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          To: < 
 ebian-boot@lists.debian.org>, <debian-riscv@lists.debian.org> 
          
         
        
       
 
        
 
         Hello again, 
        
 
       
 
       
 
        
 
         I'll explain below, but TLDR is between the accessibility 
 requirements and the weird nature of the hardware, this is, in no uncertain 
 terms, not the laptop for you. I would 
 highly recommend waiting, at least until the rest of the K1 SOC is fully 
 upstreamed; the wiki page for this I will link again here: 
  
        
 
         
 
        
 
       
 
       
 
        
 
         Firstly, you ***cannot*** use a custom kernel for this device, 
 at 
 time of writing. The hardware developer has a custom kernel that you *must* 
 use for this device, v6.6. While 
 there is work in progress, a newer kernel that is not distributed by the 
 hardware developer will not work.  
        
 
       
 
       
 
        
 
         
 
        
 
       
 
       
 
        
 
         Next, let's talk u-boot vs UEFI. U-boot requires a lot more than 
 UEFI, as has been mentioned previously. However, there is a lot more 
 information hidden in that statement 
 than you might think. For example, you can't just move the dtb file to the 
 right location. The "dtb" extension stands for DeviceTree Binary, and is 
 directly tied to the kernel version being run. Simply moving the binary into 
 the right location will cause 
 a version mis-match and cause the hardware to not boot properly. Also, with 
 the version of U-boot the DC ROMA II uses, the entire boot stack is stored 
 on 
 the storage medium (be it SD card or NVMe). This is opposed to UEFI, where 
 you 
 just have flash on 
 the motherboard that is smart enough to reach out to the storage to find 
 your 
 bootloader to get the process started. If you look in the installer ISO for 
 Debian, in /boot/dtbs I believe, it lists all the compatible chips, and 
 SpacemiT is not in there. 
 Until it is, the Debian ISO will not work, and given the pace of the 
 SpacemiT 
 crew, I'd hesitantly say expect that to be added in Forky. 
        
 
       
 
       
 
        
 
         
 
        
 
       
 
       
 
        
 
         To reiterate, simply using Debian Trixie on this device at this 
 point in time *will*. *not*. *work*. The standard Debian kernel does not 
 support the hardware yet, and the 
 SpacemiT kernel you will likely have to rebuild from scratch to get the 
 modules you need for accessibility purposes running, which in my experience 
 is 
 *very* hit or miss getting it to boot afterwards.  
        
 
       
 
       
 
        
 
         
 
        
 
       
 
       
 
        
 
         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.  
        
 
       
 
       
 
        
 
         
 
        
 
       
 
       
 
        
 
  
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