makeSD Script to Write Image to SD Card for Mele A1000 / AllWinner A10 Devices

Most images released for Mele A1000 (Ubuntu, Puppy Linux..) won’t fit in my SD card, and until now I had to manually partition the SD card, extract the data and copy it to the SD card. I’ve also noticed the size of the SD card slowly creeps lower overtime. I bought an SD card last week and fdisk reported 3901685760 bytes and this morning the same command reported 3898782720 bytes. That’s probably due to new bad sectors which I believe is actually normal for this type of device. The problem is that a backup of “last week” SD card done with dd might not be restored properly with dd since the SD card is now smaller. So I decided to write a shell script “makeSD.sh” that will do the following: Umount the SD card if needed Partition the SD card Copy uboot to the SD card Mount the image file […]

Linux on eMMC: Optimizing for Performance – ELC 2012

Ken Tough, principal engineer at Intrinsyc Software, discusses Linux on eMMC at Embedded Linux Conference 2012. Abstract: Embedded devices are increasingly choosing eMMC instead of raw NAND flash as their main storage, for increased independence from component vendors and changing storage densities. This presentation examines Linux configuration for eMMC, how to effectively measure your eMMC performance, and tips to improve it. Topics covered include: filesystem bearing on MMC/SD performance, IO scheduler configuration, and optimal partition layout. Target audience is embedded systems developers or users interested in getting the most out of their eMMC/SD card. You can also download the presentation slides on elinux.org. Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)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. www.cnx-software.com

Meet the Wifi SD Card: Toshiba FlashAir

Toshiba is currently showcasing the Toshiba AirFlash – a new Wifi-Enabled SDHC card – at IFA 2011 in Berlin (2-7 September 2011) The card features an embedded wireless LAN chip that allows it to both transmit and receive files wirelessly. The FlashAir is reportedly the world’s first SDHC memory card with embedded wireless LAN functionality to meet the SD Memory Card Standard. Previously other SD cards such as Eye-Fi allowed Wi-fi connectivity, but the Eye-Fi could only transmit files from a camera directly to another Wifi device, the FlashAir can receive and transfer by using point to point connection and a router is not needed. The FlashAir can be fully configured thanks to a configuration file located in the SD Card, so that you can select the IP of the SD Card, the wifi security settings such as WEP, WPA, WPA2… and more. The Toshiba FlashAir will be sampled starting […]

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