Re: [PATCH v1 0/3] Meson A1 32-bit support

[Kevin Hilman]

Dmitry Rokosov <ddrokosov@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

> On Mon, Feb 27, 2023 at 07:19:38PM +0100, Arnd Bergmann wrote:
>> On Mon, Feb 27, 2023, at 17:50, Dmitry Rokosov wrote:
>> > On Mon, Feb 27, 2023 at 05:38:49PM +0100, Neil Armstrong wrote:
>> >> On 27/02/2023 17:15, Arnd Bergmann wrote:
>> >> > On Mon, Feb 27, 2023, at 16:51, Dmitry Rokosov wrote:
>> >> > 
>> >> > Most of these don't apply in userspace, so the incentive to
>> >> > run smaller 32-bit userland on systems with less than 1GB of
>> >> > RAM usually outweighs the benefits of 64-bit userspace.
>> >> 
>> >> Thanks for the details!
>> >
>> > Looks like Thomas has already prepared a basic patch series for buildroot,
>> > but maintainers declined it.
>> >
>> > https://lore.kernel.org/all/20220730194331.GA2515056@scaer/
>> 
>> I see. I know very little about buildroot, but it sounds like
>> there are other ways of doing the same thing here. In general,
>> this is pretty much an Arm specific problem. While you clearly
>> want compat mode for small userland on any architecture but don't
>> want 32-bit kernels, arm is the only one that has a different
>> kernel "ARCH=" value and needs a separate gcc toolchain.
>> 
>> If the problem is only the toolchain, an easy way out may
>> be to use clang instead of gcc as your compiler, as a single
>> clang binary can target both 32-bit userland and 64-bit kernel
>> on all supported architectures.
>
> Agreed with you. We will try different local approaches to support
> compat build configurations. For now, prebuilt toolchain (buildroot make
> sdk goal) is best way from my point of view. Anyway, we will try to
> solve this problem in the our sandbox and stay on the 64-bit kernel.
> Thank you for all the helpful details you shared, appreciate it!

Just to clarify one thing...

More specifically, this is a buildroot *build system* problem.  If you
build the kernel separately from the rootfs, it works fine. 

I use 32-bit buildroot (and debian) rootfs images all the time on
Amlogic SoCs with 64-bit kernels and it works fine.  

Kevin