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Author Topic: Why GCW-Zero does not yet function HDMI Out And USB OTG?  (Read 27211 times)

pcercuei

  • Posts: 1706
    • My devblog
Re: Why GCW-Zero does not yet function HDMI Out And USB OTG?
« Reply #20 on: September 05, 2016, 04:43:41 pm »
Cleaning the shit out of the drivers, so that we can push them upstream. Which is mostly done after months of hard work, but some nasty bugs are left that need attention. Then once we're happy with it we'll make a FW update, and after that one work on DRM/KMS driver for TV-out and HDMI can start.

Just out of curiosity, what will this mean for end users, other than ensuring the drivers continue to function in the future? More overall stability perhaps?

For the end users, not much. It allows us to keep updating to recent Linux kernels with shiny new features. And cleaning up the drivers makes debugging much easier, and would allow advanced features like suspend/resume to work (not working yet). Some drivers already work much better than before (e.g. the SD card driver).

From the FW developer point of view, having the drivers upstream means that we don't have to keep up with the upstream changes anymore at every single release of Linux, other developers do it for us.

About the KMS driver, not only it's required for HDMI and TV-out, but it will also allow us to update to the latest "etnaviv" (GPU driver). Since we only have a framebuffer driver right now (instead of KMS) we're stuck with a really old version  :'(

taciturasa

  • Posts: 2
Re: Why GCW-Zero does not yet function HDMI Out And USB OTG?
« Reply #21 on: September 06, 2016, 04:02:00 am »
Once this round of updates (hopefully the last ones needed to bring in all the promised functionality) are finished, will there be one more round of production on the console?

SONY

  • !
  • Posts: 1633
Re: Why GCW-Zero does not yet function HDMI Out And USB OTG?
« Reply #22 on: September 06, 2016, 04:19:04 am »
<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210624030918/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7Yp2L6c2KM" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7Yp2L6c2KM</a>

Zero is dead.
Most people only care about GPD Android and Windows hand-helds.
« Last Edit: September 06, 2016, 04:20:55 am by SONY »
Nintendo Switch w/ipega PG-9083

SONY PS3 Super Slim
SONY PS4 Slim
SONY PS4 Pro

ALLDOCUBE Mix Plus w/ ipega PG-9023

Apple iPad pro 2019 w/Gamevice (pending)

Mar8

  • Posts: 103
Re: Why GCW-Zero does not yet function HDMI Out And USB OTG?
« Reply #23 on: September 06, 2016, 04:53:15 am »
@SONY  speak for yourself, buddy.

howie_k

  • Posts: 157
Re: Why GCW-Zero does not yet function HDMI Out And USB OTG?
« Reply #24 on: September 06, 2016, 07:14:09 am »
I for one love my GCW Zero as is very portable and the 4:3 aspect screen is perfect for retro gaming!  Also, the battery life is amazing.

superfenix2020 (OP)

  • Posts: 248
Re: Why GCW-Zero does not yet function HDMI Out And USB OTG?
« Reply #25 on: September 06, 2016, 10:12:21 am »
hopefully there is still some scene who likes GCW-Zero and wants/can get a new firmware to enable TV output and USB OTG.


but... is shameful that even a Chinese portable console of 12 euros have TV output
while the GCW-Zero which costs 150 euros, not.  ???

http://es.aliexpress.com/item/2016-NEW-HOT-Childhood-Classic-Game-With-888888-Games-3-0-Inch-8-Bit-PVP-Portable/32604923663.html
« Last Edit: September 06, 2016, 01:44:52 pm by superfenix2020 »

Beerman1138

  • Posts: 160
Re: Why GCW-Zero does not yet function HDMI Out And USB OTG?
« Reply #26 on: September 07, 2016, 05:22:13 pm »
hopefully there is still some scene who likes GCW-Zero and wants/can get a new firmware to enable TV output and USB OTG.


but... is shameful that even a Chinese portable console of 12 euros have TV output
while the GCW-Zero which costs 150 euros, not.  ???

http://es.aliexpress.com/item/2016-NEW-HOT-Childhood-Classic-Game-With-888888-Games-3-0-Inch-8-Bit-PVP-Portable/32604923663.html

You are comparing apples to oranges here.  The GCW Zero is far more complex than the link you provided.  The "PVP" is only capable of playing NES games -- as it is a NES-on-a-chip console, and there's no HDMI out, it's composite -- which is far easier as well. 

superfenix2020 (OP)

  • Posts: 248
Re: Why GCW-Zero does not yet function HDMI Out And USB OTG?
« Reply #27 on: September 07, 2016, 10:18:44 pm »
the case is that the GCW-Zero has ??no composite output/TV analog!!

My dream is to connect it to a CRT TV.

jmthomas87

  • Posts: 6
Re: Why GCW-Zero does not yet function HDMI Out And USB OTG?
« Reply #28 on: September 28, 2016, 06:40:39 pm »
Cleaning the shit out of the drivers, so that we can push them upstream. Which is mostly done after months of hard work, but some nasty bugs are left that need attention. Then once we're happy with it we'll make a FW update, and after that one work on DRM/KMS driver for TV-out and HDMI can start.

Just out of curiosity, what will this mean for end users, other than ensuring the drivers continue to function in the future? More overall stability perhaps?

For the end users, not much. It allows us to keep updating to recent Linux kernels with shiny new features. And cleaning up the drivers makes debugging much easier, and would allow advanced features like suspend/resume to work (not working yet). Some drivers already work much better than before (e.g. the SD card driver).

From the FW developer point of view, having the drivers upstream means that we don't have to keep up with the upstream changes anymore at every single release of Linux, other developers do it for us.

About the KMS driver, not only it's required for HDMI and TV-out, but it will also allow us to update to the latest "etnaviv" (GPU driver). Since we only have a framebuffer driver right now (instead of KMS) we're stuck with a really old version  :'(

I for one say just keep on doing what you are doing.  When the Firmware update and KMS drivers are good to go, that is great, but don't rush things. 

See that too often with Linux development.  Push code out that isn't stable or tested enough. 

I like my GCW as it is now, and any improvements/update from the devs will be viewed as much appreciated.

Mar8

  • Posts: 103
Re: Why GCW-Zero does not yet function HDMI Out And USB OTG?
« Reply #29 on: September 28, 2016, 09:59:58 pm »
@jmthomas87 AMEN BROTHER

gameblabla

  • Posts: 1446
Re: Why GCW-Zero does not yet function HDMI Out And USB OTG?
« Reply #30 on: September 28, 2016, 10:06:58 pm »
I dont' know why everyone wants to turn their zeros into playstation tvs.

Atlantis_Risen

  • Posts: 535
Re: Why GCW-Zero does not yet function HDMI Out And USB OTG?
« Reply #31 on: September 28, 2016, 10:28:19 pm »
I dont' know why everyone wants to turn their zeros into playstation tvs.

Personally, I want TV out combined with USB OTG to hook up a couple of gamepads for playing with two or more people.  That would be huge.

Mar8

  • Posts: 103
Re: Why GCW-Zero does not yet function HDMI Out And USB OTG?
« Reply #32 on: September 29, 2016, 02:42:10 am »
I dont' know why everyone wants to turn their zeros into playstation tvs.

Personally, I want TV out combined with USB OTG to hook up a couple of gamepads for playing with two or more people.  That would be huge.

 Yeah, basically I would just want these features so I could use it as a home console with multiple players simultaneously being able to take it on the go as a portable.

 If you guys could get these features nailed out in the next month or two? You would beat the Nintendo NX to the punch hahahahha

 Either way, I love it as a portable and other than upgrading the controls? It truly is amazing as is. These extra features  would just be bonus and really fun for you and your friends all at once.

Ryvan

  • Posts: 55
Re: Why GCW-Zero does not yet function HDMI Out And USB OTG?
« Reply #33 on: October 03, 2016, 11:04:30 pm »
Follow https://github.com/gcwnow/ if you want to see what developers are working on.
Actually no, because 'gcwnow' is like a virtual user that we use to store the repos, so it shows no activity.

Instead, you can follow the https://github.com/gcwnow/linux repository, that's where all the fun stuff happens.

That may be "...  where all the fun stuff happens. ...", but it's impossible to really tell what's going on happening by looking at a github repository, especially when it has like 20-30 branches (presumably on various kernel versions, but idk). What's needed is for someone to parse that into some general statements/status information that other people can understand. Linux kernel development and system programming are pretty far removed from even serious developers of games and applications. It's also pretty impossible to tell what's an improvement unless you build a firmware image and flash it to your device. Nobody can simulate hardware software in their head.

Mostly just curious, but are there directions anywhere on how to get from the source code to a working image you can flash?

I would think graphics driver updates and anything immediately necessary would have priority, unless I misunderstand something. Certain features/improvemnets are definitely of more interest to the users than the developers.
« Last Edit: October 03, 2016, 11:08:40 pm by Ryvan »

gameblabla

  • Posts: 1446
Re: Why GCW-Zero does not yet function HDMI Out And USB OTG?
« Reply #34 on: October 03, 2016, 11:31:04 pm »
Mostly just curious, but are there directions anywhere on how to get from the source code to a working image you can flash?
I think that's what you're looking for :
https://github.com/gcwnow/buildroot

You can even build a firmware with Musl instead of uclibc !
But of course, you should build it against uclibc.

I would think graphics driver updates and anything immediately necessary would have priority, unless I misunderstand something. Certain features/improvemnets are definitely of more interest to the users than the developers.
Except they can't do much as far graphics drivers are concerned because it is not their work.

Eliwood_san

  • Posts: 255
Re: Why GCW-Zero does not yet function HDMI Out And USB OTG?
« Reply #35 on: November 07, 2016, 06:27:22 am »
Another improvement i want for the GCW Zero its have the mtp connection mode like android.Having mtp connection we can ride for once the crappy filezilla program and using the default explorer(Windows,linux etc).Some dev here suggested that feature for the GCW Zero but i dont know if have plans to release this feature in the next firmware...

Ryvan

  • Posts: 55
Re: Why GCW-Zero does not yet function HDMI Out And USB OTG?
« Reply #36 on: November 08, 2016, 05:34:14 pm »
FileZilla isn't crappy at all, just say you'd prefer to use something other than FTP/SFTP if that's what you mean. If you're using Windows you could just the GCW Zero Manager already (granted it still uses SFTP, but it's a little bit less tedious after the initial setup especially if you're just transferring OPKs. You could also use WinSCP and switch on explorer mode which changes the program's interface to look more like windows explorer.

I have no idea when or if there will be a next firmware release myself. Largely speculative,  but if they have to change what kind of device it appears as over USB I think that's probably going to take some time and it will probably have to be turned on by the user rather than being a default setting. Not sure how that would play with getting a network connection over USB.

gameblabla

  • Posts: 1446
Re: Why GCW-Zero does not yet function HDMI Out And USB OTG?
« Reply #37 on: November 08, 2016, 05:59:28 pm »
Quote
FileZilla isn't crappy at all, just say you'd prefer to use something other than FTP/SFTP if that's what you mean. If you're using Windows you could just the GCW Zero Manager already (granted it still uses SFTP, but it's a little bit less tedious after the initial setup especially if you're just transferring OPKs. You could also use WinSCP and switch on explorer mode which changes the program's interface to look more like windows explorer.
I have to agree with alexei_gp : FileZilla is not designed for file transfering to a local device.
Also, since Filezilla by default is set to "Auto" mode, that means sometimes files can be incorrectly detected as ASCII files
and it will end up with a corrupted file on the Zero.
You don't know how many users ran into many issues on my emulators only for them to realise it was due to Filezilla's default.

That said, last time i talked with pcercuei, he said he has not worked on mtp for a while and he did not tested it.
Here's the mtp daemon on his repo :
https://github.com/pcercuei/mtpd

As far as i know, i think they had sucesfully switched to the new build system but i'm not sure. (i have not checked that)
There is still a lot of things to be done before they can release it or else you might end up being disappointed.
It might take a while tho... I'm not sure if it will be released by Mid-2017, as it depends on a large amount of factors.

Ryvan

  • Posts: 55
Re: Why GCW-Zero does not yet function HDMI Out And USB OTG?
« Reply #38 on: November 08, 2016, 07:24:35 pm »
I fail to see how it's the program's fault that you or anyone wants to rely on default settings and expect it to work perfectly every time. That user ignorance/error at work. The issue you describe does not seem like it has anything to do with a 'local device' at all. Connecting to the zero over wifi or even just a computer and transferring the files in question with auto detection of text vs binary enabled would still result in a corrupted file. The only fault that I can see would be if it can't be told to assume binary for files without a text specific extension (txt,json,xml,c,java,etc)

Please correct me if I misunderstand, but it sounded like the USB device needed to identity to the computer (host) as an MTP device (peripheral) for it to be handled that way by the computer. Does/can the zero already do that? Is the daemon for the host or peripheral end of the communication?

pcercuei

  • Posts: 1706
    • My devblog
Re: Why GCW-Zero does not yet function HDMI Out And USB OTG?
« Reply #39 on: November 08, 2016, 07:57:16 pm »
The daemon is for the peripheral side.

The repo is actually this one: https://github.com/OpenDingux/mtpserver
It's a different program - the one linked by gameblabla was picked from Mer / Meego, this one is the one developped by Canonical for the Ubuntu Phone OS.

I didn't touch it for quite a long time, maybe updating it to the latest upstream code fixes some bugs.
It was actually usable but very buggy, and not thouroughly tested.

 

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