[continued from previous message] 
  
 > I own this laptop, and as a person who is lucky enough to not need any 
 accessibility settings, it is frankly a nightmare to use in it's current 
 state. Simply running system updates is not an option, and I've had to 
 completely reinstall the operating 
 system on mine several times because I forgot. I've tried off-and-on since I 
 bought it at least a year ago, and it's currently gathering dust next to my 
 other K1/M1 system while I wait for the upstreaming effort to finish. Even 
 after the CPU gets 
 upstreamed, owners of this laptop will probably need to use DeepComputing's 
 custom ISO while Imagination Technologies (the GPU vendor) gets their act 
 together and finally merges their changes to mesa into upstream.€€ 
 > 
 > I would highly recommend reading through the issues in the DC ROMA II 
 Github 
 page (see here: https://github.com/DC-DeepComputing/DC-ROMA_Gen2 
 LAPTOP_K1_RV-L2A€€), just to get a sense for the state of the device as a 
 whole. It's clunky, it's not ready, 
 and it's largely been forgotten by DeepComputing as far as I can tell while 
 they figure out their Framework Mainboard endeavour. The JH7110 SOC is kinda 
 the only good RISC-V chip to recommend right now for anything outside the 
 absolute most niche cases, 
 because it's been almost entirely upstreamed, and therefore is supported by 
 the Debian installer natively. RISC-V is a really cool technology, and I 
 love 
 it a lot, but the hardware ecosystem right now is about the same as the 
 Raspberry Pi 2 was when it 
 came out, and I mean that both from a software support standpoint and from a 
 hardware performance perspective. 
 > 
 > To be perfectly frank, if I could talk to my past self, I would say to not 
 buy this laptop and save myself the migraines. In a few years, it will be 
 better, but the hardware barely runs on the hardware manufacturer blessed 
 distro images. The fact that 
 anyone tried to cram this chip in a laptop is a testament to the arrogance 
 of 
 man, because a laptop appeals to normal people, and this laptop is at best a 
 marketing stunt to drum up good PR for RISC-V on the whole. 
 > 
 > 
 > On Thu, 11 Sept 2025 at 18:01, Kirk Reiser  wrote: 
 > Hello folks: Thank you for the responses. 
 > 
 > €€The laptop did infact come with ubuntu-24.04 installed, except it was 
 > €€a greatly reduced package, they say because it wasn't expected that a 
 > €€lot of people would login. It was kind of bogus in my mind. 
 > 
 > €€I upgraded the OS to their most recent version of 24.04.3 except it 
 > €€craps out when trying to upgrade to their idea of the latest kernel 
 > €€6.14.0. The distro as shipped has kernel 6.6.36 except with many 
 > €€kernel modules missing. The upgrade of the kernel dies while trying to 
 > €€copy the dtb files from a nonexistant spacemit directory in /boot. I 
 > €€have tried many things to attempt to spoof the new kernel from copying 
 > €€over the installed dtbs to a new 6.14.0 directory with no joy. 
 > 
 > €€Oh, and yes, it is using u-boot. 
 > 
 > €€Unfortunately Some of the kernel modules which are missing are the 
 > €€speakup modules which I must have to provide speech in text console 
 > €€mode. That has also made it much more difficult because it means I 
 > €€have to have a sighted person here to help me install/break/reinstall 
 > €€various packages. 
 > 
 > €€Upon examining the two debian images I tried to boot I realized that 
 > €€the netinst is grub based so wouldn't boot. The dvd however does 
 > €€appear to be u-boot based so I am still at a loss for the reason it 
 > €€won't boot. 
 > 
 > €€I don't really understand the booting mechanism of u-boot, even after 
 > €€reading what I've been able to find. 
 > 
 > €€Anyway, the spacemit is an 8-core SOC called K1X I believe. The 
 > €€processor is a M1-8571. Here is the cpu line from dmesg on the system: 
 > 
 > €€spacemit-socinfo soc:socinfo@0: Spacemit: CPU[M1-8571] REV[C] DRO[127] 
 Detected 
 > 
 > €€So thank you and if you have any other recommendations I would 
 > €€appreciate them. 
 > 
 > €€€€€€ Kirk 
 > 
 > €€ 
 > €€On Thu, 11 Sep 2025, Greg Sterling wrote: 
 > 
 > €€> Hello! 
 > €€> 
 > €€> My boss thought I might be able to get you contact with the devboards 
 community for help.€€ If you€€€re interested, you might be able to get some 
 help by sending an email to devboard-community@riscv.org.€€ There are a lot 
 of 
 helpful people out 
 there who may have experienced similar problems and may be able to offer 
 some 
 help or suggestions. 
 > €€> 
 > €€> Thanks and have a great day! 
 > €€> 
 > €€> Greg Sterling (RISC-V International) 
 > €€> Phone: +1 603 321 7320 
 > €€> E-mail: greg@riscv.org 
 > €€> 
 > €€>> On Sep 10, 2025, at 8:04€€€PM, Jeff Scheel  wrote: 
 > €€>> 
 > €€>> You might want to try and connect with Kirk with the DevBoard 
 community 
 to see€€ if someone can help here... 
 > €€>> 
 > €€>> -- 
 > €€>> Jeff Scheel (he/him/his) 
 > €€>> Director of Technical Programs, RISC-V International 
 > €€>> 
 > €€>> Join me at RISC-V Summit NA (link ) 
 > €€>> 
 > €€>> 
 > €€>> ---------- Forwarded message --------- 
 > €€>> From: Lucy Mielke > 
 > €€>> Date: Wed, Sep 10, 2025 at 4:40€€€PM 
 > €€>> Subject: Re: Deep Computing DC-ROMA ii won't boot 
 > €€>> To: Kirk Reiser > 
 > €€>> Cc: >, >, >, > 
 > €€>> 
 > €€>> 
 > €€>> Good evening Mr. Reiser, 
 > €€>> 
 > €€>> unfortunately, DeepComputing hasn't released any downloadable images, 
 or documentation regarding the boot process. 
 > €€>> 
 > €€>> The description for your issue makes me believe that the FML13V03 
 board 
 (your DC-ROMA gen II model) probably needs something like u-boot, similar to 
 the FML13V01 board (the previous revision). 
 > €€>> 
 > €€>> That would explain why the two "generic" Debian images won't boot once 
 flashed on any medium. AFAIK, the Gen II model is not supported by Debian 
 yet 
 either. Hopefully we can, once documentation and hardware is more readily 
 available. 
 > €€>> 
 > €€>> Have you tried what distro DeepComputing shipped with the device (if 
 they did)? If so, what CPU name is reported by fastfetch/neofetch/System 
 Info 
 under Settings? 
 > €€>> 
 > €€>> That info might possibly be able to clear up some stuff, and open the 
 door to another port. 
 > €€>> 
 > €€>> 
 > €€>> Thanks and best regards, 
 > €€>> Lucy Mielke 
 > €€>> 
 > €€>>> Am 10.09.2025 um 22:03 schrieb Kirk Reiser >: 
 > €€>>> 
 > €€>>> Hello folks: I have tried to boot with the CD image and the netinst 
 > €€>>> images on my dc-roma ii laptop computer with no luck. I would 
 > €€>>> certainly appreciate any clews or suggestions people could provide 
 > €€>>> me. In both cases the machine acts like the images are not even 
 > €€>>> there. I have dd'd the images to an sdcard because that seems to be 
 > €€>>> the only choice available other than the built-in nvme drive. 
 > €€>>> 
 > €€>>> The images I've attempted to boot from are: 
 > €€>>> debian-testing-riscv64-DVD-1.iso 
 > €€>>> debian-testing-riscv64-netinst.iso 
 > €€>>> 
 > €€>>> Thank you for your consideration. 
 > €€>>>€€ Kirk 
 > €€>>> 
 > €€>> 
 > €€> 
 > €€> 
  
  
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