How to step back with Armbian?

[Schwemmlandebene]

Sometimes I get in trouble building a new image. This could be caused by a variety of reasons, e.g an Armbian patch does not work with the latest kernel, a new u-boot version makes trouble or some functionality is broken in the image like the USB and v4.6.1. stuff here: http://forum.armbian.com/index.php/topic/1338-a20-lamobo-r1-kernel-461-usb-issue/

 

How could I step back to working Armbian main build libraries and a working kernel and stay on both?

Will this work?

cd lib/
git checkout 2a2e190  
# commit form June 1, 2a2e190: Move up to 5.14 since we need to ...
cd ..
touch .ignore_changes
echo "KERNELBRANCH=\"v4.5.6\"" > userpatches/lib.config

# add 
# KERNELTAG="v4.5.6"
# to compile.sh

Thanks, any help would be appreciated.

 

Edit: KERNELBRANCH

Edited June 7, 2016 by Schwemmlandebene

[Schwemmlandebene]

This works partially. Now I get the warning:

[ warn ] ... crypto_ss_corruption_fix.patch [ failed ]

Maybe  I have to chose an older commit or do I have to rename the patch to crypto_ss_corruption_fix.patch.disabled?

 

I could even go back to a 4.4.x kernel for my lamabo-r1 and bananapim2 boards, but which commit do I have to choose in this case?

[Igor]

You need to go back to the point when patch was adjusted for v4.6.1 and v 4.5.x should work. 

[Schwemmlandebene]

Thank you for your answer Igor, but unfortunately I'm a bit confused now.

One commit later the patch has been removed, but with two other sunxi-next patches.

c788fc3 Update sunxi-next patches to 4.6.1

 

patch/kernel/sunxi-next/axp20x-sysfs-interface.patch

patch/kernel/sunxi-next/crypto_ss_corruption_fix.patch

patch/kernel/sunxi-next/stmmac-fix-v4.5.patch

 

 

 

The patch was changed or added? at April 20, commit 78a5e92 "sunxi SS fix patch", I guess.

 

 

Edit: just guessing: the patch was necessary for 4.5.1, but later at 4.5.x, 4.5.6 it was no more necessary,

In Armbian it wasn't removed from 4.5.x because Armbian was preparing for the next kernel version 4.6.x and the patch could be deleted in this phase, too.

[Schwemmlandebene]

Short update:

 

Kernel 4.5.2 and commit 2a2e190 looks ok.

cd lib/
sudo git checkout 2a2e190
cd ..
touch .ignore_changes
sudo echo "KERNELBRANCH=\"v4.5.2\"" >> userpatches/lib.config

# add 
# KERNELTAG="v4.5.2"
# to compile.sh

Kernel 4.5.6 additionally needs:

sudo touch userpatches/kernel/sunxi-next/crypto_ss_corruption_fix.patch

No luck with 4.4.4, because I didn't find a proper linux-sunxi-next.config.

[Igor]

We are not maintaining patches to comply with old versions. This should be either done some automatic way or someone has to do it. Develop and add a solution to build system and we can have linked patches at least for future updates.

[Schwemmlandebene]

Well, I'm not a kernel developer nor very familiar with managing kernel patches.

But for the next weeks I need a working Armbian toolchain and a working image.

The method described above is a good work around for me. Maybe this will help someone with similar needs.

[Igor]

You don't need to know anything about kernel for this. We do the matching and fixing, but when new version of kernel is out, old patches are ditched or changed. Someone or something must create a sub directory named for example v4.5.2 and put there patches, which were prepared for that version ... if you feel a need to store patches for previous kernel versions. 

[Schwemmlandebene]

Well, that sounds very interesting and may open the possibility or make it easier to support 4.4.x LTS besides legacy, next and dev. (If there's a request for LTS support.) But at the moment I'm very busy. I will think about it in a few weeks when the actual project has finished.