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AM3358: Most recent PRU Software Support Package that supports Debian Linux 4.19

Walter Cromer
Intellectual 265 points
Part Number: AM3358

I am trying to make sure our development image has the latest PRU Software Support Package.  The TI repo has quite a few and I see in the release notes that release 5.5.0 added support for Linux 4.19.  

The release notes make mention for version 5.9.0 that Linux kernel 5.4 support was added.

I don't see in the release notes any mention that 4.19 is no longer supported so is 4.19 supported in versions after 5.5.0?

  • 0
    TI__Guru** 100740 points

    Hello Walter,

    The last PRU Software Support package (PSSP) that was bundled with a TI Linux 4.19 release (Linux Processor SDK 6.3) was v5.6.0. So we can say for sure that v5.6.0 should work with the Linux 4.19 drivers.

    However, when I skim through the notes in each tag, most of the changes we made in v5.7.0 - v5.9.0 were specific to ICSSG devices (AM65x, J7es). The only potential change that impacts AM335x we listed was updating the header file pru_virtio_ring.h (which should not affect performance). You could run a quick test with v5.9.0: build the RPMsg Echo example, and make sure that it runs as expected (described in the RPMsg Quick Start Guide. I'll link the page in the AM65x docs since my updates to the latest AM335x docs were temporarily taken offline: https://software-dl.ti.com/processor-sdk-linux/esd/AM65X/08_00_00_04/exports/docs/linux/Foundational_Components/PRU-ICSS/RPMsg_Quick_Start_Guide.html ). If the RPMsg example works as expected, then pru_virtio_ring.h works as expected, and v5.9.0 should be fine for your development.

    One final note: I test the PSSP against TI's Linux software releases, not the Debian Linux releases. So if the Linux drivers in the Debian Linux are different than the Linux drivers in the TI Linux SDK, then the driver may interact with the PRU differently.

    Regards,

    Nick

  • 0 in reply to Nick Saulnier
    TI__Guru** 100740 points

    One final note on compatibility with different versions of Linux:

    The PRU RemoteProc driver has been under active development up until now, so there were occasional breakages with older versions of the RemoteProc driver (especially around the different fields required in the PRU resource tables). If I recall properly, we did not make any big driver-side changes in Linux <--> PRU interaction between Linux kernel 4.19 - 5.4, which is why both kernel versions should be able to use the same versions of the PSSP. We finally unstreamed the PRU RemoteProc driver for Linux kernel 5.10, which required breaking backwards compatibility one last time (thus the transition from PSSP v5.9.0 to the latest v6.0.1. V6.0.1 will be used in the TI Linux kernel 5.10 release for AM335x). Now that the driver is upstreamed starting in Linux kernel 5.10, I would expect our PSSP releases to be centered around adding new content, as opposed to updating to match new versions of the PRU RemoteProc driver.

    Regards,

    Nick

  • 0 in reply to Nick Saulnier
    TI__Guru** 100740 points

    Final final note: double checked with the developer on the "backwards compatibility" question. If there are any concerns about the older software releases (e.g., PSSP v5.5.5 or earlier), check the commit logs - he should have put a note in whenever he was breaking backwards compatibility.

  • 0 in reply to Nick Saulnier
    Intellectual 265 points

    Thanks,   I'll try some of these versions on a test platform and see how it goes.   We have some intermittent flakiness with the version of remoteproc we're using right now so maybe an update will help with that.

    I completely understand about the TI Linux vs. Debian.  It seems the BeagleBone community tends toward Debian so I'm a bit concerned about switching when Debian mostly meets our needs.   But if push comes to shove, I will explore that option.

  • 0 in reply to Walter Cromer
    TI__Guru** 100740 points

    Hello Walter, sounds good. Feel free to reach out if you have additional questions.

    No problem on continuing with Debian - the BeagleBone community does really good work with that OS. You'll just need to reach out to the BeagleBone community instead of TI if you have questions about the Debian Linux releases.

    Regards,

    Nick