squarefoot

Greetings! I have acquired for cheap this old board. It runs an old Android (4.x) and I'd like to run Armbian on it, but lack the knowledge to do that by myself. The idea would be to start with booting a Linux a SD image, then attempt to install it on the onboard flash in place of Android. The board is not for sale anymore and the manufacturer removed any mention of it from their site, however Archive.org has a copy along with related files, manuals, firmware etc: https://web.archive.org/web/20140701064007/http://www.giadatech.com/index.php?act=pShow&id=36 The board presents itself when not in USB host mode as "SoftwinerEvb" which appears to be a tablet of some sort. When in FEL mode it returns USB device 001:003 Allwinner A20 1651660f:80515778:52564848:0401b1b0 I also was able to retrieve some data using adb shell: root@android:/ # lsmod sunxi_emac 12965 0 - Live 0x00000000 gps_power 2023 0 - Live 0x00000000 pcf8563 7808 0 - Live 0x00000000 vga_resolution 3916 1 - Live 0x00000000 rtl8150 8115 0 - Live 0x00000000 uvcvideo 54664 0 - Live 0x00000000 videobuf_dma_contig 3817 0 - Live 0x00000000 videobuf_core 15292 1 videobuf_dma_contig, Live 0x00000000 mali 115734 13 - Live 0x00000000 (O) ump 30154 7 mali, Live 0x00000000 (O) gpio_sunxi 6918 0 - Live 0x00000000 sun7i_ir 6559 0 - Live 0x00000000 nand 221273 12 - Live 0x00000000 (O) ----- dmesg output is attached. I never tried to build a new one or adapt an existing image to a new or non supported board and I hope to find some directions to do that without bricking this device. I tried to read the documentation at linux-sunxi.org, but it's huge and I found hard to even understand where to start. Thanks for any help. Giada-NI-A20_dmesgout

True, but that is a different product. The Duo DIL form factor IMHO makes it a killer product for being both breadboard friendly and as an add on for other boards. Let's hope the updated version will keep being wallet and solder friendly as the old one was.

Doh! Price went up by $5, but the site still lists them as unavailable. Is this price related to the old model stock or the new upcoming one?

Thanks Yuefei, that's good news! Can you disclose some details about the changes?

Any (un)official news on the subject? I'd like to get a couple for tinkering with, but at FA site they keep reporting 3-4 weeks until they're available again.

Take a look to the relevant wiki at Friendlyarm site: http://wiki.friendlyarm.com/wiki/index.php/NanoPi_Duo There's a .dxf CAD file which should help at least with the distance between headers. I'm also waiting for the Duo to become available again, 3 to 4 weeks seems a long time though.

That code is for the Raspberry PI, not the Orange PI, and the way it obtains the necessary timings looks highly platform dependent, which is probably why it doesn't work. Using an hardware timer would be a much better solution IMO, but due to Linux non-realtime nature, I would use a small cheap micro controller just to take the readings, buffer them, and transform them into serial (i2c, whatever) packets upon request from the OPi.

> I dont like these "small" systems whcih only support OpenWRT Most small systems support only OpenWRT due to lack of resources; OpenWRT was born as an alternative open OS for Linksys home/SOHO access points and similar hardware with a fraction of the resources our SBC boards can count on today. Armbian installation on that class of devices would be impossible. > armbian/debian is for server type systems and mostly doesnt need the multimedia (video) of a raspberry pi. I'd say it's a complete dress one can cut to the desired length while OpenWRT is a nice pair of shorts full of pockets packed with tools:) Regarding multimedia, one of my goals with small boards such as NanoPIs and Orange PIs etc. would rather be the feasibility of the video output to be used in instruments to show data, waveforms etc with decent speed. That should require only 2D acceleration with no codecs involved.

I use Armbian because it's very close to the original Debian and I feel at home using it, also there is some good effort to support a growing number of processors/boards which is really good also because we have a common system to test against, not to mention the forum which is among my favorite reads in the morning at the local cafe Now if I really had to find something I don't like about Armbian, that would be some more recent boards which seem supported only by the Ubuntu-flavored Armbian. ps- arox, I share pretty much your same opinion on the RPF, especially the whole RPi-Zero thing, that's why I use RPis only for media players and other boards for everything else.

Overpriced but absolutely gorgeous. GPD Pocket Mini Laptop I would love an ARM mini netbook with the same form factor (no trackpad) although only a 40-50% price cut could make it interesting to my pockets.

Just stumbled upon this new board by the Friendlyarm folks. http://www.friendlyarm.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=197 Lots of signals exposed on the strip contacts, including Ethernet and USB, though magnetics and connectors aren't there, which makes this even more interesting to build thin appliances: you add connectors when you need them. Good! I'll probably order a couple to start playing with, but will take forever to ship over here.