Ubuntu 12.04 Server ARMHF Image for Mele A1000/A2000

I’ve seen quite a few people who want to use the Mele A1000 – or its brother the Mele A2000 – media player as a server (Sacrilege!). Since recent ARM servers are running Ubuntu 12.04, and Tom Gall has (conveniently) posted the live-build config necessary to generate Ubuntu 12.04 Server image this week, I thought I’d give it a try on Mele A1000.

The image generated is a headless system running Apache 2 and sshd (openssh_server). I’ll detail the steps I followed to generate this image first, so if you just want to try the SD card image, scroll down at the end of the post.

The first step is to generate Ubuntu Linaro Server rootfs, by following the Live-Build instructions on Linaro website together with Tom’s live build config. I’ve followed those steps in a machine running Ubuntu 12.04.

Let’s install the required packages:

Configure the build and start the build:


After a while, you’ll get the rootfs with the file name binary-tar.tar.gz which I renamed to ubuntu-server-12.06-armhf.tar.gz . If you want to skip that step, you can download ubuntu-server-12.06-armhf.tar.gz (180 MB).

Now we want to build the hardware packs for Mele A1000 using the server config in order to get as much as memory as possible for Linux. For this purpose, I’ve created a new config (mele-a1000-server) that disables video output in order to increase the memory available for Linux.

First install the scripts:


Then build the hardware packs:


You just find the hardware pack in a patch similar to bld_a10_hwpack_2012.06.21/mele-a1000-server_hwpack_2012.06.21.7z. Here’s the binary which you can also use for another server distribution.

Now you can create an SD card running Ubuntu Server as follows:


At this stage, you’ll need to a serial terminal to use the image, because eth0 is not enabled by default and sshd keys are missing. Let’s complete a few more step so that it can be used with the serial adapter.
Insert the SD card in Mele A1000, connect to the terminal via Putty / Minicom and once you get to the prompt, edit /etc/network/interfaces and add:


The other “issue” is that although sshd is running, it can’t be accessed because the keys haven’t been generated. Running those commands will generate the keys:


or simply run:


That’s all. We now have a (fully?) functional Ubuntu precise server running in Mele A1000 with 435 MB total memory, 106 MB used and 328 MB free:


[Update: It is possible to get the full 512MB memory for Linuxby adding “mem=512M” to extraargs in u-boot. The changes have been committed to github. Here’s the hardware pack for 512MB memory]

As promised at the beginning of the post, here’s the server SD card image (Nearly 1GB 121 MB*) that you can copy to an SD card using dd or Win32DiskImager. As long as you have a DHCP server running on your LAN, you should be able to login to the Mele A1000 via ssh using linaro user with the password linaro.

* After using the command


on the ext4 partition of the SD card, I managed to reduce the compressed size of the SD card image from ~1 GB to ~120 MB!

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141 Comments
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mac me
mac me
12 years ago

hey if the wifi, and gpu can be switched off in the kernel/fex it will make a great low power low cost replacement for my little plugs … hopefully running debian wheezy .. come on A1000 boards arrive at my house soon soon !!!

As i understand it as it stands the A1000 is pretty useless for anything meaty linux video wise until decent drivers are available .. prob. months away …

Mark
Mark
12 years ago

Is this platform really practical for a server? What kind of Iperf performance have you seen using ethernet?

e8hffff
e8hffff
12 years ago

It’s amazing no one has yet made a image that burns into the main device memory. A stage that will need to be crossed to gain speed increases.

e8hffff
e8hffff
12 years ago

@ Mark

The big pitfull is 32bit. No mainstream ARM chip yet 64bit.

A server running say PHP is nice to have 64bit integers for speed, constants and other computation reasons.

ARM wont be big in server fields until they are 64bit.

e8hffff
e8hffff
12 years ago

“To use this image, you’ll need to a serial terminal, because eth0 is not enabled by default.”

Other words you need a device connected to the USB? A UART Dongle some have made or been supplied by Mele reseller.

Others words if you don’t have an UART Dongle then don’t download this.

mac me
mac me
12 years ago

@e8hffff

you can get these for $20 incl shipping from the guy on Aliexpress) from ebay … comes via HK post so far better than china post .. so in my case I paid GBP 1.78 (uk ebay) for the item plus cables incl shipping and it works perfectly (i ordered a couple extra at this price as spares 😉

Mark
Mark
12 years ago

@ cnxsoft
Thanks for running those iperf benchmarks. It’s about what I expected. I briefly tested a gigabit USB->ethernet adapter on an A10 tablet and got even lower @ ~25 Mbit/sec.

How was the CPU usage during your tests? Was it maxed out?

Yury
Yury
12 years ago

Could you explain how to customize the kernel configuration to get the maximum memory?

Vayu
Vayu
12 years ago

@ cnxsoft
I had to add explicit “mem” option to get all memory, otherwise it was using only 448M for some reason.

Vayu
Vayu
12 years ago

@ cnxsoft
Yes, I did it in kernel config, since I don’t know how to change cmdline in bootloader.

CONFIG_CMDLINE=”mem=512M@0x40000000″
# CONFIG_CMDLINE_FROM_BOOTLOADER is not set
CONFIG_CMDLINE_EXTEND=y

AFAIK the upper 64M are reserved for MALI GPU, if it is disabled there should be no problem in using them. Still have to test it more extensively.

GermanNorbert
GermanNorbert
12 years ago

Very good Job. Exactly what I am locking for.

Respect !!!!!!!

GermanNorbert
GermanNorbert
12 years ago

By the way – What is the password for user ‘root’ in the Image?

GermanNorbert
GermanNorbert
12 years ago

I found a way with sudo -su passwd to change the root password.

And now my next question. Is it possible that there no drivers for usb and/or sata in the Image?

I can’t see my Stick on the usb port and also not my FAT32 formatted Sata-HD in the doc.

I tried to install samba. It works but no drives where found.

Thanks in advance

GermanNorbert
GermanNorbert
12 years ago

Youre right i use a 2.5 ” Sata drive 160 GB.

The other mention i can only check later because I am at work now (still for 3h)

GermanNorbert
GermanNorbert
12 years ago

Sorry. In the moment is no time for the mele. I watch the European Championchip Germany against Italy

It don’t loks good for germany.

We will see us tomorrow

Vayu
Vayu
12 years ago

@ cnxsoft
I have similar experience (I waited 46 iterations).

It might be useful to completely disable drivers which need reserved memory (and related). Because now Mali reserves memory only implicitly (in boot parameter) and loading the driver is likely to crash the system. G2D seems to be quite broken, because it does not reserve memory at all, while it should take about 16M.

CONFIG_SUN4I_G2D
CONFIG_VIDEO_SUN4I_CEDAR
CONFIG_MALI
CONFIG_LYCHEE_LCD_SUN4I
CONFIG_LYCHEE_HDMI_SUN4I
CONFIG_SND_SUN4I_SOC_HDMIAUDIO

and all video-output related (maybe I missed some)

Vayu
Vayu
12 years ago

@ cnxsoft
Ah, sorry I missed the custom kernel commit.

CONFIG_SND_SUN4I_SOC_HDMIAUDIO is hidden under CONFIG_SOUND and CONFIG_SND_SOC
I didn’t have a chance to try it. Though suspect it wont work…

Vayu
Vayu
12 years ago

It also might be a good idea to disable some android modules. I disabled these in my config (which is based on yours)
# CONFIG_ANDROID_BINDER_IPC is not set
# CONFIG_ANDROID_LOGGER is not set
# CONFIG_ANDROID_TIMED_OUTPUT is not set
# CONFIG_ANDROID_LOW_MEMORY_KILLER is not set

Especially ANDROID_LOW_MEMORY_KILLER is not something anyone would like to see on a server machine.

GermanNorbert
GermanNorbert
12 years ago

Hello, I am back again,

in the interim I have intensely tried my SATA-Hd to run.

Unfortunately, without success 🙁

Can somebody maybe help me??

Yury
Yury
12 years ago

@ GermanNorbert
Module sw_ahci_platform.ko not loading automatically,
If you want the module SATA loading automatically then edit /etc/modules and at the sw_ahci_platform in a line.
But in this case does not always happen automount, and build a new kernel with built-in SATA module, now all ok.
Sorry for my english.

GermanNorbert
GermanNorbert
12 years ago

@ Yury I have integrated the module like you have described. Also testet libahci and libata. Unfortunately, it does not function, nevertheless. lsmod indicates the module sw_ahci_platform as loaded, but the harddisk is to be found nowhere. fdisk -l dosent show the disk and no entry in /dev Has tested 2 harddisks. I can not make a new Kernel (Newbe). Can this maybe do someone else for me? Here is a part from dmesg [ 130.610000] ata1: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x4000000 action 0xe frozen [ 130.630000] ata1: irq_stat 0x00000040, connection status changed [ 130.640000] ata1: SError: {… Read more »

GermanNorbert
GermanNorbert
12 years ago

@ cnxsoft

Many thanks! I think that is the right place to get the problem solved.

Yury
Yury
12 years ago

@ cnxsoft
I only add CIFS modules, and code pages for Russian language.

Yury
Yury
12 years ago

@ cnxsoft
My hdd 160Gb Hitachi:
HDD: 5K320-160
MODEL: HTS543216L9A300

GermanNorbert
GermanNorbert
12 years ago

@ cnxsoft

how can I find out this?

by the way, I am on the holidays till Monday

SJ
SJ
12 years ago

Hi there

I’m compiling myself a debian root kernel / fs and it works well. The only problem I have is that I can’t get the 512 MB ram (or maybe less) but I just end up with about 320 MB ram available.

Could you point out what exactely is needed to change?

mac me
mac me
12 years ago

hi,

i have a stable headless (not tested sata yet) debian wheezy armhf running now which i compiled from scratch and have only about 360MB total mem .. i have used my own armhf kernel/rootfs and boot.scr/script.bin

what do i need to modify to get 512MB RAM or as close to it as possible .. presumably i need to change whats selected/settings in the compilation process ?

thx

ian

Frank
Frank
12 years ago

Hi,

I have the same question as mac me. Yet I would like to run X. Do you have a mele-a1000 config where 512MB are available? I tried to find the correct file yesterday but could not grep to the correct spot. Now I read you edited the server.config. HDMI would be a sweet thing. 🙂

Greetings, Frank

mac me
mac me
12 years ago

.. i read from the comments here where there was too’ing and fro’ing over kernel config changes and I wondered if there was a final kernel config fully optimised for the 512mb .. hence my qu.

.. i did try just just for fun adding the extra mem512MB uboot change but as expected it made no diff

.. i’ll have a try next at using the mele deb arm hf as a build machine to setup and build hopefully a 512 lean headless setup with the kernel config as guide

thx

GermanNorbert
GermanNorbert
12 years ago

I am back again.
In the interim I have explained a lot of test. But everything without success.
I need help!!!!!
By the way, I have several SATA-HDs: Fujitsu, WD, Hitachi and none of them functions.
In Android they all run!?

GermanNorbert
GermanNorbert
12 years ago

I give up first !!!!!!

The harddisk is moved back into the cover and connected to the Mele over the USB port.
So I can share via Samba.

When something new happens, I’ll try again.

The next challenge is now, of course, install the SD-Card image on the internal NAND.

Has there been anyone have experience? Or where there is a tutorial for it?

Thanks to all

GermanNorbert
GermanNorbert
12 years ago

@ cnxsoft

Thanks for the quick reply.

I will soon try and report back here.

CZ
CZ
12 years ago

Can you explain better how do I create write the image to a SD card?
The file you provided is a .bin, when I try to burn it using Win32DiskImager, it doesn’t do anything..
Do I need to do anything to the .bin file 1st? BTW, I only have Windows to work with..

Thanks!

CZ
CZ
12 years ago

@CZ
Hmm.. I extracted the .bin file and I see a .img file there.
Going to use Win32DiskImager and see if that .img is good!

CZ
CZ
12 years ago

@CZ Hmm.. I extracted the .bin file and I see a .img file there.
Going to use Win32DiskImager and see if that .img is good!

Nope… still can’t write the .img found in the .bin file…

CZ
CZ
12 years ago

@Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) Yes, I can decompress the .7z file and I get a .bin file. I can force Win32DiskImager to write the .bin file to a SD card (I’m using a 32GB card), and it finishes OK with no errors. However, I don’t see any files or anything being written into the SDCard (maybe because it’s in EXT and not FAT or NTFS?) Then when I try to boot the MeleA2000 with the card, I get no display, and I don’t see any IP in my DHCP server. It seems that the MeleA2000 is just sitting there, not booting… Read more »

CZ
CZ
12 years ago

Well, let me try again soon. I just got my Rasberry Pi, so going to be playing with it for now 🙂

Thanks for your help!

CZ
CZ
12 years ago

@CZ

CZ :
Well, let me try again soon. I just got my Rasberry Pi, so going to be playing with it for now
Thanks for your help!

BTW, I finally got it to work! My MeleA2000 is now an Ubuntu server! Woohoo!

Thanks for all your help!

Stanislav Sinyagin
12 years ago

I tried the scenario on a freshly installed Ubuntu 12.04 server, 64-bit Athlon… first, these packages were missing: sudo apt-get install python-software-properties bzr but then the “sudo lb build” was running for about an hour, and ended up with: Hit http://ports.ubuntu.com precise-security/universe Translation-en Hit http://ports.ubuntu.com precise-updates/main Translation-en Hit http://ports.ubuntu.com precise-updates/universe Translation-en Fetched 1238 kB in 7s (174 kB/s) Reading package lists… Done P: Installing diversions Leaving ‘diversion of /bin/sh to /bin/sh.distrib by dash’ Leaving ‘diversion of /usr/share/man/man1/sh.1.gz to /usr/share/man/man1/sh.1.gz.distrib by dash’ Reading package lists… Done qemu: uncaught target signal 11 (Segmentation fault) – core dumped Segmentation fault (core dumped) P:… Read more »

Stanislav Sinyagin
12 years ago

@ Stanislav Sinyagin
hmm, after cleaning and building again, it seems to succeed. I should probably replace my old Athlon PC

Stanislav Sinyagin
12 years ago

@ cnxsoft
it’s definitely a problem with my build machine, so no worries, I’ll come back when I get a new one 🙂

mac me
mac me
12 years ago

hi,

was there a resolution to the sata drive bug ? .. i have the same issue with an old 60GM toshiba 2.5″ that ive been using to test with … unless the mobo limits the power the drive gets (this drive is pretty low power) i cant see it being a power issue (usually if theres a power issue anyway the 2.5 inch drive no longer spins at full speed) .. ive swapped out the sata cable in the mele with 2 different known working ones and still the same error issues .. so maybe a driver issue ?

Stanislav Sinyagin
12 years ago

well, looks like it’s not only my machine that makes the problem.

every time I start from “mkdir dirforbld”, then “sudo lb build” is stuck in a forefer loop, with the last messages as follows:

All runlevel operations denied by policy
invoke-rc.d: policy-rc.d denied execution of stop.

then I do “sudo lb clean; sudo lb build”, and the procedure finishes successfully.

So, something is wrong with the scripts.

CZ
CZ
12 years ago

Hi, it’s me again 🙂 I got the Server Image working on my A2000 and I updated to the latest Hardware packs using the A1-mediare-create.sh Now, I’m trying to create the rootfs myself (I got a Ubuntu 12.04 lts system now). After executing all the steps (including the sudo lb clean), the process finishes, with many warnings, but I don’t see any .tar.gz file. All I see is a chroot directory in the dirforbld folder. The last lines of the build process were: P: Begin copying chroot… P: This may take a while. cp: cannot create regular file ‘chroot/usr/bin/./qemu-arm-startic’: Text… Read more »

CZ
CZ
12 years ago

@CZ

Hmm.. Never mind, I just re-run again: sudo lb clean, then sudo lb build and this time, no errors.
I see the binary-tar-tar.gz !!!

CZ
CZ
12 years ago

Thanks a lot for all your work! I’ll be building my own image soon, once the USB to UART adapter & cables come in.
I’ve learned a lot so far… not bad for someone who knew very little Linux just a week ago 🙂

jj benitez
jj benitez
12 years ago

how do I do to activate wifi?
i ve been using wired connection but I find it pretty slow

jj benitez
jj benitez
12 years ago


thanks, got it working

the only problem is that when system load is too high, I can t reach the server anymore (sometimes I can still access via samba) and I have to manualky reset the Mele to get it working again

so I m back with the wired connection now

me here
me here
12 years ago

hi,

i tried to follow the steps described above.
i used
bzr branch lp:~tom-gall/linaro/live-helper.config.precise.server
cp live-helper.config.precise.server/conf_create.sh .
sed -i -e “s/bootstrap debootstrap/bootstrap multistrap/” conf_create.sh

but if i run
sh ./conf_create.sh
i get this:

P: Updating config tree for a ubuntu system
./conf_create.sh: 58: ./conf_create.sh: cannot create config/includes/precise/common/boot/filesystem.dir/etc/hostname: Directory nonexistent
sed: can’t read config/includes/precise/common/boot/filesystem.dir/etc/hosts: No such file or directory

acutally config/includes is empty!? what’s wrong here? did i miss something?

thanks

me here
me here
12 years ago

@me here
found the problem: forget to add CONFIG argument :/
you can delete my post – everything works fine 🙂

me here
me here
12 years ago

is it possible to use your a1x-media-create.sh script to create an image file (that can be used with dd later) instead of writing to SD card?

me here
me here
12 years ago

@Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) thx, i will give this a try later. today i received my a2000 and thanks to your nice work i got it running as server! hd works fine as well, however it seems that sata and sd are using the same hardware-interface, IO subsystem or whatever. unfortunately there is not much difference between sata and sd speed 🙁 i used hdparm -tT for testing. this is very sad – if sata is as slow as SD it sort of usesless 🙁 and the nand seems to be even slower. well, however you did a nice job! 😉… Read more »

mac me
mac me
12 years ago

this may be the reason why SATA works for some people and not for others … would love to get SATA working on my mele so fingers crossed something like this is the reason —————————————————————————————————— Hi, done some testing and quite a trial and error elimination on kernel config and eliminated it as an issue (with my newbie knowledge of kernel config) other than the allwinner sata driver having to be activated .. googled quite a bit and interestingly libata/etc had an issue at around kernel 2.6 where hot plug was brought in and caused the same errors with certain… Read more »

me here
me here
12 years ago

@Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) thx! i will try to build my own linux 3.4 kernel soon. i think android kernel is a bad choice if you want to run mele as server – it can cause several misc issues running software that is written for linux kernel (i dont remember exactly why, but i read this somewhere) what does “incomplete” mean? i read “incomplete/dev” on github as well, but i am new to this stuff. is there any documentation about features that work/do not work with kernel 3.4? how can i check this in advance? or is there only the “issues”… Read more »

me here
me here
12 years ago

@Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) android kernel causes issues. i just tried to run vlc to test streaming, but vlc thinks i am root even i am not logged in as root and it is not allowed to run vlc as root… thus i had to compile a patched version of vlc in order to run it “as root” … i think this is issue is caused by android kernel, never had this issue before. (btw: streaming works nice, but for transcoding the cpu is not strong enough… i wish i could do this with gpu, but i think you can do… Read more »

Dave
Dave
12 years ago

I’m trying to get audio working on the server (trying to build a music player for the family room using mpd with a web interface). The server image is working beautifully, but there don’t appear to be any audio drivers. I’ve read through these instructions & taken a look at the config files on github & it looks to me like the audio drivers are disabled in the build – is that correct?

Dave
Dave
12 years ago

@Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) Thanks for your feedback. Can you let me know if I’m on the right track with this? I used bin2fex to convert the script.bin on my SD card to a .fex file. I changed the “audio_used” value to 1 and used fex2bin to rebuild the script.bin file. I placed that on my SD card and rebooted my Mele. Next, I did an “apt-get –purge remove linux-sound-base alsa-base alsa-utils alsa-tools” and reinstalled the linux-sound-base, alsa-base, and alsa-utils packages. I’m still getting an error “no soundcard found” when I try “aplay -l”. I’m comfortable administering linux servers, but I’m… Read more »

Dave
Dave
12 years ago

Sorry, I posted that before I read your whole reply. I have tried the VGA hardware pack linked to in this post, but with no luck. I used the same process as in my earlier reply (purge old packages & reinstall). Do I need to use a different kernel as well? This is going to be a headless system, so I’m hesitant to use the desktop ubuntu image.

Dave
Dave
12 years ago


No problem. Thanks for all your help!

me here
me here
12 years ago

@Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) hi again, first of all using the gpu for transcoding would be really nice, but we need a software that supports it 🙁 now im am almost ready to build my own kernel and filesystem, but i still have a question concerning the hardware-pack. as far as i understand the hardware pack contains the closed source drivers. 1) where did you download the binaries (i know you have stored them on github, but where is the original source?) 2) it seems only openGL drivers for mele are close source – am i right? 3) as i will… Read more »

me here
me here
12 years ago

@Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) thx again… i have already played around with my own kernel (3.4) and it works nice (building wifi modules fails, but at the moment eth0 is ok for me) – i use your filesystem (still waiting for my usb-device to get console.) now i have another question: your fat partition contains mele-a1000-server.scr script.bin i understand that the script.bin is the configuration file for mele device and i understand that mele-a1000-server.scr is uboot configuration file but in mele-a1000-server.cmd (on git) and in .scr you use this command setenv boot.scr ‘if fatload mmc 0 0x44000000 boot.scr || ext2load mmc… Read more »

me here
me here
12 years ago


well, as i am still waiting for my usb adapter to get console i changed script.bin to get vga:

disp_init_enable=1
screen0_output_type = 4
screen0_output_mode = 0

this should give me 1680×1050 vga output, but all i get is a black screen!?
it seems my tft gets a vga signal, but no visible console…
switching to vga works with original mele rom – so this is no hardware issue

any ideas? did i miss something?

me here
me here
12 years ago


first i used my own kernel
now i used your nightly vga_hwpack (kernel 3.0.39+)

same issue: my monitor does an autosync, but that’s it – the screen remains black
i can connect via ssh, so the system is running

me here
me here
12 years ago


hmm, thats bad news
i tried it with initramfs, other resolutions (as my monitor gets a signal i hoped this would fix the problem)
is it possible that something may be missing in the kernel or is this more likely a driver issue?

me here
me here
12 years ago

@Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) well i have no HDMI port on my monitor, so i have just tested VGA. if you say HDMI works, than it seems that the VGA driver (disp.ko?) is somehow broken or not proper initialized. as is said my monitor gets a VGA signal, but the screen remains black, so maybe it just gets the wrong resolution. i tried to pass vga= argument to kernel with serveral resolutions, but this did not help at all. now i am quite familar with building my own kernel filesystem, configs etc. and i found ways around the need of console… Read more »

Buchinho
Buchinho
12 years ago

Everything works except SATA.

Does anybody know how to get the Hdd to show up?

blades
blades
12 years ago

dd’ed the image but the hdmi monitor says no signal. any ides?

blades
blades
12 years ago

ok I see that is headless.
user?
host?
passwd?
I need to ssh please

pamplina
pamplina
11 years ago

First thank you for this great build. It’s exactly that I was looking for.

I can’t get it to work on the Mele A2000. I put the SD card on the A2000, power on, and it don’t seem to work, at least it’s not making dhcp requests to the router. As I have no console access, I can’t do more. Is it possible that the Ethernet hardware is different on the A2000 than the A1000? I tried an ubuntu desktop build with VGA (made for the A1000), and it starts but says no ethernet.

Thanks in advance for any help.

pamplina
pamplina
11 years ago


Yes, I got a big file “ubuntu-precise-server-linaro-mele-a1000.bin” with 3.7 GB, transferred it to the 4 GB SD card with Win32DiskImager, and then tried to boot the A2000 with that card. The device don’t do anything, even the ethernet lights don’t blink, nor the router receives request.
This night I will try to redo the card with the makeSD script, that seems to be more precise than the disk imager.
Thanks for your help.

pamplina
pamplina
11 years ago

I found in a forum (http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?6,9527) that there’s a 1.7 version of the A2000 that can’t be boot with the regular uboot. It seems that mine is 1.7.
I got from there the sun4i-spl.bin and u-boot.bin for the 1.7, but now I have a long road until I could rebuild it all. It seems so much tricky

pamplina
pamplina
11 years ago


I was thinking the same, but I don’t know what the offsets are. I tried to dd the new .bin files with the same offsets as stated in the a1x-media-create.sh script, that are:

sudo dd if=sun4i-spl.bin bs=1024 of=/dev/sdb seek=8
sudo dd if=u-boot.bin bs=1024 of=/dev/sdb seek=32

The result is that the device ignore the SD and boot on Android.

By the way, what serial cable/software do you recommend to obtain a terminal window on the PC? Is it RS-232 or USB?

pamplina
pamplina
11 years ago


Thank you for all your support. How do you calculate the correct offsets for the dd command?

pamplina
pamplina
11 years ago

I tried different .bin files from several hwpacks sets, but still don’t work. I’ve ordered the serial cable, I hope it will help when I have it.

pamplina
pamplina
11 years ago

I finally managed to boot with the Ubuntu Lucid image from this page:

http://rhombus-tech.net/allwinner_a10/a10_image/

This system boots perfect, except some details:
– It uses the HDMI output, and I would prefer the VGA (as my HDMI port is usually busy with the PS3 🙂
– The screen size is bigger than my TV, so I can’t see the menus on the desktop
– The network don’t work (not ethernet nor wifi) (major problem!!)

Any tips to hack the image and change this settings?

pamplina
pamplina
11 years ago

Thank you for the info.
My primary goal is still to use the server system described in this page. The VGA, screen size, etc. is secondary for me. The networking is the major issue.
I will try to merge both images, i.e. the boot section from the lucid image and the rest from the precise server image.
At least I will try it, before I receive the serial cable and proceed to the ugly hacks. 🙂

pamplina
pamplina
11 years ago

Finally I managed to boot this ubuntu server! Yeah!
I keep the image untouched and at some point it decided to boot and get IP. I don’t know why. I think that all the issue was that the system works only one of every 5 or 6 tries, so is some sort of random problem. It was confusing me.
I’ve done several reboots and it works (or doesn’t work) eventually.
I will do more tests when I have the serial cable.
Thanks for all the support.

pamplina
pamplina
11 years ago

I got the USB-UART bridge:
http://www.ebay.es/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320947266297

I connected it to the Mele and all I get is garbage characters. I think that I’m wrong with the settings. What are the right settings on speed/data bits/stop bits/parity/flow control?

Thanks!

pamplina
pamplina
11 years ago


I swap Tx and Rx and… voila!! I have now console access. Thank you very much for your help.

pamplina
pamplina
11 years ago

This server changes etherhet’s MAC address every reboot. My router changes the assigned IP and it’s a mess for me. How can I set up a static MAC?

pamplina
pamplina
11 years ago

I finally found how to set up MAC address in /etc/network/interfaces. No worry 🙂

mehere
mehere
11 years ago

is it possible to run linaro 13.02 on a10/a20?

according to this https://wiki.linaro.org/Platform/DevPlatform/CrossCompile/LiveBuild
the steps described here to build the live system are outdated, but the allwinner is not in the list of supported hardware. thus it would be nice if you could update this article with instructions how to build a linaro 13.02 filesystem for a10/a20 – thanks

mehere
mehere
11 years ago

@Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) thx, by adding several config files i managed to run linaro 13.02 (as i am running a headless server i did not installed the hardware pack), however the old way to build the base system was imho better as it was possible to select packages. using the prebuild system requires to uninstall stuff you dont want (like apache and mysql – running those apps on single core is no good idea…) and installing ssh-server (so serial connection is required) – i did not try the usual way to upgrade ubuntu to a higher version – does work… Read more »

mehere
mehere
11 years ago


ok, i will check the nano images next time

with upgrading i do not mean upgrading packages (apt-get upgrade) – i mean ‘do-release-upgrade’ – if this works with linaro it would be much easier instead of reinstalling. i have not tested this as i did not want to break my running system so it would be interesting if anybody tried this with this image or any other linaro systemn and performed a successful release upgrade

Undertaker
Undertaker
11 years ago

Hi, guys. I have Mele A2000G – it’s mele A2000 with 1024Mb RAM. Involved only 512 MB 🙁 How to use the entire RAM

Pamplina
Pamplina
9 years ago

Hi. I’m planning to install a new Mele A2000 firmware to update android system. My question is: Installing a new firmware can break the loading of the Ubuntu system from SD?
Thanks

Pamplina
Pamplina
9 years ago


Many thanks. I was almost sure that it won’t break, but is good to confirm.
I have so many services running in the ubuntu server that I can’t live without it. The Mele A2000 is a rock and it’s running for years 24×7 without a faint. Wow!

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