Bootable 64-bit Gentoo image for the RPi4 released (Xfce4 desktop)

[gilius2k15]

Does 4K video work in H.265 or H.264 or any other formats? How about HDMI audio?

[Mrsell]

Thanks for this, unfortunately I am not able to connect to wifi altho I changed the region to us.

[sakaki]

Does 4K video work in H.265 or H.264 or any other formats? How about HDMI audio?

HDMI audio works reasonably well. H/W decode (via v4l2m2m) works for lower-res videos, but not sure it works on 4K yet. Something to look at next, once core functionality stabilized.
Best, sakaki

[Mrsell]

Is there any steps I may have missed that the wifi doesn't work? I had no issue connecting via Debian 10, does anyone else have this issue?

[sakaki]

Is there any steps I may have missed that the wifi doesn't work? I had no issue connecting via Debian 10, does anyone else have this issue?

Sorry to hear you are experiencing problems with this ><

There is a known issue with the version of the 64-bit kernel used on the image and WiFi - and also a fix available to the regulatory domain setup in the RPi config app.

As such, you can try updating these packages and then rebooting, to see if this improves things.

To do do, make sure you have at least wired connectivity and then open a console and:

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demouser@pi64 ~ $ sudo emaint sync --repo genpi64
demouser@pi64 ~ $ sudo emerge -v1u bcm2711-kernel-bis-bin pyconfig_gen

Let the emerge run to completion and then reboot.

Any better? PS Are you trying to connect to a regular or 5G band? In which country?

Edit: you stated it was US above, apologies.
Once the above update has been done, edit the file /etc/modprobe.d/rpi3-wifi-regdom.conf and make sure the setting there is also "US", matching that in /etc/conf.d/rpi3-wifi-regdom (i.e., make sure both files have "US", not "GB" - you will need to be root, or use sudo, to edit them). Then reboot.

Best, sakaki

[Mrsell]

Thank you so much for this, I will try these steps as soon as I get home, your assistance with this is most appreciated, thank you.

[gilius2k15]

Looking very good so far... many thanks!

[Mrsell]

Thanks again it works, I tested the wifi before editing of the 2 files I mentioned expecting it not to work untill I changed both to us but it worked, thanks again, everything up and running.

[sakaki]

Thanks again it works, I tested the wifi before editing of the 2 files I mentioned expecting it not to work untill I changed both to us but it worked, thanks again, everything up and running.

Fantastic, thanks for testing this ^-^

I'll be releasing a v1.5.1 bugfix release shortly (hopefully in the next couple of days) including these new kernels (plus some other changes), and will also publish full instructions of how to upgrade from v1.5.0 -> v1.5.1 at that point.

Best, sakaki

[Mrsell]

Looking forward to your work!

[andrum99]

I have a question - once I have your latest Gentoo running on my Pi 4 4GB, what do I need to do to add ZFS filesystem support? I'm guessing it's easier than trying to bolt it on the side of the official Raspbian release.

[sakaki]

I have a question - once I have your latest Gentoo running on my Pi 4 4GB, what do I need to do to add ZFS filesystem support? I'm guessing it's easier than trying to bolt it on the side of the official Raspbian release.

You need to build a kernel module and a set of userland support tools (as detailed e.g. here). The only issue for the former is that currently it has to be done the old school way, as per my instructions here (for WireGuard) (basically I need to create a kernel source package instance automatically upon each weekly kernel autobuild, to allow the Gentoo ebuilds for the ZFS and WireGuard kernel modules to be used, and that's not something I've done yet ><). But it's totally possible.

hth, sakaki

[Maxpanos]

Greetings Sakaki and thank you for your hard work. Two simple questions for you but for me was a hell ride.

I would like to install vmware workstation. Is it doable?

If not i would be happy how i can install kvm. I know that rpi4 its not a beast but i would like to test some things.

Its my first time using Gentoo and i am struggling to understand how install things. I tried myself but with no luck

[sakaki]

I would like to install vmware workstation. Is it doable?

If not i would be happy how i can install kvm. I know that rpi4 its not a beast but i would like to test some things.

Not sure about the status of (native) vmware on arm64, sorry ><. I'm sure some others can jump in to assist...

KVM-based virtualization is supported out of the box on the Gentoo image however; see my notes on the project's open wiki, here and here.

Screenshot (showing, per the instructions just linked, an Ubuntu Server 18.04.1 LTS cloud image, running under KVM (and booted on TianoCore UEFI) on Gentoo):


(NB the above was taken on an RPi3B+, where the resources to run a 2nd virtualized OS, particularly with a GUI, are very tight: on e.g. a 4GiB RPi4B, you have much more headroom).

Its my first time using Gentoo and i am struggling to understand how install things. I tried myself but with no luck

Gentoo's package management approach is quite different from e.g. that of apt. You can read more about it e.g. in my notes here.

hth, sakaki

[Gavinmc42]

Sakaki, I used a Pi3 to genup 1.5.1 running on a bootable SSD.
Took all night, those old 3's are slow
But not as slow as waiting for USB boot on Pi4

So now I have a updated Gentoo64 USB3 240GB SSD but it only boots on Pi3's.
How do I now make a uSD from this SSD to boot a Pi4 from the uSD and use the SSD files?

Just copy the boot partition to a uSD and change ?

[Gavinmc42]

Suspect an USB3 issue for SSD problems.

Unknown VL805 eeprom code.
A "sudo rpi-eeprom-update -a" seems to have got my Pi4 up to date.

Will need to check the USB3 to Sata chip in the external SSD dock to see if it a quirky one.
https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/view ... y#p1521358

Starting to see why USB boot on Pi4's could be months away.

Edit - use this to check what eeprom version are being used "sudo rpi-eeprom-update"
/etc/default/rpi-eeprom-update will contain this normally - FIRMWARE_RELEASE_STATUS="critical"
edit "critical" to "beta" to get the newest beta versions.

https://github.com/raspberrypi/rpi-eeprom

This is mostly netboot changes at the moment but a netbooting version of Gentoo64 might be interesting.
A Graphics teaching net booting Gentoo64 with Blender for Artists or electronics version with Arduino etc.

So can my Gentoo64 3B+ with USB booting 240GB SSD be a server host for netbooting Pi4's yet?

[sakaki]

Sakaki, I used a Pi3 to genup 1.5.1 running on a bootable SSD.
Took all night, those old 3's are slow
But not as slow as waiting for USB boot on Pi4

So now I have a updated Gentoo64 USB3 240GB SSD but it only boots on Pi3's.
How do I now make a uSD from this SSD to boot a Pi4 from the uSD and use the SSD files?

Just copy the boot partition to a uSD and change ?

Easiest thing is to create a uSD with Raspbian Lite on there (as this will have a different PARTUUID setup from the Gentoo image). Then copy all files (recursively) from the SSD's boot partition onto the uSD's boot (overwriting). Insert both uSD and SSD into your Pi4, and boot.

Once up, edit /etc/fstab so that the /boot partition used is on the uSD, not the SSD. Edit this file so the non-commented lines read:

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/dev/mmcblk0p1	        /boot		vfat    defaults          0       2
PARTUUID=7a0c8bb0-02	/		ext4    defaults,noatime  0       1
/var/cache/swap/swap1   none		swap	sw		  0	  0

Then reboot.

Remember, if you do use this setup, that the SSD's boot partition's filesystem will not be kept up to date (as changes to the kernel etc. will be written to the uSD card instead - which is of course what you want while 'hybrid' booting in this fashion), so when 'true' USB-boot comes along in future, you'll need to copy the files back to the SSD's partition 1, from the uSD card's partition 1, and restore the original line in /etc/fstab, before trying to boot standalone.

hth, sakaki

[Gavinmc42]

Sasaki, I did it backwards
Copied the SSD boot to a 512MB uSD , that way root is already pointed to the SSD.

It booted fine but I think I have a quirky USB3 to SSD chip.
It got to a certain stage and stopped.
Unplugged the USB/SSD and it went further and then stopped again.

Going to check what USB chips are known to work and look for an adapter.
dmesg reports this, will check my other USB to sata chips.
What chip/brand are you using?

Anyway, tested rpi-eeprom-update on gentoo64, it works fine.

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[ 2981.525589] usb 2-1: new SuperSpeed Gen 1 USB device number 2 using xhci_hcd
[ 2981.547174] usb 2-1: New USB device found, idVendor=152d, idProduct=0578, bcdDevice= 1.00
[ 2981.547194] usb 2-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 2981.547206] usb 2-1: Product: USB3.0 HDD DOCK
[ 2981.547217] usb 2-1: Manufacturer: JMicron
[ 2981.547227] usb 2-1: SerialNumber: 0000AB123519
[ 2981.596049] scsi host0: uas
[ 2981.600367] scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Crucial_ CT240M500SSD1    8101 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
[ 2981.605342] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 468862128 512-byte logical blocks: (240 GB/224 GiB)
[ 2981.605360] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 4096-byte physical blocks
[ 2981.605719] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
[ 2981.605736] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 53 00 00 08
[ 2981.606394] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Disabling FUA
[ 2981.606413] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[ 2981.607608] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Optimal transfer size 33553920 bytes not a multiple of physical block size (4096 bytes)
[ 2982.204086]  sda: sda1 sda2
[ 2982.206738] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk

Edit - Booting from uSD halts at "checking local file system" when the USB3/SSD dock is plugged in.
Probably USB driver issues?
This a bit of a pain as I cannot leave it plugged in as a second drive.

[sakaki]

One quick thing you could try is to do the hybrid (uSD bootfs/SSD rootfs) boot with the SSD plugged into one of the USB2 ports on the RPi4B. If this works OK, then it is probably a compatibility/driver issue (rather than an fstab issue or similar). The other would be to try a Raspbian boot using a similar hybrid setup using e.g. RonR's usb-boot script (and the USB3 port) (and if that works, do the same but with a 64-bit kernel Raspbian, by setting arm_64bit=1 in the uSD card's config.txt - assuming it is an up-to-date image you are working with).

Those tests will help to narrow down where the issue resides. "Pure" USB-boot is also in development now of course:

Bootloader guy is now working fully on USB boot. No timescales as yet.

hth, sakaki

[Gavinmc42]

Having the SSD Dock plugged into a USB2 port worked, booted from uSD and did not halt.
I don't think it is fstab etc as it boots and runs on Pi3's fine.
Also when SSD Dock is plugged into USB2 there is no delay when using the Disks tool in Accessories.

On USB3 it can take 10's of secs for the drive to appear and sometime 2nd partition shows as blank.
I thought I had formatting issues and reformatted the SSDs many times.
Turns out they were fine as Pi3's had no issues.

Yep has to be USB3/driver/VL805?
Time to try other USB/Sata chips while Pi guy solves things.
Might need to spend more money, could be a reason that Dock was very cheap