No, it’s not a typo in the title, and I did not mean to write “MK802”, but a company (which does not appear to be Rikomagic) released a product called AK802 which looks very similar (not to say exactly) the same, but comes with 1GB by default.
Here are the specifications of the device partially taken from Dealextreme, so there must be an error somewhere, we just need to find out where ;).
| CPU | AllWinner A10 @ 1.5GHz + Mali 400 GPU |
| Memory | 1 GB RAM |
| Storage | 4 GB Flash microSD slot (Up to 32 GB) |
| Connectivity | WiFi 802.11b/g |
| USB | micro USB 2.0/OTG port USB 2.0 Host port |
| Video output | HDMI (up to 2160p) |
| Video Codecs & Containers | WMV, ASF, MP4, 3GP, 3G2M4V, AVI, MJPEG, RV10, DivX/VC-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.263, H.264/1280*720P HD 30 fps, 1080P/720*480 D1 30fps |
| Audio Codecs | AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, QCP, MP3, WMA, WAV, MIDI, M4A |
| Subtitle | Subrip (.srt) |
| Operating System | Android 4.0 (ICS) |
| Power Input | 5V/2A |
| Size | 8.9*3.4*1.2cm |
| Weight | 27g |
Since it’s based on AllWinner A10, you’ll be able to tinker with it, and install Ubuntu or Debian, use it as a server, build your own Android distribution (CyanogenMod), use it as a digital signage, and even install XBMC eventually. I don’t think I need to write much more about this, simply read MK802 Android 4.0 Mini PC page for details.
It’s slightly cheaper than MK802, with more system memory (1GB vs 512 MB), and available on Dealextreme for 72.90 USD (Black) or 73.10 USD (white) including international shipping.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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10Watts! Or is 2A the power supply rating?
@ davef
Yes, it’s the power supply rating, it’s the same as the Mele A1000 I think.
@ cnxsoft
Hi cnxsoft
can you plz modify your build scripts to support MX/XX/??X802 devices 🙂
kernel always crash if I use same A1000 server image.
I can post you kernel booting dump dump if you want
@ misko
The build should not need modification, just adding the MK802 evb.fex or script.fex should be OK, unless there is a bug in the kernel. If you have an MK802 devices, can you provide a link to evb.bin ?
Yes, you can post the kernel log somewhere (e.g. paste bin) and put the link here.
@ cnxsoft
kernel boot
http://pastebin.com/j6RXb0Ae
It is your sd image from
http://www.cnx-software.com/2012/06/22/ubuntu-12-04-server-armhf-image-for-mele-a1000a2000/
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/45842273/ubuntu-precise-server-linaro-mele-a1000.bin.7z
but I exchange script.bin with evb.bin from MX802 image that work fine
Any idea what is wrong?
And one more think
don’t wast you time with mali400 x.org drivers
I own snowball http://igloocommunity.org/
It has working EGL/openGL on x.org and it is so slow. x.org process take 80% cpu time if I play video on fullscreen
I would try wayland or pure EGL/openGL to framebuffer
but it need recompile mali drivers original DDK.
But I don’t know anybody who have source codes
@ misko
Great! That means nothing is wrong! It’s just the hardware configuration is different between MK802 and Mele A1000. So I would just need your evb.bin to add mk802.fex (text version of your evb.bin) to https://github.com/cnxsoft/a10-config/tree/master/script.fex. Can you send it to me or provide a link ?
@ misko
EGL/OpenGL is not to play video, but for 2D/3D acceleration. If you run glmark2-es2 on your snowball, I assume it would be very smooth, compared to software rendering, you should also be able to run Ubuntu 12.04 Unity3D with low CPU usage, unless GPU support is broken. To play video requires another library for hardware acceleration.
@ cnxsoft
Sorry I mean it little different.
software video decoding(totem+gstreamer) toke 30% cpu time on my snowball board.
Scene composnition x.org + unity take 80%
But problem is that unity3d(it was not optimalized for gpu. look at desktop) do a lot of opengl calls that is not ok with mali 400 gpu.
Let say on desktop computer gpu drivers collect all opengl draw calls and pack it and optimalize.
I did some benchmarks
I run glmark2-es2 to render output to offload texture. glmark2-es took 15% cpu time and most time 120fps
I really good FPS. Not as good as on my desktop nvidia 🙂
But after I start glmark2-es to render on screen x.org+compiz cca 80% cpu time and glmark fps at 25fps
Some guys on snowball IRC talk about this problem and it is problem on mali400 x.org drivers.
TI SGX do much better work (pandaboard, beagleboard).
I don’t want to say that mali is bad gpu. I want to say unity is really shit. I do opengl couple years on embeded and it is crazy what you can do if you do it proper way. But unity and x.org is stuff for desktop. They never optimalize if it is not important.
@ misko
Thanks for detailed answer, and sorry to have misunderstood your first message.
Now if I move the mouse in Ubuntu 12.04 (Mele) over the left bar, I get 100% CPU usage and the cursor gets very choppy because of compiz, so even if Mali-400 X11 support is not as good as we could expect, hopefully, that will make Ubuntu + Unity3D usable.
Are you subscribed to arm-netbook mailing list? You may want to give them your feedback, and see if they’d consider using wayland instead of x. AllWinner (Tom Cubie) is on the mailing list, and they apparently paid ARM for support with Mali-400.
“Here are the specifications of the device partially taken from Dealextreme, so there must be an error somewhere, we just need to find out where.”
😀 Maybe it’s the letter A 😉
Does it have the same power supply shortcuts as the MK802?
I will do it
here is it
https://www.miniand.com/forums/forums/2/topics/82
@ Onebir
After seeing the discussion over DX forums, at one point I thought they got the RAM wrong. (512 MB instead of 1GB), but it seems to be OK.
As for power supply shortcuts, somebody needs to open the thing to see what’s inside.
@ misko
Thanks, I added mk802.fex to a10-config in github.
Maybe I misunderstood your message (again), when you said it works when you replace script.bin by evb.bin (mk802) in my server image. I’ve told your solution to other people, and it did not seem to work for them: https://github.com/amery/linux-allwinner/issues/46#issuecomment-6900968
Just change of script.bin by evb.bin didn’t help sorry 🙂
I found one nice stuff in linaro kernel.
But I hope you will know how we can enable this in a10 kernel.
Maybe it is not related to kernel config.
uboot + kernel boot output show on UART but after kernel boot done I can log in with UART.
It will be fine on Mx802 as it has only wifi.
I can do some basic setup over console on my snowball (get current ip address).
I just bought rasbery pi and raspberry debian don’t have it too
@ misko
You can connect the UART to the Mele A1000 or MK802, but I guess you have done this already since you could provide the kernel log.
If you want to add login in UART, you can try to modify /etc/inittab.
But all your build scripts are base on linaro files.
That means inittab should be same.
Or some people from snowball made some changes, because they use same linaro sw package as you for A1000
You could compare your inittab on both board. Snowball must have an initramfs, which the image does not have yet. Peter is working on that (http://www.j1nx.nl/2012/07/12/linaro-build-quick-update/), and I may have a try if I can find the motivation to do it…
What do you expected from you A1000 ??
Some kind of media center?? that is reason why I bought my MX802 🙂
Lets be ones you didn’t expect desktop stile experience from A1000. Firefox/Chrome is useless on this kind of devices
I have idea how we can make media center from A1000.
do you know qtmediahub ?? it is/was nokia qt demo aplication.
And this guys made theme that looks exactly like XBMC 🙂
But we need 2 thinks. Mali400 drivers with rendering to framebuffer.
No x11 and build qt5.
But I have only one problem a that is mali drivers 🙁
@ misko
The real reason I bought the Mele is to have an ARM board to tinker with (trying things, play with Linux on ARM…), without having to pay hundreds of dollars. Where I live a Beagleboard would cost me nearly $250, and even the beaglebone would be close to $200.
If you want a media player, you can try XBMC, it’s part of Linaro, but you have to make sure OpenGL ES is working. I’ve tried it already (without mali support) and I get 0.3 fps in the main menu. Once you get the menu, I suppose NEON software decoding would also you to play 720p videos, but maybe not 1080p. 1080p would probably require hardware video decoding.
I did not know qtmediahub, but if it skips X11 it should be faster. The OpenGL ES libraries (ARMHF) are available at https://dl.dropbox.com/u/65312725/mali_opengl_hf_lib.tgz. I basically don’t know anything about OpenGL/ OpenGL ES, but you seem to be a specialist, so you may be able to find a way to use that :).