successful archlinuxarm boot on Amlogic M3

Development on core packages and the distribution goes on in here.

successful archlinuxarm boot on Amlogic M3

Postby mpillaius » Fri Apr 19, 2013 12:28 pm

I was a bit skeptical about booting Archlinux on this platform, since the 3.0 kernel is not yet compiling successfully for this platform. I had to deal with a 2.6.34 kernel compiled from https://github.com/mpillaius/buildroot-linux-kernel-m3 .

So that means no cgroup support and NO systemd.

I took the sun4i rootfs from here: http://archlinuxarm.org/os/ArchLinuxARM ... est.tar.gz and replaced systemd with initscripts and sysvinit and was able to successfully boot and load mali drivers with full hardware acceleration.

If any of you are using kernel versions below 2.6.35 with systemd let me know. I know there are some back ported patches available over the web, but didnt try it yet.

By the way the device I used is geniatech-atv510b (Amlogic M3 cortexA9 + mali,1GHz,memory1024M)

MPillai
mpillaius
 
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Apr 19, 2013 12:17 pm

Re: successful archlinuxarm boot on Amlogic M3

Postby SimonSideburns » Mon Apr 29, 2013 9:33 pm

Hi.

I have one of these "Smart TV Box" devices with 1Gb ram, 1Ghz M3 processor running Android ICS 4.0.4.

Here’s the link on ebay to the product: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140827096666.

Unfortunately I only bought the device so I could watch live snooker streaming from the BBC in the UK and to watch catch up tv on ITV, Channel 4 and five. The built in browser just won't do it. It's really random in that sometimes it works, other times not, some times the audio and video are out of sync, and it can vary from one minute to the next. It would only work with the browser in ipad mode (yuk) and doesn't work 100% of the time. I'm almost at the point of giving up with this (and the £65 spent on it) and returning it to the seller (on ebay).

I've been trying to identify who the board manufacturer is, but I'm struggling to even find a company name, let alone update the device. The device fails to find any updates via the Net, rather it says that it couldn't connect with server. My friend and I logged packet data to see what ip address it attempts to connect to and as far as I can tell it doesn't even try!

I'd love to attempt to install some other version of Linux as Adobe won't support Android any more with the flash player, but if I had Linux installed it would presumably be able to use a Linux version of the flash player.

My main issue is that if I don't know what has been changed (if anything) on this board or with the firmware, how can I install something else, and I don't even know where I can get the original firmware in case I do something stupid and wish to reinstall this firmware. Is there any way to back up what's already installed?

What are the risks of damaging this device.

Can you or someone else with more knowledge talk me through backing up the existing partitions, data, etc.

I can take pictures of the board, the box, whatever.
SimonSideburns
 
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Apr 29, 2013 8:53 pm

Re: successful archlinuxarm boot on Amlogic M3

Postby mpillaius » Tue Jun 04, 2013 5:11 am

Simon,

Many chinese manufactures just copy over most of the Android build for a platform. So if it is an Amlogic M3 it most probably uses the same partition. Do you have a serial port connection on the board? If yes you can watch/monitor the android booting via serial port (using a cheap USB to TTL adapter), and that will give you a lot of information.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SimonSideburns', 'H')i.

I have one of these "Smart TV Box" devices with 1Gb ram, 1Ghz M3 processor running Android ICS 4.0.4.

Here’s the link on ebay to the product: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140827096666.
........
Can you or someone else with more knowledge talk me through backing up the existing partitions, data, etc.

I can take pictures of the board, the box, whatever.
mpillaius
 
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Apr 19, 2013 12:17 pm


Return to Arch Linux ARM

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 4 guests