No hardware acceleration on aarch64

ARM Cinnamon
1

I installed Arch with the EndeavourOS installer on a Raspi 4b 8GB. It works pretty decent with armv7l 32bit kernel, but on aarch64 Cinnamon tells me that theres no hardware acceleration available and thus it’s using software rendering. You may guess that the performance is horrible.

I assume this is due to some driver missing in the aarch64 kernel. Can i do something about it or is aarch64 support not completely ready yet?

regards
Rene

2

There are two aarch64 kernels.

https://archlinuxarm.org/packages/aarch64/linux-aarch64
and
https://archlinuxarm.org/packages/aarch64/linux-rpi

do a

$ uname -a

results should be either
linux-aarch
or
linux-rpi

I believe the linux-aarch kernel is pretty much the mainline kernel compiled for 64 Bit arm and for general 64 Bit usage.

The linux-rpi kernel is the Raspberry Pi Foundation kernel with patches for Arch and is aimed more at the RPi 4 series.

I am guessing you have the linux-aarch kernel. Try swithcing kernels as such:

sudo pacman -R --noconfirm linux-aarch64 uboot-raspberrypi
sudo pacman -Syu --noconfirm linux-rpi raspberrypi-bootloader raspberrypi-firmware

reboot and see if that helps.

Pudge

3 Likes
3

I just did a test install of Cinnamon on a 64 bit OS installed on a USB SSD using the
linux-rpi kernel from the RPi Foundation.

No “hardware acceleration missing” messages, and it was quite snappy.

However, the aarch64 package does not launch firefox 98.0.1
The armv7h 32 Bit version of firefox 98.0.1 runs on a 32 Bit OS just fine.
With a new install, there isn’t any older versions of firefox in
/var/cache/pacman/pkg
so you can’t use that to downgrade firefox.

See this Topic for further information:

Pudge

3 Likes
4

Thanks for your reply.

Switched to the rpi kernel and everything works fine. Easy as that.

So for the moment the RPi4 is not completely functional with mainline linux, there are some tweaks necessary that the aarch64 arch kernel is apparently missing.

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5

If you’re going to be running headless, is there anything in the rpi kernel that would be of use, or would the mainline kernel suffice?

6

The mainline kernel would suffice.
To compare it to EndeavourOS x86_64 OS, running the linux-rpi kernel on arm would be like running the LTS kernel in X86_64.

linux-aarch64-5.16.13-1
linux-rpi-5.15.27-1

Pretty much the same as mainline x86_64 kernel vs LTS x86_64 kernel.

In either case, mainline will work, but for something like a headless server, or a Pi hole, etc, I would prefer the linux-rpi kernel or x86_64 LTS over the mainline kernel. But it is entirely up to you.

Pudge

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7
Arch Repo Name Version Description
armv7h core linux-rpi 5.15.27-1 RPi Foundation patched Linux kernel and modules
aarch64 core linux-rpi 5.15.27-1 RPi Foundation patched Linux kernel and modules

The description says and modules and I think it is the and modules that makes the difference.

Edit:
The funny thing is that the Arch Linux Arm armv7h 32 Bit image only offers the linux-rpi kernel, while the aarch64 64 Bit image offers two choices with the mainline kernel being default in the offered image.

If one uses the "config-update script " in Step 2 of the installation procedure, for 64 bit it offers the choice of switching to the linux-rpi kernel and the script will then take care of the switch.
Which I recommend in all cases. Also, if one wants to run a 64 bit OS on a USB SSD, the linux-rpi kernel is required.

Glad you got it working. Did you also get Firefox going?

Pudge

8

I didn’t have much time today for tinkering with the Pi, but yesterday Firefox won’t start and qutebrowser can’t find the Qt-dependencies. I may have a look in the next days.

9

You have to downgrade Firefox to 97.0.2-1 see post # 3 above.

Pudge

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10

Do you have many issues on KDE installed on Pi4 and which kernel are you using?

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11

No issues caused by KDE itself. I am using KDE Plasma on both of my development RPi’s.

The issues that seem to be RPi 4 dependent, are:

Make sure the TV / Monitor is up and running and looking for signal before applying power to the RPi

If you are going to play with any ARM device, one of these is your best friend.
https://www.amazon.com/atolla-Aluminum-Charging-Splitter-Individual/dp/B08926X7LP/ref=sr_1_10?crid=3DM2YI4Y3SBJ3&keywords=atolla+6+usb+hub+with+quick+charge&qid=1647199215&sprefix=atolla+6+usb+hub+with+quick+charge%2Caps%2C88&sr=8-10

I have two of them and they are great for ARM devices because of the congestion of the USB Ports, Ethernet port, etc all in one area. And the RPi doesn’t seem to like wiggling any plugged in devices.

Pudge

EDIT:
The other nice thing about the powered hub, is the Official RPi power supply doesn’t have an extra load for the devices plugged into the hub.

The back of my RPi has possibly a USB SSD with the OS on the bottom USB 3 port, and the output of the powered hub (keyboard mouse at minimum) goes to the bottom USB 2 port. Everything else plugs in and out of the USB Hub.

Almost forgot, the “Smart Charge” port is great for smart phones, etc.

2 Likes
12

what fault message on qutebrowser ? :pray: it missing pyqt5 maybe … check if have python-pyqt5-webengine, possible you have " python-pyqtwebengine " That my 1st thought

@Pudge

look like they find problem

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13

You are right, after another update python-pyqt5-webengine has been installed and qutebrowser works.

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14

I never downgraded Firefox (I just kept using qutebrowser), and now it’s working again, after updating to firefox-98.0.1-1.1

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15

I do same. firefox 3 on my use list so no worry me . Qutebrowser,libreWolf + firefox ( bkup )

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