[9fans] GSoC 2013 - ~24 hours left for org application!

[9fans] GSoC 2013 - ~24 hours left for org application!

[a]

Folks:
	We're down to just about 24 hours remaining until org
applicaitons are due for Summer of Code 2013. After tomorrow
evening, the fine folks at Google will grab the application and
some key pages linked from it, such as the ideas page and
student application template, and begin evaluating orgs to
decide who gets to participate.

	The application itself is coming along nicely. It's mostly
the same as the past few years, so that's the easy part. The
bigger deal is the linked pages, most particularly the ideas
page. This is a key part of the evaluation process, and is the
thing that gets brought up most in the meetings for rejected
orgs most every year. We've gotten positive feedback on ours
for the past several years, but we still need to have this in really
solid shape.

	As of now, our idea page is a bit lighter on the variety of
ideas compared to what we've seen in the past. It would be
really good if folks could think hard about the sorts of projects
they'd be interested in being a mentor for and get those in
there ASAP. It would be especially good to have ideas attached
to a few more prospective mentors.

	Remember, putting your name on that page is in no way a
commitment to mentor any particular student/application/project.
We'll take a look at the specific applications we get and evaluate
them at that point. If you're thinking "I'd work on this, but only if
the student looked stellar", then put that in!

	The easiest (for me, and given the timing, for us generally)
way to do this is to edit the wiki directly; just follow the template
of the existing examples. If you can't do that, just send me email
with a description of the project (decent detail, please) and an
estimated difficulty, and I'll add it in.

	The wiki in general isn't really brought into the application
process, but it will be an important resource for interested
prospective students. If you've been putting off making any
changes there, adding things, fixing out of date info, now would
be a really good time to get a move on that.

	Much thanks to all the folks who've submitted ideas so far,
either to me or on the wiki directly. Looking forward to getting
this application done!

Anthony

Re: [9fans] GSoC 2013 - ~24 hours left for org application!

[Steven Stallion]

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Hey Anthony,

I'd be happy to sign up as a Mentor again this year. I haven't added this
to the ideas page yet since I've been keeping the project mostly quiet, but
I've been working on porting Plan 9 to the ARM Chromebook. It might not be
the best project for a student since at the moment, it requires a developer
board from south korea that's not the easiest to get a hold of, though cost
is low (around 250). Would it be worth mentioning this on the application?

Cheers,

Steve


On Thu, Mar 28, 2013 at 1:38 PM, <a@9srv.net> wrote:

> Folks:
>         We're down to just about 24 hours remaining until org
> applicaitons are due for Summer of Code 2013. After tomorrow
> evening, the fine folks at Google will grab the application and
> some key pages linked from it, such as the ideas page and
> student application template, and begin evaluating orgs to
> decide who gets to participate.
>
>         The application itself is coming along nicely. It's mostly
> the same as the past few years, so that's the easy part. The
> bigger deal is the linked pages, most particularly the ideas
> page. This is a key part of the evaluation process, and is the
> thing that gets brought up most in the meetings for rejected
> orgs most every year. We've gotten positive feedback on ours
> for the past several years, but we still need to have this in really
> solid shape.
>
>         As of now, our idea page is a bit lighter on the variety of
> ideas compared to what we've seen in the past. It would be
> really good if folks could think hard about the sorts of projects
> they'd be interested in being a mentor for and get those in
> there ASAP. It would be especially good to have ideas attached
> to a few more prospective mentors.
>
>         Remember, putting your name on that page is in no way a
> commitment to mentor any particular student/application/project.
> We'll take a look at the specific applications we get and evaluate
> them at that point. If you're thinking "I'd work on this, but only if
> the student looked stellar", then put that in!
>
>         The easiest (for me, and given the timing, for us generally)
> way to do this is to edit the wiki directly; just follow the template
> of the existing examples. If you can't do that, just send me email
> with a description of the project (decent detail, please) and an
> estimated difficulty, and I'll add it in.
>
>         The wiki in general isn't really brought into the application
> process, but it will be an important resource for interested
> prospective students. If you've been putting off making any
> changes there, adding things, fixing out of date info, now would
> be a really good time to get a move on that.
>
>         Much thanks to all the folks who've submitted ideas so far,
> either to me or on the wiki directly. Looking forward to getting
> this application done!
>
> Anthony
>
>

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Re: [9fans] GSoC 2013 - ~24 hours left for org application!

[Steven Stallion]

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Damn you Gmail. Damn you.

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Re: [9fans] GSoC 2013 - ~24 hours left for org application!

[erik quanstrom]

> Hey Anthony,
>
> I'd be happy to sign up as a Mentor again this year. I haven't added this
> to the ideas page yet since I've been keeping the project mostly quiet, but
> I've been working on porting Plan 9 to the ARM Chromebook. It might not be
> the best project for a student since at the moment, it requires a developer
> board from south korea that's not the easiest to get a hold of, though cost
> is low (around 250). Would it be worth mentioning this on the application?

cool!

has the documentation been easy enough to get a hold of?

- erik

Re: [9fans] GSoC 2013 - ~24 hours left for org application!

[Steven Stallion]

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'ish. Samsung's documents are somewhat rough, but enough to get a basic
debugging environment setup. I've recently added support to U-Boot for Plan
9 kernel images and submitted a patch (arm-uboot), which adds an option to
the loader to generate a uImage. Eventually I need to write everything up
so others can make use of it. I should have a minimal C runtime this
weekend if all goes well.

So far I believe the only real annoyance is lack of public documentation
for the Mali T604, the synaptics touchpad, and of course dealing with the
Marvell wireless part. These can all be dealt with down the road, hopefully
by more willing individuals!

Cheers,

Steve


On Thu, Mar 28, 2013 at 4:55 PM, erik quanstrom <quanstro@quanstro.net>wrote:

> > Hey Anthony,
> >
> > I'd be happy to sign up as a Mentor again this year. I haven't added this
> > to the ideas page yet since I've been keeping the project mostly quiet,
> but
> > I've been working on porting Plan 9 to the ARM Chromebook. It might not
> be
> > the best project for a student since at the moment, it requires a
> developer
> > board from south korea that's not the easiest to get a hold of, though
> cost
> > is low (around 250). Would it be worth mentioning this on the
> application?
>
> cool!
>
> has the documentation been easy enough to get a hold of?
>
> - erik
>
>

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Re: [9fans] GSoC 2013 - ~24 hours left for org application!

[erik quanstrom]

> So far I believe the only real annoyance is lack of public documentation
> for the Mali T604, the synaptics touchpad, and of course dealing with the
> Marvell wireless part. These can all be dealt with down the road, hopefully
> by more willing individuals!

he!  does that leave you land-locked, or have you got
usb ethernet going?

- erik

Re: [9fans] GSoC 2013 - ~24 hours left for org application!

[Steven Stallion]

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USB has been working quite well so far. The Arndale board has an onboard
ASIX, which has been working quite well for tftp booting kernel images.


On Thu, Mar 28, 2013 at 5:15 PM, erik quanstrom <quanstro@quanstro.net>wrote:

> > So far I believe the only real annoyance is lack of public documentation
> > for the Mali T604, the synaptics touchpad, and of course dealing with the
> > Marvell wireless part. These can all be dealt with down the road,
> hopefully
> > by more willing individuals!
>
> he!  does that leave you land-locked, or have you got
> usb ethernet going?
>
> - erik
>
>

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Re: [9fans] GSoC 2013 - ~24 hours left for org application!

[Richard Miller]

> which adds an option to
> the loader to generate a uImage

What's the advantage of using a uImage instead of elf or raw binary?

Re: [9fans] GSoC 2013 - ~24 hours left for org application!

[lucio]

>> which adds an option to
>> the loader to generate a uImage
>
> What's the advantage of using a uImage instead of elf or raw binary?

Popularity?  U-boot seems very fond of uImage format, my guess is that
it fits well within their line of expertise.  I'm also interested in
the opinion of those in the know.

++L

Re: [9fans] GSoC 2013 - ~24 hours left for org application!

[Charles Forsyth]

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On 29 March 2013 09:38, <lucio@proxima.alt.za> wrote:

> Popularity?  U-boot seems very fond of uImage format, my guess is that
> it fits well within their line of expertise.  I'm also interested in
> the opinion of those in the know.
>

Unlike Elf, the format is trivial.

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Re: [9fans] GSoC 2013 - ~24 hours left for org application!

[Richard Miller]

> Unlike Elf, the format is trivial.

Not as trivial as raw binary, which we currently use for u-boot loading
on most ARMs.  The uImage format contains the load and entry address so
you don't have to look up 'man 8 booting' or check the kernel mkfile before
setting up the u-boot script.  Are there any other advantages?

Re: [9fans] GSoC 2013 - ~24 hours left for org application!

[Steven Stallion]

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U-Boot also performs relocation based on the load address which simplifies
the boot process. I'm working on an XIP kernel, which has cut around 100
LOC out of l.s. It's a small change, but simplifies things considerably.


On Fri, Mar 29, 2013 at 3:19 AM, Richard Miller <9fans@hamnavoe.com> wrote:

> > Unlike Elf, the format is trivial.
>
> Not as trivial as raw binary, which we currently use for u-boot loading
> on most ARMs.  The uImage format contains the load and entry address so
> you don't have to look up 'man 8 booting' or check the kernel mkfile before
> setting up the u-boot script.  Are there any other advantages?
>
>
>

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Re: [9fans] GSoC 2013 - ~24 hours left for org application!

[Steven Stallion]

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I should probably mention, there is no need for much of a U-Boot script
anymore. To boot with a uImage, my bootcmd is quite literally "tftpboot;
bootm". Obviously we still have to do the same dance with plan9.ini, but I
can live with that, though I do have some plans on how to deal with that
later.


On Fri, Mar 29, 2013 at 9:17 AM, Steven Stallion <sstallion@gmail.com>wrote:

> U-Boot also performs relocation based on the load address which simplifies
> the boot process. I'm working on an XIP kernel, which has cut around 100
> LOC out of l.s. It's a small change, but simplifies things considerably.
>
>
> On Fri, Mar 29, 2013 at 3:19 AM, Richard Miller <9fans@hamnavoe.com>wrote:
>
>> > Unlike Elf, the format is trivial.
>>
>> Not as trivial as raw binary, which we currently use for u-boot loading
>> on most ARMs.  The uImage format contains the load and entry address so
>> you don't have to look up 'man 8 booting' or check the kernel mkfile
>> before
>> setting up the u-boot script.  Are there any other advantages?
>>
>>
>>
>

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Re: [9fans] GSoC 2013 - ~24 hours left for org application!

[erik quanstrom]

On Fri Mar 29 12:20:27 EDT 2013, sstallion@gmail.com wrote:

> I should probably mention, there is no need for much of a U-Boot script
> anymore. To boot with a uImage, my bootcmd is quite literally "tftpboot;
> bootm". Obviously we still have to do the same dance with plan9.ini, but I
> can live with that, though I do have some plans on how to deal with that
> later.

interesting.  do you mind sharing which dev kit you are using?
i think the swedish were wrong in dropping "ungoogleable" from
consideration.  ☺  ... and not that i have time.

- erik

Re: [9fans] GSoC 2013 - ~24 hours left for org application!

[Steven Stallion]

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I've been using an Arndale board. It needed a small bit of rework to
simplify power cycling the board, otherwise it's been quite good.


On Fri, Mar 29, 2013 at 6:14 PM, erik quanstrom <quanstro@quanstro.net>wrote:

> On Fri Mar 29 12:20:27 EDT 2013, sstallion@gmail.com wrote:
>
> > I should probably mention, there is no need for much of a U-Boot script
> > anymore. To boot with a uImage, my bootcmd is quite literally "tftpboot;
> > bootm". Obviously we still have to do the same dance with plan9.ini, but
> I
> > can live with that, though I do have some plans on how to deal with that
> > later.
>
> interesting.  do you mind sharing which dev kit you are using?
> i think the swedish were wrong in dropping "ungoogleable" from
> consideration.  ☺  ... and not that i have time.
>
> - erik
>
>

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