Re: D43399 FreeBSD Review, enable VCHIQ HDMI Audio subsystem for BCM2711 Raspberry Pi 4B, 400 adding 3 patch files.

On Sep 20, 2025, at 11:40, Adrian Chadd <adrian@freebsd.org> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I'm trying to remember to do this. I have a rpi4 here I do need to get freebsd-head on. FreeBSD-HEAD packages are just in a bit of a weird shape. :-)

And distributions based on main 16 are still likely weeks away
for aarch64, ampere2 not having started to work on main 16
builds yet and the last main-armv7p-default build for main 15
is still building. (Then there is also time for updating the
distribution servers once an overall build finishes.)

At least once main 16 builds start, they should involve pkg
2.3.1 or later and take considerably less time for targeting
main than use of pkg 2.2.2 involves.

> -adrian
> 
> 
> On Thu, 11 Sept 2025 at 23:11, Fred Finster <fred@thegalacticzoo.com> wrote:
> Hello fellow FreeBSD Arm users,
> 
> To be complete,  I usually place too many URLs in a short email. But 
> then "Too Long Didn't Read"  TLDR  symptom shows up unannounced.  If you 
> are interested in videos and audios playing out on your own Television 
> Speakers, please read the following few paragraphs.
> 
>   I wish to see the 14.3-RELEASE and 15.0-CURRENT supported RPI binary 
> images on the https://FreeBSD.org website, to actually support HDMI 
> audio out through the TV speakers, out of the box (OOTB).     Review 
> D43399 was my attempt to show how to use Marcos Devesas Campos 3 patch 
> files in  reviews D36431, D37878, D37879 to patch the FreeBSD Kernel 
> source /usr/src and support the VCHIQ subsystem of the Broadcom BCM2711 
> Raspberry Pi 4B, 400
> and (BCM2835) Raspberry Pi 3B+  SOCs, running 32 bit armv7 software. ( 
> yes, I know armv7 was moved to Tier 2 in FreeBSD support.)
> 
> URLS to view:
> FreeBSD RPI image. downloaded here is without the VCHIQ subsystem HDMI 
> Audio Sound device driver.
> https://www.freebsd.org/where/
> https://download.freebsd.org/releases/ISO-IMAGES/14.3/
> https://download.freebsd.org/releases/ISO-IMAGES/14.3/FreeBSD-14.3-RELEASE-arm64-aarch64-RPI.img.xz
> https://download.freebsd.org/releases/ISO-IMAGES/14.3/CHECKSUM.SHA512-FreeBSD-14.3-RELEASE-arm64-aarch64-RPI
> 
> https://download.freebsd.org/releases/ISO-IMAGES/15.0/
> https://download.freebsd.org/releases/ISO-IMAGES/15.0/FreeBSD-15.0-ALPHA1-arm64-aarch64-RPI-20250906-0b3d82579a01-280099.img.xz
> https://download.freebsd.org/releases/ISO-IMAGES/15.0/CHECKSUM.SHA512-FreeBSD-15.0-ALPHA1-arm64-aarch64-RPI-20250906-0b3d82579a01-280099
> 
> How can that binary RPI image be improved?  Who can or what update of 
> this build process can be modified to include HDMI audio support from 
> the BCM2711  VCHIQ subsystem hardware?  Yes, having the SDIO Cy43455 
> wifi driver written will help out, to use a WIFI connection from the 
> raspberry Pi to the local WIFI WAN network.
> 
> https://reviews.freebsd.org/D43399  This is the 3 patch files to add the 
> VCHIQ HDMI Audio subsystem device driver to the kernel /usr/src codehttps://
> 
> https://reviews.freebsd.org/D36431   vchiq: update printf-s to more 
> architecture-independent format specifiers
> https://reviews.freebsd.org/D37878   arm64: Add support to vchiq and 
> bcm2835_audio (plus some fixes)
> https://reviews.freebsd.org/D37879   vchiq: add compat_freebsd32 ioctls 
> and respective datatypes Authored by devesas.campos_gmail.com on Dec 26 
> 2022, 8:15 PM.
> 
> Fred Finsters tested set of written steps to follow for using the 3 
> patch files:     https://reviews.freebsd.org/F75131370
> or  https://reviews.freebsd.org/F75131370#30
> 
> Can someone with a Raspberry Pi 4B, or 400 Keyboard run through these 
> steps and prove that VCHIQ subsystem HDMI Audio output works on the TV 
> Speakers? or work on the Raspberry Pi 4B 3.5mm output jack analog sound.
> 
> Then can we include this VCHIQ HDMI Audio source code in the FreeBSD 
> kernel source code and also in the created 14.3 or 15.0 RPI Images?
> 
> Mike Karels, a strong Arm64 FreeBSD supporter, has passed on.  He might 
> have competed this work.  Can we incorporate this tested, useful source 
> code in the FreeBSD Kernel and in the created binary image to download 
> and burn into a MicroSD card or into a USB Flash drive stick to boot 
> FreeBSD.  I prefer to have a supported Raspberry Pi binary image that 
> includes HDMI Audio available for others to download and use.
> 
> Is there a different method to support the Raspberry Pi 5, 500 BCM2712 
> and RP1 chip hardware with updated VCHIQ device driver?
> https://x.com/i/grok/share/z5megTW93mZt9B5fioCz7Zzzv  Grok notes 
> differences between BCM2711 and BCM2712 in the VCHIQ driver software.
> 
> Your thoughts, suggestions, comments are welcome about supporting VCHIQ 
> subsystem HDMI Audio for Raspberry Pi (BCM2711) 4B, 400, RPI (BCM2712) 
> 5, 500,  (BCM2835) RPI3 RPI3+ 64 bit hardware ?
> 
> pss:    RUSPIPRO is Rust supported VCHIQ hardware device driver 
> software.  URL link here:   https://github.com/RusPiRo  There was a 
> VCHIQ bare metal driver here somewhere.
> 


===
Mark Millard
marklmi at yahoo.com