Armbian for an old Allwinner A10 tablet

[thewiseguyshivam]

Hi!
I have an old Allwinner A10 based tablet that runs on Android. I want to install some other OS on it. I tried the instructions on linux-sunxi.org and created a page for the tablet:

https://linux-sunxi.org/Softwinners_crane

I extracted the FEX file from an image I got from the manufacturers a long time ago: http://github.com/linux-sunxi/sunxi-boards/pull/72/files

 

The linux-sunxi mailing list pointed out that my tablet is similar to Topwise A721, so I used that dts file to compile u-boot and the kernel, and tried to boot it through an SD card. Trying to boot that, u-boot starts, and then gets stuck at "Starting kernel..."

 

Then I found this:

After following this and building armbian, I realised that there is no script.bin to replace anymore (I'm guessing because now we use device trees?), so unable to boot this as well.

 

What should I do to make this work with armbian? My guess is that I need to create a new dts or correct the Topwise A721 dts (https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/arch/arm/boot/dts/allwinner/sun4i-a10-topwise-a721.dts) and then try again. The only problem is that I have no experience with device trees.  

 

Would really appreciate help on getting this to work, thanks! :) 

[Ryzer]

HI,

 

I dont believe it is necessary to recreate the Topwise A721 dts as it should already be included in the kernel sources used. What most likely needs to be done as a minimum is config file so that the Armbian build system recognizes the board and knows how to handle it. Admittedly I have never added a board so I can only speculate. A problem you may face is that the internal LCD may no longer work with the latest kernels.

 

best of luck

 

Ryzer

[thewiseguyshivam]

Hi!

Great, that's a good starting point. So where could I find a reference file I can edit and align with my tablet? And where should I place this file? How would this file (possibly) connect to some dts? (This is just for my curiosity)

 

Thank you!

[Ryzer]

All Armbian board configurations files live in build/config/board/

 

Besides the Pcduino2 Cubieboard and OlinuXino-lime board, I don't know what other A10 boards still have some level of support. After that the next step would probably be to confirm that it works with uboot. Here you have another config file and dts. For any tweaks to uboot you will need to pass uboot-patch when running compile.sh. Note that when you do this you will need to open a new tab and navigate to cache/sources/u-boot-worktree/

 

Similiarly for the kernel you would navigate to cache/sources/kernel/

currently 6.12 is "current" while 6.14 is "edge"

 

Hope this helps

 

Ryzer