Post AlZYGrJSndOFVPK5Cq by petrillic@hachyderm.io
(DIR) More posts by petrillic@hachyderm.io
(DIR) Post #AlZY5E9c3E6Ys4AXFg by foone@digipres.club
2024-09-01T21:46:53Z
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Re: last boost: The raspi boots faster if you overclock the GPU, because the GPU is used TO LOAD THE KERNEL?!
(DIR) Post #AlZYGrJSndOFVPK5Cq by petrillic@hachyderm.io
2024-09-01T21:48:14Z
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@foone excuse me, but what?
(DIR) Post #AlZYN99LOb1iYxaVZw by gudenau@fosstodon.org
2024-09-01T21:49:12Z
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@foone Yeah that's one reason you get the giant rainbow square.
(DIR) Post #AlZYSElrvI0hRf2DrM by dragonarchitect@rubber.social
2024-09-01T21:50:08Z
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@foone That's wild. XD
(DIR) Post #AlZYZpZPVGu9bPpQKe by manawyrm@chaos.social
2024-09-01T21:50:10Z
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@foone The GPU searches for the SD card, loads and parses the config.txt file, sets many of the required options, parses device tree overlays, etc. etc. And yes, it loads kernel and initramfs into memory and then resets/enables the main ARM CPU. A classic Broadcom move 😹(with the GPU core being a highly proprietary VideoCore IV architecture)
(DIR) Post #AlZYjEQiRdMHJHFDDk by technicalotter@historians.social
2024-09-01T21:51:14Z
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@foone I beg your pardon?!
(DIR) Post #AlZYpFlWOMdBBoqaw4 by fozztexx@mastodon.fozztexx.com
2024-09-01T21:51:56Z
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@foone The GPU is the CPU and the CPU is the coprocessor.
(DIR) Post #AlZYxsV2GOKbdcFU12 by dotstdy@mastodon.social
2024-09-01T21:52:23Z
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@foone As the lord intended. Down with the CPU primacy!
(DIR) Post #AlZYzGorKRHvM0BWr2 by rotopenguin@mastodon.social
2024-09-01T21:52:17Z
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@foone I think they do that as a "fuck you" to anybody interested in improving the bootloader
(DIR) Post #AlZZ5LUgrSA5aceFG4 by wonka@chaos.social
2024-09-01T21:53:12Z
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@foone Yes. The CPU is just an attachment to the GPU there. Yet another reason to scoff at RPis because they cannot ever be fully open source with brokencom's stance.Gimme some SBC based off https://www.starfivetech.com/en/site/soc instead...
(DIR) Post #AlZZChloRAnyhmAMFs by foone@digipres.club
2024-09-01T21:53:07Z
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It's mentioned in passing in this article:https://chaos.social/@manawyrm/113064393538505044
(DIR) Post #AlZZQqlRnIbwebjwwa by foone@digipres.club
2024-09-01T21:55:39Z
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@manawyrm I mean it makes some sense, it's just... Mindboggling.It feels like how on the PC you need to turn on half your ram through the keyboard controller
(DIR) Post #AlZZX8CVsWOkTCOYdc by foone@digipres.club
2024-09-01T21:55:50Z
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@rudi that's definitely true
(DIR) Post #AlZZkvPAFZXmq1tEYq by rk@mastodon.well.com
2024-09-01T22:00:09Z
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@foone Yeah that’s how they do.
(DIR) Post #AlZZwHknUv9XKzQS1I by Auxonic@mastodon.social
2024-09-01T22:08:14Z
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@foone that definitely threw me. Modern computers are just bananapants nuts.
(DIR) Post #AlZaQOubRrKqE3N90a by lilstevie@infosec.exchange
2024-09-01T22:13:39Z
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@foone I thought everyone knew this by now, but apparently not judging from the replies. The rpi cpu is a cursed architecture and VC4’s role as the boot processor has long been criticised in open sourcing efforts (although I partially disagree, almost all CPUs have binary blobs hidden somewhere, even some of the most open source friendly ones)
(DIR) Post #AlZazg2Llo0dTOoiDQ by leilei_@mastodon.social
2024-09-01T22:19:57Z
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@foone booting up to screen of rainbow pixels is a very Williamsy thing to doand then the boot screen happens (which are a recent years addition)
(DIR) Post #AlZd4kyr17SIA5jQMS by cr1901@mastodon.social
2024-09-01T22:41:41Z
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@foone Yes, at least on the original one, the bootcode.bin is a GPU blob. It took a while to RE :(...
(DIR) Post #AlZdCxHt8yWeeEXnYe by sterophonick@bitbang.social
2024-09-01T22:42:15Z
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@foone WHYYYYYYYY
(DIR) Post #AlZdJ6COvLWI1XuIOu by lukeshu@fosstodon.org
2024-09-01T22:42:31Z
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@foone People think of the rPi as an ARM board with a VC4 GPU on it, but really it's a VC4 board that has a ARM coprocessor stuck to it.
(DIR) Post #AlZdPGy7nMfjABAnp2 by kevin@social.losno.co
2024-09-01T22:47:11Z
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@foone hey it's an original Xbox
(DIR) Post #AlZfXgzl76DY6j52Ce by jpm@aus.social
2024-09-01T23:10:42Z
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@foone yep, you can implement a soft ARM core in a FPGA, and a GPU is pretty much a FPGA…
(DIR) Post #AlZfeqFL7Eu4pKmEUa by jhwgh1968@chaos.social
2024-09-01T23:11:19Z
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@foone yep I remember thisHonestly it makes sense from the FPGA designs I've played with on my own
(DIR) Post #AlZjDeGlwAPLgAjgNE by parzivalwolfram@infosec.exchange
2024-09-01T23:51:30Z
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@foone well that certainly explains some of the goofy behavior i've seen from malfunctioning RPis.
(DIR) Post #AlaRjBiQ22niN0W6Lo by carbontwelve@notacult.social
2024-09-02T08:10:21Z
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@foone @manawyrm almost as though computer hardware is a collection of cursed knowledge
(DIR) Post #Alb3Sx8mFXyAn9X00O by Godzil@mastodon.social
2024-09-02T15:13:30Z
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@foone Yup the GPU is just a less general purpose CPU which is reponsible to bring up the whole SoC.Lots of code is running on that CPU, and yes, it is the one that bring up the ARM CPU and load the code for it.
(DIR) Post #Alb7GYAxdrwLhrtUrw by ncommander@social.restless.systems
2024-09-02T15:57:05Z
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@valpackett @sadmac356 @manawyrm @foone It's not so much that ARM booting isn't straightforward, its that every platform has different ways to do it which makes a universal image really hard (speaking from doing professional ARM Linux dev).UEFI does help considerably, but a lot vendors don't support it, or if they do, don't make it the default.At least we're finally getting the way towards having one kernel binary to rule them all.
(DIR) Post #AlbJ7BeZD3quhL2m1Y by sadmac356@social.restless.systems
2024-09-02T18:09:56Z
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@ncommander @valpackett @manawyrm @foone yeah, finally. For a while it was basically the xkcd on standards
(DIR) Post #AlbgYcWViHyYnZKFmq by foone@digipres.club
2024-09-02T22:25:46Z
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@protofoxriley sorry!