Support for Mele A1000/A2000 armbian

[calhemp]

Hi, thanks for the efforts making armbian very well and very stable for all the distributions, I'm running with a Cubieboard 1 and other arm devices..

 

I don't want to disturb,

but I'll be a headache to support or add in repository this old A10 device  Mele A1000/A2000? 

I know that is old chip, but I'm feel nostalgia, because was one of  firsts devices supported in linux-sunxi, and Tom Cubie worked at mele, and sell this litlle joys overseas in 2012, and there are a lot of people now that have  this devices too. a lot now sure in the dust and is in mainline kernel also.

 

Tom left Mele, and maked Cubieboard 1, this Mele A1000 I think that have the same configurations, and cubieboard was based on it, this board has no external 40/44 pins headers like cubieboads or other dev devices

 

I forked the library and maked a test,

https://github.com/calhemp/lib/

1) added the fex file (for 3.4.x compilations I think, kernel mainline don't needed right? )

https://github.com/calhemp/lib/blob/master/config/fex/mele_a1000.fex

from https://github.com/linux-sunxi/sunxi-boards/blob/master/sys_config/a10/mele_a1000.fex

2) added a conf file in boards section (i don't know if is correct, I  based from cubieboard.conf file)

https://github.com/calhemp/lib/blob/master/config/boards/mele-a1000.conf

 

Is the correct form to add a device to run compile.sh?

 

I run and maked the image and works like a charm, I think that can be polished but is out of my experience , but now works,

I know that I can compile a new kernel in every update of armbian lib, but I don't know if it can be added to baords list of armbian, and have a fresh compile every update of the libs.

 

and if is a problem I will do it as now of if can be a better configure option, I'm a all ears.

 

thanks in advance. Pere.

[Igor]

Is the correct form to add a device to run compile.sh?

 

Yes, that's enough. We can accept / add it to the script while I am skeptic for adding to download section since it's an older device.

 

There is a dedicated device tree within mainline kernel, so it would be good to create new u-boot config for this board:

 

Mele_a1000_defconfig

CONFIG_ARM=y
CONFIG_ARCH_SUNXI=y
CONFIG_SPL_I2C_SUPPORT=y
CONFIG_MACH_SUN4I=y
CONFIG_DRAM_CLK=480
CONFIG_MMC0_CD_PIN="PH1"
CONFIG_DEFAULT_DEVICE_TREE="sun4i-a10-a1000"
# CONFIG_SYS_MALLOC_CLEAR_ON_INIT is not set
CONFIG_SYS_EXTRA_OPTIONS="SUNXI_EMAC,AHCI,SATAPWR=SUNXI_GPB(8)"
CONFIG_SPL=y
# CONFIG_CMD_IMLS is not set
# CONFIG_CMD_FLASH is not set
# CONFIG_CMD_FPGA is not set
CONFIG_CMD_GPIO=y
CONFIG_AXP_ALDO3_VOLT=2800
CONFIG_AXP_ALDO4_VOLT=2800
CONFIG_USB_EHCI_HCD=y

This is copy past from Cubieboard1 with changed DT path. Need to be tested and checked.

 

After you are satisfied make a pull request.

[calhemp]

oou , many thanks Igor,

 

Yeah, this device is old !! make sense not putting in download section,

taking 1 A10 board for reference as cubiebard1 that is in download section, users can make a idea how to make images for older devices if follow script pattern.

 

I will try to add the configuration files for this board, and if can be added to the main lib script as accepted will be great, or configuration added but in a disabled state that only has to be uncommented for lib detect and build the image if user select the device.

 

thanks.

[Pctrend]

Igor I recently installed ARMBIAN 5.65 stable Debian GNU / Linux 9 (stretch) 4.19.17-sunxi from (https://dl.armbian.com/melea1000/archive/). Everything works very well. Because I have Mele A2000g I have 1G Ram. Can you tell me how to change your image so that Armbian can see the full 1G Ram. I am trying to compile, but it's hard for me to be my first contact with Linux. Maybe you could also compile such a version?

 

 

Edited February 9, 2019 by Pctrend
add source

[martinayotte]

2 hours ago, Pctrend said:

Can you tell me how to change your image so that Armbian can see the full 1G Ram.

What "free" command is reporting ?

[Pctrend]

Welcome to ARMBIAN 5.65 stable Debian GNU/Linux 9 (stretch) 4.19.17-sunxi   

System load:   0.78 0.55 0.52  Up time:       23:11 hours

Memory usage:  33 % of 485MB  Zram usage:    6 % of 242Mb  IP:            192.168.0.16 192.168.0.19

CPU temp:      32°C           

 total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available

Mem:         497216      166340      118280        3652      212596      317116

Swap:        248604       14592      234012

[martinayotte]

14 minutes ago, Pctrend said:

Memory usage:  33 % of 485MB

Strange ! I don't have any clue ...

Maybe @Igor has some hints ...

[Igor]

Perhaps adding

CONFIG_NR_DRAM_BANKS=2

to u-boot config?

[Pctrend]

Gentlemen, I'm sorry I did not thank you immediately for your suggestions. But I could not get more memory in Armbian.

On the box from the bottom:

Mele model A2000G .

After a few hours of fighting, I opened the box. I found memory chips on the PCB.

MT29F32G08CBACA FLASH 4GB MLC

2PCS X H5TQ2G63DFR-H9C   DDR3-1333H (supports down binning to DDR3-1066F), x16, density: 2G

That means I have 4 GB of flash and 512 MB of RAM even though I have an A2000G sticker on the box. Thanks for support . Igor, you're doing a great job.