2021.02.00

This release includes major changes compared previous Freedom Unleashed SDK and thus is experimental at this stage. The main changes include:

• All layers (openembedded-core, meta-openemedded, meta-riscv, meta-clang) were not updated from the previous (2021.01) release.

• Added new MACHINE ("unmatched") for HiFive Unmatched board.

  • Note: Contact your SiFive representative before using disk images built for unmatched machine on your particular board. This particular releases targets pre-production 8GB RAM Unmatched board.

• By default disabled NFS systemd units (should only be enabled by the user if configured).

• By default disable SSH systemd units (should only be enabled by the user once the default password is changed). The following instructions would enable SSH daemon service:

  systemctl enable sshd.socket
  systemctl start sshd.socket
  

• Updated stress-ng to 0.12.03.

• Updated U-Boot to v2021.01.

• Updated OpenSBI to v0.9.

• dhcpd removed (solves issue where network interface receives 2 IP addresses. We only use NetworkManager internal DHCP client.)

• Added Python pip3 for installing Python packages. Packages: python3-pip and python3-setuptools.

• Fixed lsb_release -a execution.

• New kernel (v5.10.17) was added for HiFive Unmatched.

• Defined DISTRO_NAME, DISTRO_VERSION, and DISTRO_CODENAME.

• Added NetworkManager CLI client (networkmanager-nmcli and networkmanager-nmcli-doc).

• Added gparted.

• Added patchelf.

• Added lmsensors.

• Added smartmontools.

• Added openssh-misc, openssh-sftp, openssh-sftp-server.

• Added network-manager-applet for Xfce desktop images only.

Known Issues

1. Avoid overclocking SoC using CPUFreq if you are using HiFive Unleashed Expansion Board from Microsemi as this will hang the board. Hard reset will be required.

2. If Xfce4 desktop disk image is used with HiFive Unleashed Expansion Board and GPU then rebooting is required after the 1st boot.

3. Newer OE/Yocto buildtools could cause build issues for nspr-native package. Use -r yocto-3.2_M2 -t 20200729 as described in README file if you are using OE/Yocto buildtools. See Yocto bug #14112

4. We have found an issue with SanDisk "A2" microSD cards and thus do not recommend them.

2021.01.00

This release includes major changes compared previous Freedom Unleashed SDK and thus is experimental at this stage. Main changes include:

• All layers (openembedded-core, meta-openemedded, meta-riscv, meta-clang) updated to their latest revisions.

• stress-ng updated to 0.12.01.

• Mesa updated to 20.3.1.

• QEMU updated to 5.2.0.

• Xfce updated to 4.16.0.

Known Issues

1. Avoid overclocking SoC using CPUFreq if you are using HiFive Unleashed Expansion Board from Microsemi as this will hang the board. Hard reset will be required.

2. If Xfce4 desktop disk image is used with HiFive Unleashed Expansion Board and GPU then rebooting is required after the 1st boot.

3. Newer OE/Yocto buildtools could cause build issues for nspr-native package. Use -r yocto-3.2_M2 -t 20200729 as described in README file if you are using OE/Yocto buildtools. See Yocto bug #14112

4. We have found an issue with SanDisk "A2" microSD cards and thus do not recommend them.

2020.12.00

This release includes major changes compared previous Freedom Unleashed SDK and thus is experimental at this stage. Main changes include:

• All layers (openembedded-core, meta-openemedded, meta-riscv, meta-clang) updated to their latest revisions.

• Layer compatibility switched to gatesgarth release.

• stress-ng updated to 0.12.00.

• U-Boot updated to 2020.10.

• Mesa updated to 20.2.4.

• New packages added to Xfce4 disk image:

  • epiphany

  • evince

  • xdg-utils

  • libva

  • libva-utils

  • libvdpau

  • gstreamer1.0

  • gstreamer1.0-vaapi

  • mesa-vdpau-drivers

  • vdpauinfo

• hwcodecs was added to Xfce4 disk image IMAGE_FEATURES.

• Mesa is now configurated with va and vdpau.

• GStreamer1 is configured with vdpau.

• PulseAudio is now configured with autospawn-for-root.

Known Issues

1. Avoid overclocking SoC using CPUFreq if you are using HiFive Unleashed Expansion Board from Microsemi as this will hang the board. Hard reset will be required.

2. If Xfce4 desktop disk image is used with HiFive Unleashed Expansion Board and GPU then rebooting is required after the 1st boot.

3. Newer OE/Yocto buildtools could cause build issues for nspr-native package. Use -r yocto-3.2_M2 -t 20200729 as described in README file if you are using OE/Yocto buildtools. See Yocto bug #14112

4. We have found an issue with SanDisk "A2" microSD cards and thus do not recommend them.

2020.11.00

This release includes major changes compared previous Freedom Unleashed SDK and thus is experimental at this stage. Main changes include:

• kernel updated to v5.8.18 and additional fixes applied on top:

  • [PATCH v4 1/1] i2c: ocores: fix polling mode workaround on FU540-C000 SoC
    https://lists.infradead.org/pipermail/linux-riscv/2020-October/002512.html

  • [PATCH] irqchip/sifive-plic: Fix broken irq_set_affinity() callback
    https://lists.infradead.org/pipermail/linux-riscv/2020-October/002498.html

  • [RFC PATCH] irqchip/sifive-plic: Fix getting wrong chip_data when interrupt is hierarchy
    https://lists.infradead.org/pipermail/linux-riscv/2020-October/002634.html

• stress-ng updated to 0.11.23.

• GDB updated to 10.1 (incl. gdbserver support for riscv64).

• x86_64 was added back for QEMU targets (needed for native SDK builds).

• Added all built Perl modules (perl-modules package).

• Man (Manual) pages are now working properly (man-pages and man-db packages were added).

• GNU TLS and OpenSSL utilities are installed (gnutls-bin and openssl-bin packages were added).

• wireless-regdb regulatory database was added for WiFi.

• LLVM/Clang 11 packages are now included in all the disk images:

  • clang

  • clang-dev

  • clang-libllvm

  • clang-staticdev

  • libclang

  • compiler-rt

  • compiler-rt-dev

  • compiler-rt-staticdev

  • ldd

  • libcxx

  • libcxx-dev

  • libcxx-staticdev

  • openmp

• Clang is now included into native SDK builds.

Known Issues

1. Avoid overclocking SoC using CPUFreq if you are using HiFive Unleashed Expansion Board from Microsemi as this will hang the board. Hard reset will be required.

2. If Xfce4 desktop disk image is used with HiFive Unleashed Expansion Board and GPU then rebooting is required after the 1st boot.

2020.10.00

This release includes major changes compared previous Freedom Unleashed SDK and thus is experimental at this stage. Main changes include:

• All layers (openembedded-core, meta-openembedded, meta-riscv) updated to their latest revisions.

• stress-ng updated to 0.11.21.

Known Issues

1. Avoid overclocking SoC using CPUFreq if you are using HiFive Unleashed Expansion Board from Microsemi as this will hang the board. Hard reset will be required.

2. If Xfce4 desktop disk image is used with HiFive Unleashed Expansion Board and GPU then rebooting is required after the 1st boot.

2020.09.00

This release includes major changes compared previous Freedom Unleashed SDK and thus is experimental at this stage. Main changes include:

• All layers (openembedded-core, meta-openembedded, meta-riscv) updated to their latest revisions.

• Kernel updated to v5.8.2.

• stress-ng updated to 0.11.19.

• nfs-server was removed.

• udev-extraconf was added for additional udev rules to allow external storage to be mounted automatically.

• dhcp-client was replaced by dhcpd.

• Fix support for FAT file system formatted partitions/drives.

• Add support for exFAT file system.

• OpenSBI is now compiled in FW_DYNAMIC variant for generic plaform instead of FW_PAYLOAD and sifive/fu540 platform.

• Removed support for OpenSBI payload (RISCV_SBI_PAYLOAD variable).

• freedom-u540-c000-bootloader was removed (replaced by U-Boot SPL).

• Kernel image was switched to Image.gz (gzip compressed Image) and thus removed the need for U-Boot FIT image. Image kernel target contains 64-byte header with details required by bootloaders.

• virtual/bootloader virtual target pointing to u-boot was added.

• rootfs tarball was added (e.g. could be used with NFS).

• Switch compression for disk images to XZ.

• Updated /etc/fstab is now updated in the final rootfs (allows to mount /boot from a separate partition).

• DTB is deployed and loaded from /boot partition.

• Added EXTLINUX support.

Known Issues

1. Avoid overclocking SoC using CPUFreq if you are using HiFive Unleashed Expansion Board from Microsemi as this will hang the board. Hard reset will be required.

2. If Xfce4 desktop disk image is used with HiFive Unleashed Expansion Board and GPU then rebooting is required after the 1st boot.

2020.08.00

This release includes major changes compared previous Freedom Unleashed SDK and thus is experimental at this stage. Main changes include:

• All layers (openembedded-core, meta-openembedded, meta-riscv) updated to their latest revisions.

• Kernel updated to v5.8.

• stress-ng updated to 0.11.17.

• hdparm package was added.

Known Issues

1. Avoid overclocking SoC using CPUFreq if you are using HiFive Unleashed Expansion Board from Microsemi as this will hang the board. Hard reset will be required.

2. If Xfce4 desktop disk image is used with HiFive Unleashed Expansion Board and GPU then rebooting is required after the 1st boot.

2020.07.00

This release includes major changes compared previous Freedom Unleashed SDK and thus is experimental at this stage. Main changes include:

• All layers (openembedded-core, meta-openembedded, meta-riscv) updated to their latest revisions.

• Kernel updated to v5.7.4.

• U-Boot updated to v2020.07-rc5.

• OpenSBI updated to v0.8.

• stress-ng updated to 0.11.14.

• Mesa updated to 20.0.3.

• jq package was added.

• LLVM updated to a newer revision (not final 10.0.1).

• Backport 3 vDSO fixes from upstream.

• Updated kernel configuration to incl. more I2C related features (/dev/i2c-0 exist and i2cdetect detects it).

• haveged updated to 1.9.13 (solves cyclic dependency issue with systemd at boot time).

Known Issues

1. Avoid overclocking SoC using CPUFreq if you are using HiFive Unleashed Expansion Board from Microsemi as this will hang the board. Hard reset will be required.

2. If Xfce4 desktop disk image is used with HiFive Unleashed Expansion Board and GPU then rebooting is required after the 1st boot.

2020.06.00

• All layers (openembedded-core, meta-openembedded, meta-riscv) updated to their latest revisions.
• Kernel updated to v5.7.2.
• U-Boot updated to v2020.07-rc4.
• GCC update to 10.1.0.

Known Issues

1. Avoid overclocking SoC using CPUFreq if you are using HiFive Unleashed Expansion Board from Microsemi as this will hang the board. Hard reset will be required.

2. If Xfce4 desktop disk image is used with HiFive Unleashed Expansion Board and GPU then rebooting is required after the 1st boot.

2020.05.00

• All layers (openembedded-core, meta-openembedded, meta-riscv) updated to their latest revisions
• Kernel updated to v5.6.12.
• U-Boot updated to v2020.04.
• Notable new packages added: dtc and pcimem.
• openembedded-core now requires GCC 6 or higher on the host system. README has been updated with information on how to install the official openembedded-core build tools or build your own. Pre-built build tools from the same release source are also attached in the assets below.

Known Issues

1. Avoid overclocking SoC using CPUFreq if you are using HiFive Unleashed Expansion Board from Microsemi as this will hang the board. Hard reset will be required.

2. If Xfce4 desktop disk image is used with HiFive Unleashed Expansion Board and GPU then rebooting is required after the 1st boot.