firmware News - Page 14 of 32 - CNX Software

April 5, 2018April 5, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

DirtyJTAG Firmware Convert $2 STM32 “Bluepill” Boards or ST-Link V2 Clones into JTAG Adapters

DirtyJTAG is a JTAG adapter firmware for cheap STM32 boards like BluePill or equally inexpensive ST-Link V2 clones that was developed to create an alternative to the cheap – but now obsolete – LPT Wiggler cables, and more expensive USB JTAG probes. You’ll find the source, and documentation on Github. First, you’ll need to flash the firmware using the DFU method or an SWD programmer (for ST-Link) or USB to TLL debug board (for STM32 dev boards), before making the connection to the target board as shown below (for Bluepill). STM32 JTAG PA0 TDI PA1 TDO PA2 TCK PA3 TMS PA4 TRST PA5 SRST You can then use mainline UrJTAG for your newly flashed JTAG adapter. If you prefer OpenOCD, it might eventually be possible to use Versaloon firmware instead on STM32 Bluepill board. Thanks to Zoobab for the tip. Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a […]

March 27, 2018March 27, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Google Has Made it Harder to Load Google Apps on Uncertified Devices

Cheap TV boxes or development boards that can run Android, are not normally certified by Google, but you can still use Google Apps like the Google Play Store either directly with the manufacturer pre-loading the packages on the device, or manually by installing the packages yourself. According to a report by XDA developers, Google has made it harder to load Gapps on uncertified devices starting from March 16th, and if you try to login on a new custom firmware you may get the message “Device is not certified by Google” when accessing a Google app. The change will apparently only affect newly built firmware , so older firmware should still be able to access Google Play store (TBC). We’ll have to see how it turns out. Google Play Services is said to check ro.build.fingerprint for the build date, but it seems too easy to work around this, if that’s the […]

March 13, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Android based Station OS Firmware Focuses on Multimedia and Retro Gaming for ROC-RK3328-CC and Firefly-RK3399 Boards

If you’re interesting in gaming and multimedia, one choice is to run Linux based RetrOrangePi or RetroPie on your favorite development board/SBC, and soon, with the upcoming release of Kodi 18, multimedia and retro gaming will just be an app installation away in Android, and other supported operating systems, since RetroPlayer retro-gaming emulator is part of the latest – and yet-to-be-released – version of Kodi. In the meantime, if you own a ROC-RK3328-CC and/or Firefly-RK3399 board(s), you may want to try Station OS, a firmware based on Android with a focus on 4K video playback and retro gaming. The description claims that Stations OS includes “more than 20 kinds of optimization for video and games, achieve multimedia center, Kodi 4K hardware decoding, game simulator hardware acceleration, real-time cast screen display, network acceleration, perfect Root.” The firmware does not use Kodi directly, but RKMC fork instead with some improvements, and they […]

February 5, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Minimal Image Gets Even Smaller (30MB Compressed)

Sometimes you want to get the smallest image you can get, either because your storage device has limited capacity, you may want a faster boot, oe because you can. In the past, I’ve covered minimal firmware images for Raspberry Pi using Raspbian or the Yocto Project, as well as SliTaz or more recently a minimal Ubuntu 16.04 for ODROID C2/C1+ boards. Minimal images are also popular for containers like docker or LXD. Canonical has released Ubuntu minimal images for several years, and Dustin Kirklan blogged about Ubuntu 18.04 LTS mini images a few days ago, showing the good progress made over Ubuntu 14.04 and 18.04 “Bionic Beaver”, and asking for feedback. The charts above shows the minimal image went from around 62.78 MB (compressed) and 179.67 MB (uncompressed) for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS down to 29.65 MB (compressed) and 77.5 MB (uncompressed). That’s the number of AMD64 images, but ARM64 Ubuntu […]

January 23, 2018March 8, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

FOSDEM 2018 Open Source Developers Meeting Schedule

FOSDEM (Free and Open Source Software Developers’ European Meeting) occurs every year on the first week-end of February, where developers meet for two days discussing about open source software projects. FOSDEM 2018 will take place on February 3-4 this year with 652 speakers, 684 events, and 57 tracks, an increase over last year 608 speakers, 653 events, and 54 tracks. There will be 8 main tracks namely: Community, History, Miscellaneous, Performance, Python, Security and Encryption, Space, and Global Diversity CFP Day. There will also be 33 developer rooms, and since the full schedule is now available, I’ll make a virtual schedule mostly based on sessions from the Embedded, mobile, and automotive, Hardware Enablement, and Internet of Things devrooms. Saturday 3, 2018 09:50 – 10:15 – Turning On the Lights with Home Assistant and MQTT by Leon Anavi In this presentation you will learn the exact steps for using MQTT JSON […]

January 2, 2018January 2, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Xiaomi Mi A1 (Android One) Smartphone Gets Android 8.0 OTA Firmware Update

Google gave a new life to its Android One program last year with products such as Xiaomi Mi A1 smartphone, which also happens to be my main phone. One of the main benefits of getting an Android One smartphone is the promise to get regular security updates, as well as upgrades to the latest version of Android for at least 2 years after launch. I’ve been keeping track of updated in my long term review of Xiaomi Mi A1, and since I received it in mid-October, I got 6 security updates, or about two such update per month. However, Xiaomi also promised Android 8.0 Oreo update by the end of the year (2017), and as the year drew to a close I was not confident the company would fulfill this promise. But around mid-afternoon on December 31st, I received a notification about “Android Update (Oreo)”, so I went there, […]

November 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Vorke Z3 Rockchip RK3399 TV Box Gets Android 7.1 Firmware

Earlier today, I discovered Cloudnetgo CR19 TV Box based on Rockchip RK3399 SoC and equipped with an external SATA port sold on GeekBuying. At first, I thought it was something completely new, but soon remembered that I had reviewed a very similar device: Vorke Z3. At the time of the review however, the device was pre-loaded with Android 6.0, and while performance itself was clearly at step up compared to other TV boxes, video playback was rather poor, and there were too many bugs to my taste. Then I realized that the new device came with Android 7.1, and a quick search revealed Vorke Z3 had also received an Android 7.1 firmware upgrade late September. That will be old news for some owners, but if you’ve gotten frustrated by your device while running Android 6.0, it may be worth checking out Android 7.1. If OTA firmware update from Android 6.0 […]

October 13, 2017October 13, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 25 Comments

UniElec U7621-06 MediaTek MT7621 Router Supports OpenWrt, Padavan, and PandoraBox Firmware

UniElec U7621-06 is a router / gateway based on Mediatek MT7621 dual core/Quad Thread processor, and offered either as a board only or complete system with optional WiFi and/or LTE PCIe modules. While the board is said to run OpenWrt or firmware based on Mediatek Linux SDK , the company also mentions the board runs Breed bootloader that can be used to upgrade the firmware through a web interface. UniElec claims the router supports alternative firmware such as Padavan or PandoraBox. UniElec U7621-06 specifications: SoC – Mediatek MT7621 dual-core, quad-thread MIPS1004K processor @ up to 880MHz System Memory – 256MB DDR3 (optional 512 MB) Storage – 16MB NOR Flash (optional 8/32/64MB), 1x SATA 3.0 port, 1x micro SD card slot Connectivity – 5x Gigabit Ports (4x LAN, 1x WAN) USB – 1x USB 3.0 port Expansion 2x “normal” mPCIe for 802.11ac or 802.11n WiFi module 1x mPCIe connector for LTE […]