@crn
Hi,
I did exactly the same as you, i.e. changed my guruplug order to a Open-rd Ultimate.
I have spent a LOT of time acquiring, (or trying to), the many pieces of information necessary to get the Ultimate working to my satisfaction.
I have used the forum on open-rd.org and the Debian mail lists extensively
Progress so far.
1. I have installed a Debian testing system on a Sata hard drive fitted to the open-rd pcb
2. I am using uboot version v 1.1.4v modified by Marvel to 3.4.16. NOTE this uboot does NOT support micro sd card.
3. I am using kernel 2.6.32-16 which works well and appears to support everything except the micro sd card
4. I have got the XGI Z11 video chip working with frame buffer, as a terminal and in X11, lots of help from Martin Michlmayr.
5. I have been experimenting with mjpg-streamer serving a Trust web cam which is working well
The X11 performance is very slow and not worth bothering with! (unless it can be improved by careful choice of xorg parameters (see later))
The biggest problem with the open-rd is the lack of any coherent support for the devices. After a month of struggling I blew up and posted a harsh comment about this
The Open-rd support person responded very positively and asked the forum for issues affecting peple to be posted in the bug page of the open-rd Goggle code.
(One of my issues was that only one of twelve issues had ever had the status changed from "new" to "accepted" even after many months)
It remains to be seen whether the situation improves.
I am still unclear which company officially supports the Open-rd, I think it is still einfochips, although I could be wrong!
My concerns at the moment
1. A version of uboot that supports all the Open-rd peripherels. ( SD card most urgent )
2. Documentation on the parameters to supply to Uboot to boot Kernel with specified resolution, and documentation regading XGI x org parameters to get the fastest X11 performance
3. Documentation and downloads organised to provide easy identification of uboot and kernel versions, (I had problems understanding which kernel had what features a mainline and what needed a special compile with patches.
The Ultimate appears to run very cool and be very stable! (so far) although I am only using one port at 100 base T,
You must be aware that the Ultimate uses different api's for lots of features, and a "generic" kernel is not going to work unless it is the latest with all the patches incorporated. ( Which is another gripe of mine, scratching through all the kernel lists trying to ascertain whether a patch actually made it to main line!)
anyway it keeps my brain a little bit further from the onset of old age senility ( I hope)
best of luck
regards
Patrick
