Can we use branch `visionfive` to build for VisionFive2?

[jiapei100]

Naive question: Can we directly use default branch visionfive to build kernel for VisionFive2 board?

The reason why?

1. Current newest kernel from kernel.org seems to support VisionFive2 by default.
2. It seems current default branch visionfive is quite similar to the kernel from kernel.org
3. However, the branch JH7110_VisionFive2_devel has a huge difference from current kernel from kernel.org
4. However, if using kernel from kernel.org, there will be a lot modification from https://rvspace.org/en/project/Building_StarFive_Debian_Image, including vpu and spl

Any suggestions?? Thank you

[MichaIng]

This won't work well: visionfive is a branch for the VisionFive 1 which is also used to push changes upstream, hence matches the one from kernel.org which a few local commits. For the VisionFive 2, the respective upstreaming branch is JH7110_VisionFive2_upstream. However, VisionFive 2 support is not yet complete in mainline Linux, especially PCIe and hence, AFAIK, NVMe is not supported yet. See the status here: https://rvspace.org/en/project/JH7110_Upstream_Plan
If you can live with that, build with the sources from kernel.org.

JH7110_VisionFive2_devel is the vendor kernel based on Linux 5.15, without any changes from upstream merged since an 5.15 RC version, AFAIK. It fully supports all hardware features of the VisionFive 2, but possibly more in a "it just works" manner, not so much taking care of code quality, consistency, eliminating build warnings etc, which is what the Linux maintainers enforce in the upstreaming process. Same for JH7110_VisionFive2_6.1.y_devel, and JH7110_VisionFive2_510_devel just based on different upstream versions.

[jiapei100]

@MichaIng

Good to learn... Thank you so much for your detailed explaination.

From https://rvspace.org/en/project/JH7110_Upstream_Plan, all the following:

• Timer
• PWM
• PCIe
• HDMI/ DC8200
  etc., are ALREADY under review ?? So, it's qutie promising. Anyway, let me patch the other patches and build.

BTW, can you help to take a look at my this issue about WAVE511:
starfive-tech/soft_3rdpart#6

Thank you ...