Linux Device Hacking - Allwinner A10

Regarding Allwinner A10 24 MHz Clock Signal Generation (no replies)

ayssathi — Thu, 16 May 2013 09:55:36 -0400

Hi All,
We are facing a problem in 24Mhz clock generation in Allwinner A10 based design.We are getting RTC clock 32.7 KHz but not 24MHz. Initially when we powered up the board 3.6V was supplied to board instead of 3.3V . Is there any relation to these things? If anyone know about this ,please let us know.

Thanks in Advance.

Thanks & Regards,
SATHISH KUMAR K

Any "real" MK802 with reasonable price? (5 replies)

twinclouds — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 16:51:46 -0400

I tried to experiment with A10 based device. Bought twice from Amazon.com of those specifically stated as MK802/Allwinner A10, etc. However, none of these works with rescue/LUbuntu. Both of them are fake ones from iPazzPort. I am just wondering if there are any reasonably priced ($30-40) MK802 (real or true compatible) on the market that will work as we discussed in the forum?

Reliability of booting from SD (no replies)

cobalt — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 19:31:07 -0400

Hi,

booting my tablet from SD is highly erratic. To describe the effect, from e.g. 17 boot attempts only 7 succeed. This does not mean, that half of the attempt work, but instead, long series of failures can occur, although i initialized device before each attempt.

I wonder, whether this reflects the known state of the spl/u-boot implementation or any known issue.

I'm using a recent u-boot from linux-sunxi and a sunxi-3.4 kernel.

Thanks, cobalt

--
My tablet is a PROTAB2-IPS9 (V1.0)

Mini-PC comparison benchmarks - MK802 vs. UG802 vs. GK802 (16 replies)

gnexus — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 04:10:07 -0400

Openbenchmarking.org has a nice comparison of the standard HDMI Mini-PC's running Ubuntu 12.04 natively.

The comparison is a Phoronix Test Suite of the MK802+, UG802 and GK802. It also has ODROID-U2, MK803, Exynos 5 Chromebook, and Intel Core i7-950 thrown in for good measure. Unfortunately the RK3188 is not in the comparison. Obviously the Core i7 comes out way on top in all tasks with the Exynos 5 far behind. Then comes the Exynos 4 ODROID and the RK3066-powered UG802. The iMX6q-powered GK802 is slightly slower than the UG802 in most tasks. The AmLogic-powered MK803 and the A10-based MK802 are at the bottom of the performance scale.

Using existing Antutu results as a comparison baseline I would expect the A31 to finish the cpu-related tasks somewhere below the performance of the GK802. The RK3188 should be significantly faster than the Exynos 4 ODROID in most tasks.

Therefore the conclusion of the benchmarks is that RK3066 currently offers the best value for the money in a HDMI Mini-PC. The RK3188 would be the fastest currently if it was available. Thus the RK3188-powered UG007B is a much better value than the GK802 as the UG007B already has a much lower price in presale then the GK802. The GK802 offers better Linux support, however, and if you need SATA it is currrently the best option provided you are willing to pay the "developer board" premium for that feature.

I think the person who did the testing should have included the Acer C7 Chromebook. It would by far be the winner.

Linux on the MK808 - Rockchip RK3066 & RK3188 devices (5 replies)

gnexus — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 12:37:35 -0400

According to many sources distros like Ubuntu/Debian work well on RK3066 devices such as MK808, UG802, etc.

From Wikipedia:

Quote

The RK3066 is a high performance Cortex A9 Dual Core mobile processor similar to the Samsung Exynos 4 Dual Core chip. In terms of performance, the RK3066 is between the Samsung Exynos 4210 and the Samsung Exynos 4212.[9][10][11][12]

40 nm
Dual-core Cortex-A9 processor (ARMv7 architecture) clocked up to 1.6 GHz
NEON SIMD support
Quad core Mali 400, clocked at 250 MHz supporting Open GL ES 2.0, Open VG 1.1 support, 9 GFLOPS
VPU (Video Processing Unit) Multi-Media Processor supporting 1080p image and video decoding
DDR, DDR2, DDR3 support, up to 2 GB
HDMI 1.4 Interface
2-channels TFT LCD Interface with 5 layers and 3D Display (1920×1080 Maximum Display Size)
USB 2.0 Interface
SD/MMC Interface

The RockChip RK3066 is a dual-core SoC with quad-core Mali-400MP4.
Benchmarks show the RK3066 is faster than quad-core iMX6q, Actions ATM7029, and has near the cpu performance of the Allwinner A31, Here is a YouTube video comparing the MK808 against the GK802. The A31 GPU is faster, but it won't be able to work under Linux due to the closed PowerVR GPU. The RK3066 uses Mali. Therefore we would have much better luck getting Rockchip GPU acceleration than with the Allwinner A31.

The RK3188 is quad-core A9 with Mali-400MP4. The RK3188 is much faster than Samsung Exynos 4, Actions ATM7029, or even Allwinner A31. While the closed PowerVR GPU in the A31 is slightly faster, according to Tabletrepublic:

Quote

Compared with Allwinner A31 and Actions ATM7029, the RK3188 uses Cortex-A9 architecture which makes it performs much better than both of them. . . It’s definitely the most powerful quad core tablet PC at present.

Why become small ? my sd card. (1 reply)

pizzro — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 07:18:23 -0400

I use the Debian wheezy armhf image on my cubieboard(A10)
but I find the rootfs is 2G size ,but my mmc card is 8G size.
How can I　fix the problem?

One year anniversary - 1 mil Raspi's: how many using A10 Linux? (3 replies)

gnexus — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 20:18:10 -0500

It is now the one year anniversary of the Rapsi - with one million Raspi's now sold. That means it will also has been about one year since the release of A10 devices.

I was initially very intrigued by the Raspi. I was preparing to buy one. But an Android tablet to replace my aging Nokia N800 was a higher priority. I ended up with an A10 tablet due only to the low cost of it on Amazon. It was only by a chance Google search, after installing Debian as a chroot first like on my N800, that I ended up reading the Rhombus page about installing Linux on the SD card. Then I posted in the uBoot forum here about installing Linux on the A10. Thanks to Jeff this sub-forum was then born, and the rest is history.

My hopes were very high for thew A10. We all know the A10 is certainly a better GNU/Linux platform than the Raspi. But unlike like the Raspi or even like Kirkwood, the community never arrived in sufficient numbers to make it a good success, and Allwinner has done nothing to help out.

Hopefully a new device like Kirkwood comes along that better meets the needs of the community. Please help make that possible by requesting native GNU LInux support and drivers from the SoC and device vendors.

In the meantime is anybody still using A10, or have you moved on (or back to Kirkwood)?

NEW quad-core Allwinner A31 tablets now out! (4 replies)

gnexus — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 13:28:55 -0400

Looks like Allwinner has the A31 shipping (finally). Currently there are 8"and 10" tablets listed on Aliexpress for shipment on March 1. Prices for the 8" tablets start at $130 minus shipping. The mfr. is Onda. The 8" tablets have a 1024x768 screen with 2GB/16GB. The next up in price is the 10.1" tablets with 1280x800 screen by Onda and also Ainol at about $175. Those also have 2GB/16GB. The top models, also by Onda and Ainol and also a few others, have 9.7" high-res "retina" screens with 2048x1536 resolution, also at 2GB/16GB. Those average about $275 minus shipping.

Android should run quite well on these tablets.

But don't expect GNU/Linux to work. . .

Contrary to the specs in some of the listings the A31 uses a PowerVR SGX544 GPU, not Mali. That should give good performance in Android. But Linux drivers will definitely not be forthcoming.

An A31 might perform well as a headless Linux box, although benchmarks are not yet available for it, but tablets are the target market for this SoC, not Mele-type devices. It is always interesting, however, to see what kind of new devices arrive.

NEW quad-core SoC now here - Actions ATM7029 (5 replies)

gnexus — Fri, 10 May 2013 19:41:59 -0400

No! It is NOT from Allwinner. . . but their Chinese competitor.
(Sorry if that means it is OT, but Jeff has not yet created a generic ARM forum. Nothing much news from AW lately - so this!)

Anyway, new quad-core tablets with this SoC were released in Dec. So far Ainol has a 7" and 10" model, and Ramos has the W31. Notice the name of the Ramos tablet - W31. That would likely indicate that the Ramos tablet was originally destined to use the much-delayed Allwinner A31, which is STILL not available - reportedly due to kernel issues. . .

Anyway here are the published features, direct from Actions website, for this new SoC:

Leopard CPU Subsystem
- ARM Cortex-A9 fimily CPU, Single CPU frequency is up to 1.3GHz.
- Fully comply to ARM cortex V7 instruction.
- A low power and efficient multi-core architecture,effectively provide single-core, dual-core, and quad-core functionality.
- Programmable memory management unit.
- L1 and L2 cache equipped
- Supporting VFP v4(Vector Floating Point v4) architecture and compliant with the IEEE 754 standard for floating-point calculation
- Advanced SIMD technology is equipped for the acceleration of multimedia application performance, such as 3D graphics and high resolution image processing.
- In-order pipeline with dynamic branch prediction equipped
- 256bit E-fuse equipped

Video and Audio Encoding
- H.264 1920x1080@60fps supported
- JPEG baseline, 8192x8192 supported
- Panoramic Image Mosaics supported
- Photographing while video recording supported
- MP3/WMA/WAV/AC3/AAC/dts formats supported (some may be done by the 3rd party applications)

Video and Audio Decoding
- Most popular video format are supported including AVI、WMV、MOV、MKV、RM、RMVB、MP4、M4V、DivX、Xvid、FLV、3GP、DAT、VOB、MPG、MPEG、AVS、 ASF、TP、TRP、TS、M2TS、MTS(some may be done by the 3rd party applications)
- 1920x1080@60fps supported，up to 4K*2K
- Progressive JPEG supported
- Average data rate 60Mbps，Peak rate up to 120Mbps
- MJPEG baseline, 30000x15000 supoorted
- Most popular audio formats are supported including MP3、WMA、CBR、VBROGG、APE、FLAC、WAV、AAC、AudibleRA、AC3、dts、MIDI、AMR、AIFF、MPC (some may be done by the 3rd party applications)

Graphic Process Unit
- 3D : OpenGL ES1.1 and 2.0
- 2D : OpenVG1.1, DirectFB, GDI/DirectDraw
- Full ES2.0 extensions supported except GL_EXT_texture_type_2_10_10_10_REV.
- Full ES2.0 GLSL (Shading Language )supported
- Full featured 3D Graphics pipeline equipped
- Up to 16 ultra-thread unified shader units(SIMD4:transcendental,ctl-flow,tx-load), but limited to per shader per clock. IEEE 32bit floating-point compliant for long shader instructions supporting
- MSAA 4x, FSAA 16x supported
- YUV-to-RGB conversion supported
- Video scaling and format conversion supported.
- 32Kx32K raster 2D coordination system equipped
- IEEE 32bit floating-point compliant. While denorms are set to zero, rounding to zero is supported.
- Up to 256 thread per shader in flight.
- 8k x 8k max texture size supported
- RGB565, 5551, 4444, 8888 Destination color format with dithering supported

Display
- Four layers (1 graphic layers, 3 video layer) supported
- Scaler input size up to 2K*2K
- Simultaneously output to TV and LCD supported
- Alpha blending, color key, dithering and color space conversion，Gamma correction supported
- Flip and Scale supported
- Source format supported: ABGR8888,ABGR1555, ARGB8888, RGB565, YUV 4:2:0 planar format, YUV 4:2:0 semi-planar format

Memory
- High-bandwidth DDR2/3 controller, up to 2GB, 533MHz
- Internal Nand flash controller supporting 1bit/4bit/8bit/12bit/24bit/40bit/60bit ECC, 4CEs，Toggle NAND 1.0&2.0, On-Fi 2.3&3.0，SLC/MLC/TLC NAND Flash
- 3 SD/SDIO controller supported
- EMMC4.4.3 supported

Highly-integration of peripherals
- LVDS interface equipped for connecting bigger size LCD panel
- HDMI Tx(transmitter) equipped for HDMI 1.4a compliant
- USB2.0*2 port equipped for both HOST/Slave supporting
- I2C*3, SPI*4, UART*4, IR*2, I2S, PCM, SPDIF interface equipped
- 24bit LCD controller support
- SDTV CVBS supported
- 4x3 Key matrix supported
- Two joystick suppoted
- 10/100Base ethernet MAC equipped

OS(Operation System)
- Linux
- Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and above

Power
- 3.3V I/O power and 1.0V core power requirred
- Actions’ LPD Gen. II(Low Power Design Generation II) architecture integrated
- Actions’ ADP(Adaptive Dynamic Power) architecture integrated
- Multiple standby state supported

Package
- Type: TFBGA359 compliant with RoHS requirement
- Dimension: 17mm*17mm size
- Ball pitch: 0.8mm

Unfortunately, some details are lacking on the Actions website, such as the GPU used. The GPU is a Vivante GC1000+ which reportedly has a total of five cores. 3D performance is reportedly half that of a GC2000, or about that of the Mali-400MP4. The power usage is very low, and is reportedly half that of A10/A13, or any other quad-core tablet. CPU performance in Antutu is very good with significantly (16%) better performance as a Tegra 3 1.4 GHz, or about four times faster than A10. Android GPU performance is nothing spectacular. But the good news is that the Vivante GPU should have good GNU LInux support.

Kernel sources are due to be released next month.

Prices for the Ainol 7" tablet are as low as $115 on Aliexpress!

According to Ainol it has USB3.0 PHY integration. If USB3 actually works with external drives that would be a definite plus!

VIA launches APC Paper $99 and APC Rock $79 - why? (no replies)

gnexus — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 16:34:25 -0500

VIA has announced the latest version of their APC board - the APC Paper $99 and the APC Rock $79 The boards are similar to the Raspi and the Cubieboard, and will be available in March, 2013.

My question is how could anybody be interested in these devices? They are way obsolete, with even lower specs than the Cubieboard, which is cheaper. They don't have SATA. They are way more expensive than a Raspi and not much faster. They have the same Mali 400 graphics as the Cubieboard, which means the cheaper Raspi is actually much better for video. They only support Android, although the kernel source is available. The only good point is the Neo-ITX format.

This is must be VIA's idea of showing how stupid its few remaining potential customers are. It is likely VIA's final attempt at "grasping at straws" before their last dying breath. This device is certain proof that there is no reason left for VIA to exist.

Somebody please give us a current quad-core ARM board worth buying. . .

latest stable kernel version & branch on GIT (3 replies)

hyena — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 14:40:21 -0500

Hi,

whats the latest stable GIT kernel branch for the mele (taking the sata clock fix in to account) that i can use to compile a kernel .. there are so many branches now i havnt a clue which to use to compile a new stable kernel (time for an update so see if things have improved any in the last few months) ... rootfs is gonna be armhf wheezy & SATA needs to work

thx

ian

Please somebody soon give us a decent *board.org (50 replies)

gnexus — Fri, 10 May 2013 20:28:17 -0400

I was just reading Slashdot post on "another" Raspi vs MK802 (is not that LAST year's News for Nerds topic?).

One post was good enough to list a few of the better alternatives to the MK802. Here's my take on that for a new year:

Cubieboard.org - good price, no case, "leaked" kernel with not-so-great Linux support, obsolete single-core SoC
Gooseberry board.org - same as above but crappier
Wandboard.org - good price, dual-core SoC, Gigabit LAN. . .but no SATA
ODROID board.org - same as above but better with quad-core. Probably best option presently. . .but no SATA

I could go on and on with many more *board.org (Pandaboard, Beagleboard, Dragonboard). But where is something that we all can actually WANT to buy? Something that can RELIABLY and cheaply replace our aging SATA Kirkwood boxes. I don't give a crap what you call it. Call it a moldboard for all we care. Just please:

have a mfr.-supported non-Android Linux kernel
with more than 1 core
and at least one SATA port
and Gigabit ethernet that does not steal cpu cycles
>= 1GB RAM
at less than $100 USD

anything else is just gravy. . .
I just bought a NEW dual-core Intel Core i3 laptop with 2GB RAM and a 320GB HDD for $200. . .
Is this really too much to ask?
Or must ARM enthusiasts continue to get ripped off with so-called "development boards" for the same price as a full laptop?

Marvell just got their pants sued off. So don't expect much more from them.

I should probably just forget about ARM entirely and get another $200 C7 Chromebook to use as my HTPC. . . Then get another one, pull the M/B and put it in a case, and replace my GoFlex with that. I'm sick of this waiting and waiting crap.

Suggestion for a new forum name (no replies)

gnexus — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 19:02:02 -0500

Allwinner A10 ----> (&) Alternatives ;)

Might make it a bit more lively and relevant. . .

. . . or add another forum for "Other platforms." That way we won't pollute this one with posts on alternatives ;)

GK802 TV Stick - $65-85 1.2 GHz i.MX6 quad-core 1GB RAM, 8-16GB FLASH (10 replies)

gnexus — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 10:18:52 -0500

More i.MX6 quad-core devices! This one is a HDMI stick like MK802. But looks way better!

http://liliputing.com/2012/12/zealz-gk802-tv-stick-packs-quad-core-freescale-cpu-onto-a-99-pc-on-a-stick.html

Edit: Updated price and specs to reflect what is listed on Alibaba.

DDR3 Calibration (2 replies)

kamejoko80 — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 10:15:21 -0500

Hello,

I'm very interested in A10. I've designed a new custom board based on A10 reference design. Now I'm stuck at DDR3 initialization stage. I couldn't find out any information about the A10's DDR controller, how to perform the DDR3 calibration procedures such as read/write leveling, timing parameters and ZQ setting...

Everyone who have experiment with this ?

Regards,

ODROID - a $69 1.4 GHz 1GB Quad-core alternative to A10 (9 replies)

gnexus — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 18:00:55 -0500

Good news!
More quad-core alternatives to the A10, with better docs and Linux support, are on their way!

The ODROID has two versions - 1.4Ghz 1GB at $ 69, and 1.7Ghz 2GB at $89. Both come with Exynos SoC like in Galaxy S3. They are bare boards with big aluminum heat sink as the case. Good price!

Current status? (4 replies)

chromic — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 19:29:21 -0500

Hi Folks,
Where can I find the current state of support for the A10? I'm planning to get myself a Mele A1000G to use as a headless file server on a low-load home network. I especially need Ethernet and SATA support.

Thanks for helping.
chromic

Bye bye A10! Time for something with better Linux support: i.MX6 (2 replies)

gnexus — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 18:18:52 -0500

Hi guys,

Just got back from LinuxCon in Barcelona. Not really any interest there in the A10. Can't stay long here at home. Been called away for some field work until Xmas. Unfortunately that means no time to post the old A10 images. I have to leave again soon. I can't access my laptop when I'm gone. I take my co. laptop on the road. Copying the images there is not an option as personal files are prohibited on it. Sorry guys for posting prematurely about the images and getting your hopes up. Others surely must also have the image files somewhere. I'll try to post them when I get back home if there is still interest. Thanks again for your interest in the images. Sorry I cannot do more right now.

I would like to take this chance to say goodbye to this subforum. My A10 devices are already long gone. My friend still has the Mele, but he wants to keep it on Android now and stay away from Linux. His wife found QuickOffice for Android. She now has no need for LibreOffice or Debian. She thus says to "stay away" from it. It is now off limits for testing. The A10 tablet I also sold to my friend for his kids has now died. It appears to boot, but the screen stays black.
The A10 tablet is Dead. No Chinese warranty.

The NDA for the Freescale i.MX6 has now been lifted There are now quite a few i.MX6 quad-core tablets on AliExpress and one on Amazon, in addition to the development boards listed at CNX. My friend and I have decided initially to get the Amazon tablet for testing, and to replace his dead A10 tablet.

On the day the NDA was released there is already way more software and information available on the i.MX6 than there ever has been for the A10. If you look at the CNX post you will see that there are many different models. However, for our purposes, I suggest we concentrate on the dual and quad-core models as these are more powerful and support SATA and other features, and there is only a small cost difference between models. All the IMX6 models "support booting from NAND flash, SD/MMC, SATA or USB depending on the board configuration." A 3.4 Linux kernel is already available, as is a mainlined uboot. The Linux support is from the US-based manufacturer - not from some unsupported and dodgy "leaked" Chinese code as with the A10. There are already Linux multimedia codecs, and an Ubuntu image for the i.MX6, that are available for download directly from the SoC manufacturer. See the CNX link above for more info.

Therefore the i.MX6 is where I will now be concentrating my efforts. Hopefully Jeff will get an IMX6 subforum up and running soon. There is already plenty of i.MX6 information and software out there. I won't attempt to add to that yet. I need a device first. I look forward to seeing others soon who will be hacking on the IMX and helping us see how it performs.

Thanks again to Jeff for his very generous support of this forum and the guides and software I have posted. Keep it up!

MiniX SD card does not boot on MK802 (no replies)

docbee — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 19:14:06 -0500

I sucessfully prepared a microSD card with a Debian distribution for my MiniX as described in this forum. That works great in MiniX. When I put the card into my MK802, which I thought is the same hw just in an alternative form factor, it does not boot. I even can't show up the rescue system on MK802, when forced to do so by placing the file in the rescue folder.

Would you have expected this?
What can I do to have a microSD card that boots on both devices? which files do I have to change how?

Any hint will be welcome. Thanks.

U-Boot not starting after SPL (3 replies)

Narog — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 16:49:11 -0400

Hello all,

In advance let my apologise for my noobish question.

I have compile u-boot for my hackberry from the linux-sunxi/u-boot-sunxi repo, but when it starts booting i get the following message:

spl: mmc blk read err - 0
### ERROR ### Please RESET the board ###

What i´m doing wrong? is it a problem on my SD card? (SanDisk SDHCCard class 8GB)

Here follows the full log with SUNXI_MMCDBG:

http://pastebin.com/sKjfq4aB

Thanks

Headless Debian Wheezy armhf with nand install (33 replies)

guillaume — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 20:28:20 -0500

Hi,

Debian wheezy armhf (aka testing), kernel 3.0.42+.
HEADLESS – Full network stack (netfilter, vlan, …) – NFS server – eth – wlan

http://guillaumeplayground.net/mele-a2000-headless-debian-wheezy-armhf-with-nand-install-v1/

Nand install, etc...

Have fun!
Bye.

Debian Wheezy ARMHF Images? (no replies)

JeffHoogland — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 15:41:41 -0400

Are there any Debian Wheezy ARMHF images for the A10 - more specifically the MK802 - that I can simply DD to a microSD card and boot up? a10linux.org had a bunch of good stuff on it a couple weeks ago when I signed up there - but their entire website seems to be offline now. I finally got my MK802 and I'd love to get a sane operating system loaded up on it.

~Jeff

Offering free hosting for the community (8 replies)

The-Compiler — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 13:01:39 -0400

Heya,

I know probably nobody knows me here, but I thought I'd offer something in return to this community for making my Mele work like it should.

since I have about 500 GB of free space on a server (100 Mbit, hosted in a datacentre) I thought I'd offer free hosting for Mele-related projects (images, ..., whatever). Just get in touch with me, and I'll give you an account.

Flo

Please vote on what SD or rootfs images you want available here (22 replies)

gnexus — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 08:11:31 -0500

I have the 3.0.42 kernel built and working very well now. The multi-boot u-boot is improved from the previous version with Linux on NAND support. I still have the last set of SD images. Those were only posted at a10linux last week, and have the bugs ironed out in them (unfortunately not as a result of any bug reports from the community). It takes no time to update the images and post them here. We need to decide what SD images to post here until full install scripts are available. Jeff has kindly offered a bit of space. But we don't want to use up a ton of bandwidth. Debian, Fedora, and Ubuntu are the choices. But which versions of what was available at a10linux.org? It's up to Jeff how many I will post. They are very small now. I can post them all if you want. If you want them here then post your suggestions very soon.

Don't come back to this thread a month from now and say "I wanted Wheezy," for example, when Sid was chosen and nobody requested Wheezy. Same with all the others. You need to post now, and the final decision is up to Jeff what he is willing to host. He will need to post to this thread giving his okay. If he does not comment then I will have to assume he does not want the images posted on his site. Also please keep in mind that I'm not going to spend time continually updating SD images with new kernels, etc. That needs to be done through packages and a repository. If you want the images to get updated you need to help out by building the A10 specific pkgs and creating a repo. Nobody is doing that now. I had planned to do it at a10linux, but nobody offered to help.

Edit:

Here's the choices from what I have on my laptop:

Armv7hf Rootfs (no kernel or modules - platform independent - not specific to A10)

Debian Sid armhf non-GUI minimal rootfs - 92MB download size
Debian Sid armhf non-GUI server rootfs image - 184MB download size
Debian Sid LXDE armhf rootfs image - 290MB download size
Debian Wheezy armhf non-GUI minimal rootfs - 99MB download size
Debian Wheezy LXDE armhf rootfs - 353MB download size
Fedora 17 base armhf rootfs - 169 MB download size
Fedora 17 non-GUI server armhf rootfs - 424 MB download size
Fedora 17 LXDE armhf rootfs - 645 MB download size
Ubuntu 12.04 LTS armhf minimal rootfs - 94 MB download size
Ubuntu 12.04 LTS armhf rootfs with LXDE - 177 MB download size

SD images for Mele A1000/A2000 versions prior to version 1.6

A10 Debian Sid armhf MythTV 4GB demo edition - 910MB download size
A10 Debian Sid armhf MythTV 8GB demo edition - 910MB download size
minimal A10 Debian Sid LXDE armhf 2GB SD card image - 299MB download size
A10 Debian Sid armhf non-gui server 2GB SD card image - 201MB download size
A10 Debian Wheezy LXDE armhf 2GB SD image - 363MB download size
A10 Fedora 17 arm7hl non-gui 1GB SD image - 184MB download size
A10 Fedora 17 arm7hl non-gui server 2GB SD image - 439MB download size
A10 Fedora 17 LXDE arm7hl 4GB SD image - 680MB download size
A10 Ubuntu 12.04 LTS LXDE SD card image - 545MB download size

The rootfs are already done, and are small and platform independent. I can post all of them immediately if Jeff gives his approval. The SD images are designed and recommended for Mele only due to the issues with the linux-sunxi uboot SPL. See the post below for more information about that issue. You get one choice for and against for each SD image. The Debian Sid Demo and Ubuntu already have been posted here previously. So if Jeff approves they will already be posted. My personal choice is for the Fedora 17 arm7hl non-gui server 2GB SD image. It is the best server image for A10 IMHO. My recommendation against one is Fedora 17 LXDE arm7hl 4GB SD image. The d/l size is too big for what it is, and Fedora has poor ARM multimedia support. This is not my site. Jeff has the final say on what gets posted, if anything.

Please post your choices below, one for, one against, for each forum user. Unregistered users cannot vote. When I get another device the SD images will be deleted from my laptop. You have until then to vote. Supposedly IMX6 drivers and devices are coming mid-Nov. It will take time to get that shipped. So you probably have a month or so to cast your votes. I will get the updated Debian Sid Demo and Ubuntu posted immediately if Jeff gives his approval. The SD images will under no circumstances be posted to any other sites by me. We already tried that. . . You can always mirror them if you wish.

Need a simple installer script (1 reply)

gnexus — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 18:14:10 -0500

According to the maintainer of the sunxi uboot it is not possible to reliably boot from all devices using the SD card unless you have an uboot specifically made for each device. That would require a specific Linux SD image for each device. That is not a realistic scenario.

So what we need is an installer script that installs the uboot to NAND. No dd commands are needed. Just backup the existing uboot and copy the new one over. Then give the choice of installing the rootfs to SD card, and/or possibly NAND also.

Jeffs existing installer script could easily be adopted to the task.

3.0.42+ multi-boot Kernel and config (6 replies)

gnexus — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 03:55:22 -0500

Contrary to what guillame may assume I still plan to contribute to the platform. I actually have a lot more time to do that now that the a10linux site has closed. I think most people here would agree that this type of work is more beneficial to the community than answering support queries at a10linux.org.

Here is the kernel config for the latest 3.0.42+ kernel. It supports all the modules that the previous 3.0.39+ did. It also has the framebuffer console built as a module, and it has the improved Mali support that linux-sunxi has provided in their latest kernel source. SATA and wemac also work better.

A compiled 3.0.42+ kernel and uInitrd with multi-boot support is available here.

sha256sum: de46a441aae393f42632752a67b58b166e2a997bed6a45ec7510094af428d1e4

Installation instructions are in the README and in this thread

Reduce and simplify: ubuntu armhf img (21 replies)

guillaume — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 12:21:08 -0500

Sorry, i said i will return to my normal life... i hoped to ;-)

But i got a wise comment around the fact all this crap with multiple 'dd', spl, uboot, bootstrap the distrib, etc.. is just hell for 99% of the guys wanting to play with the mele under linux.

And it's just true.

99% of mele owners don't give a sh** of the technical masturbation around u-boot, nand and all other things.

As asked, i have made a quick and dirty ubuntu image containing the kernel (sata, wemac tuned), working u-boot, and nand install... all ready to be 'DD' or 'Rawwrite' to a MMC from linux or windows (didn't try rawwrite).

I have post the image on my website and hope someone else will follow this path to simplify the whole install for everyone: I'm ready to host anyone files that will follow the same spirit but i'm sure Jeff could do it.

http://guillaumeplayground.net/mele-a2000-ubuntu-armhf/

No MMC partionning, No multi package download, No compilation and a simple nand install.

I know this image is really stupid, quick and dirty... two hours work.
In fact, i'm not an ubuntu fan - because i think it's simplifying too much debian ;-) and in a way makes the user less skilled... but making things simplier is the way for mele.

Users who want to learn linux internals will do it on their desktop... and mele owners (this community) is just hungry/angry to get a working linux on their mele.

Hope it will help and initiate a new way to get users ready to run with their mele.

Quote
Tony Stark
That's how Dad did it, that's how America does it, and it's worked out pretty well so far.

Regards,
--
Guillaume

Ubuntu installer (no replies)

gnexus — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 16:07:51 -0400

For people that want to use Ubuntu I adapted an Ubuntu installer from Jeff's Debian script:

http://download.doozan.com/a10/sun4i.ubuntu.sh.zip

Building the uInitrd (initramfs) with dracut and the rescue shell (no replies)

gnexus — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 16:03:12 -0400

A10 really needs an initramfs. That is the only way to do multi-boot on Allwinner SoCs. The crappy default u-boot has no support for booting other devices such as SATA, USB or network devices. That support should have been included by Allwinner. We should at least have PHY support for netconsole, if nothing else. Marvell has support for all these devices in their uboot. For the A10 we must have a workaround. The initrd is needed regardless. It really should not be needed for multi-boot, however. But hey, that's all there is. . .

So we need a way to build a decent uInitrd. You can use the standard Debian initramfs tools. But they are quite limited. Dracut is the new tool for building an initramfs. It is available in Debian and Ubuntu, and is already the default tool in other major Linux distributions such as Fedora and Gentoo. It is much more advanced, and is easier to use. It is what I use.

In my case I also want network boot support to be available. I also want a fallback rescue shell if the device fails to boot. Dracut has a rudimentary rescue shell. But it is extremely limited. It has a busybox module. But the dracut busybox is very limited and does not suffice. By adding a busybox we have an almost complete Linux distro right inside the rescue shell. By also adding dropbear it also possible to SSH into the rescue shell (although currently you have to really work at it). The dropbear support is there for future use in an add-on dracut module that will help everyone that uses dracut in their distro. It does not work currently unless you add a lot of your own initscripts into the dracut image. But hey, it's there to play with if you wish. It would be nice to have help with the dracut module. So if you have experience with initscripts please help out. I hopefully will have a dracut-druid (Dracut Rescue Utililty and Installer Disk) git repo up soon if you would like to help with the project. Please note that, since rescue shell net scripts are missing, the rescue shell is only available in a serial console.

Anyway, here is all the stuff you need to build the uInitrd as currently supplied in the kernel archive. This archive needs to be extracted to your home directory on your A10 device. Please note that the script manipulates your entire /bin directory, and the reboot and poweroff binaries in your /sbin. If you interrupt the script during execution it may leave those directories, or files in them, corrupted. So back up your system. Be careful, and don't hit Ctl-C while running the script!

BTW, this busybox and script can also be used to build dracut for other armv7 platforms. Just edit to suit your needs.

Here is the archive: http://download.doozan.com/a10/dracut-build.tar.bz2

moving from sd card to nand on the mele (1 reply)

hyena — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 09:56:57 -0400

Hi,

For not really linux tech savvy ppl like me i wondered if it might be an idea for an "IDIOTS" guide to moving from a working/stable SD card based mele to nand ... for me now i will never use android on the mele again and its a shame to waste the nand (i wonder how much faster running from namnd than sd will be ?)

(in an ideal world having some kind of easy backup/restore routine as well from the nand to an inserted sd card .. maybe jeffs recovery covers some/all of this ?)

As i understand it from Guillaume's post the best way to proceed is to start with Gnexus's multiboot uboot thingy ?

rgds

ian