[RFC 0/5] ath79: add a lower RAM-using version of 8/32 devices

[Adrian Schmutzler]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: openwrt-devel [mailto:openwrt-devel-bounces at lists.openwrt.org]
> On Behalf Of Sven Roederer
> Sent: Sonntag, 6. Dezember 2020 02:07
> To: openwrt-devel at lists.openwrt.org
> Subject: [RFC 0/5] ath79: add a lower RAM-using version of 8/32 devices
> 
> Currently 8MB flash / 32MB RAM devices are fully supported in OpenWrt, as
> they work quite well for basic usage (including full LuCI).
> On some projects with advanced features (e.g. Freifunk) the lack of RAM
> turns them into unstable devices. Mostly caused by several OOM problems
> per day.
> This series tries to prolong the usage of these boards by moving them to the
> ath79-tiny target. Indeed it makes these boards available on ath79-tiny in
> addition to the current ath79-generic variant.
> To improve the low RAM situation the default kernel-config for the tiny sub-
> target will also disable some uncommon features. So the kernel image
> becomes smaller, which results in lower flash- and RAM-footprint.

As stated in the earlier discussion, I never liked mixing low-flash ("tiny") and low-RAM (???) devices.

In contrast, David has made clear that this also is not possible due to conflicting goals for both approaches.

So, rather than mixing things up here and making it even harder to understand what "tiny" is supposed to be, this proposal IMO should rather aim at introducing a new subtarget aiming specifically at low-RAM devices. One could then just stop building "tiny" by default (there is only one device left, and I doubt people will have much benefit from prebuilt packages when they have to strip stuff anyway), and build the new subtarget _instead_ (i.e. no additional building overhead).

You still will have problems to find allies for your proposal, but that way it would make much more sense that now IMO.

Best

Adrian

> 
> [RFC PATCH 1/5] ath79: put some 8/32MB devices to tiny subtarget [RFC
> PATCH 2/5] kernel: deactivate usb on ath79-tiny [RFC PATCH 3/5] ath79:
> deactivate PARTITION_ADVANCED [RFC PATCH 4/5] kernel: ath79-tiny
> deactivate usually not needed features [RFC PATCH 5/5] kernel: ath79-tiny:
> enable CONFIG_BLOCK
> 
> 
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