREEMPT Tue Jul 3 12:27:08 EST 2012
> armv7l armv7l armv7l GNU/Linux
> 
> I found a file in the distro, /lib/modules/3.0.36-t1+/modules.builtin
> , which I assume is the list of compiled-in modules?  I have a -
> admittedly very old - Linksys USB100TX usb-to-ethernet adapter I've
> used successfully on a couple other distros.  It's supported by the
> paradise.ko module, but that module isn't in the builtin list, or
> among the available modules.  Is there a simple way to compile just
> the one module - or better yet, simply download it?
> 
> I would also be willing to buy a newer (preferably cheap)
> usb-to-ethernet if there's a good reason to do so.  I'd prefer to have
> this device running over a wire rather than on wireless.
> 
> As a matter of personal interest: comments online suggest that the
> Allwinner A10 chip in this device would run armhf fine, but most of
> the distros for this device are based on armel, and that armhf would
> run faster.  Is this true, and if so, why are the distros based on
> armel?

Because armhf is a rather new idea.  Only a few years ago it was very
common for arm processors to not have FPUs.  Now because of all the
multimedia video playback being done by most devices, the FPU is almost
always present, hence building a more efficient distribution to take
advantage of that has become worthwhile.  Also using thumb2 instruction
set (which armv7 supports, but armv6 does not), gives some code size (and
hence cache usage) benefits without hurting performance (unlike thumb1).

So armhf for armv7 with FPU makes sense.  armv6 (which is pretty rare)
made less sense to bother for, which is why the pi is left a bit to
itself.

-- 
Len Sorensen
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