Teclast T60 AI rooting + armbian possibility Allwinner A733

[Taz]

Hello armbian accomplices, I though I would share my little journey about getting this tablet rooted with magisk so that hopefully one day armbian could run on it.

 

Steps:

1. on android become developer

2. enable oem bootloader unlocking in developer options

3. adb reboot bootloader

4. fastboot oem unlock

5. reboot, the system will be wiped clean

6. install Magisk apk from github releases

7. get Teclast T60 AI firmware from their site it contains Firmware.img

8. ./sunxi-fw extract -n "wty:init_boot.fex" -o stock_init_boot.img Firmware.img

9. transfer to device and patch with Magisk app

10. adb reboot bootloader

11. fastboot flash init_boot_a /path/to/magisk_patched_init_boot.img
12. fastboot flash init_boot_b /path/to/magisk_patched_init_boot.img

13. fastboot reboot

 

Now do people know about what needs to be done to get xfce with armbian booted on this apparatus?? I think I need better AI agent for this than Deepseek as it is a bit sloppy as usual, Gemini Pro 2.5+ or some Claude probably. I ended up battling with this for a few days.

Edited April 5 by Taz

[Werner]

moved to tvboxes

[Taz]

Okay slight update, I have successfully booted https://forum.armbian.com/topic/56130-radxa-cubie-a7aa7z-allwinner-a733 linux 6.6.98-vendor-sun60iw2 kernel and debootstrapped Bookworm (Debian 12) on it using userdata as root fs.

Basically I got in using:
aliexpress.com/item/1005009243708714.html Micro SD Sniffer
aliexpress.com/item/1005010529282186.html in 1.8v mode(important!)

And fiddling with the u-boot endlessly after i first sabotaged the auto-boot process.
Display is alive, usb subsystem does not work, does not probe. Wifi would be next so I can ditch the tf uart. All your bases belong to us, resistance is futile!

Edited May 5 by Taz

[Taz]

Had to debootstrap trixie because depmod version mismatch. Wifi 2.4 + 5 GHz + BT headphones, keyboards all work. USB is still stuck in plain charge, no micro SD. According to Gemini 3.1 Pro which I have been using, Imagination Technologies (PowerVR) BXM-4-64 MC1 would need 6.12.x kernel or newer which I have not been able to boot yet. This actually feels a bit faster than the Teclast Android even though without accel youtubes playback is quite slow. Battery life probably 5+ hours.

 

aliexpress.com/item/1005009649297050.html keyboard + touchpad I have is a bit shady miss-clicks a bit once in a while. Might have to AI haxor some software filter to get it behave a bit better but that should not be that big of a deal. I have kind of already made up my mind, this ain't going to boot Android anymore, have to see if I grab another one at some point.

 

Edited May 7 by Taz

[YODAI]

Hi guys
1: First, I'm happy to register on your forum.
2: I needed to root my TECLAST T60 IA tablet to test it with some software, and I found this post on your forum.
3: My problem is:
#: I followed the rooting steps up to step 5.
#: Thinking it was better to install the new firmware first and then proceed with rooting.
#: My big mistake was starting the firmware update with PhoenixSuit and the bootloader unlocked. After a while, I got a firmware error, and after restarting, I got this message.

4: I tried to enter fastboot mode by pressing the power button, volume down button, and volume up button, but I can't get into fastboot mode.

I hope you can help me figure out how to enter fastboot mode, install the firmware, and then try to root the device.

[Taz]

Howdy. if you have the tf uart adapter thingy, by the time it shows that on screen you are at the u-boot prompt where you can do what you want. e.g. start fastboot. I believe this tablet cannot be bricked because you can always enter FEL mode and use phoenixsuit. It can be maddeningly difficult to phoenixsuit to flash cold tablet but i recall it was like this: press and hold vol+ and power, plug usb cable with phoenixsuite ready to flash. release power button and vol+ few seconds later.

[YODAI]

Thanks for replying. Taz
1: I have a TTL UART. What are the steps to connect it and get the tablet working?

2: I'll try again this afternoon. I've tried many times and haven't been able to.
#: Press and hold Volume Up and Power, then connect the USB cable with PhoenixSuite.

I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks for everything.

[YODAI]

Hi Taz
I wanted to let you know:
1: I got them working perfectly again thanks to your help.👍👍
2: The problem was with the firmware, which always gave an error when updating.🤦‍♂️
#: I downloaded the firmware twice from the official Teclast website.
#: I downloaded it the third time, and this time it updated completely.
#: It's possible that some files got corrupted when I extracted them.
3: How do you connect the TF UART adapter?

4: Why did you install this Armbian operating system on the Allwinner A733?
#: Does it work better? Is it smoother than Android on this tablet?

Thanks

Edited 11 hours ago by YODAI

[Taz]

You can find the pinout at https://linux-sunxi.org/MicroSD_Breakout : CD is rx, CLK is tx and GND. There is a risk that using 3.3 v TTL levels on the tf card slot could fry the microsd controller so I would suggest getting the 1.8V version I mentioned earlier.

 

So here is how I boot debian Trixie these days: (still need to figure out how to automate this but I do not know how yet using u-boot)

setenv bootargs console=ttyAS0,115200 root=/dev/sda28 rw rootwait init=/sbin/init clk_ignore_unused
sunxi_flash read 4007F000 boot_a
sunxi_flash read 4fa00000 dtbo_a
fdt addr 0x4fa00000
bootm 4007F000 - 4fa00000

 

Write dtb:

dtc -I dtb -O dts -o tablet.dts tablet_patched.dtb

dd if=tablet_patched.dtb of=/dev/sda24  status=progress conv=fsync
dd if=tablet_patched.dtb of=/dev/sda25  status=progress conv=fsync

You need these on host:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install debootstrap qemu-user-static

How to prepaire the rootfs which will be flashed to userdata using fastboot:

fallocate -l 8G teclast_trixie.img
mkfs.ext4 -b 4096 teclast_trixie.img



sudo mount -o loop teclast_trixie.img /mnt/trixie
sudo mount --bind /dev /mnt/trixie/dev
sudo mount --bind /sys /mnt/trixie/sys
sudo mount --bind /proc /mnt/trixie/proc

sudo debootstrap --arch=arm64 trixie /mnt/trixie http://deb.debian.org/debian

sudo chroot /mnt/teclast /bin/bash
passwd root
echo "t60" > /etc/hostname
apt update
apt install build-essential kmod
# you will need to install bunch of others but not more than 3 GB I think because fastboot wont reliably transfer more

exit
sudo fastboot erase userdata
sudo fastboot flash userdata teclast_trixie.img

 

How to do the raxda kernel:

./magiskboot unpack boot.img
cp ../../raxda_kernel.img kernel
./magiskboot repack boot.img new_boot.img
sudo fastboot flash boot_a new_boot.img
sudo fastboot flash boot_b new_boot.img

 

Wifi driver is a bit complicated(TBD):

 

modprobe aic8800_bsp modprobe aic8800_fdrv ip link show wlan0

 

Here are the stock partitions:

root@t60:~# blkid 
/dev/sda26: SEC_TYPE="msdos" UUID="2200-140B" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="vfat" PARTLABEL="media_data" PARTUUID="a0085546-4166-744a-a353-fca9272b8e5e"
/dev/sda22: UUID="dd7fd886-b74f-41cf-a5b1-bf1b47afaf8c" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PARTLABEL="treadahead" PARTUUID="a0085546-4166-744a-a353-fca9272b8e5a"
/dev/sda1: SEC_TYPE="msdos" LABEL="Volumn" BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="vfat" PARTLABEL="bootloader_a" PARTUUID="a0085546-4166-744a-a353-fca9272b8e45"
/dev/sda23: SEC_TYPE="msdos" UUID="4019-0FB8" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="vfat" PARTLABEL="private" PARTUUID="a0085546-4166-744a-a353-fca9272b8e5b"
/dev/sda21: UUID="a5aa7e72-84f0-40c4-9693-2a2ad5896309" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PARTLABEL="metadata" PARTUUID="a0085546-4166-744a-a353-fca9272b8e59"
/dev/sda28: UUID="f84bc812-d087-4cba-a90f-d045d40d2e44" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PARTLABEL="userdata" PARTUUID="a0085546-4166-744a-a353-fca9272b8e60"
/dev/sda4: PARTLABEL="env_b" PARTUUID="a0085546-4166-744a-a353-fca9272b8e48"
/dev/sda16: PARTLABEL="vbmeta_system_b" PARTUUID="a0085546-4166-744a-a353-fca9272b8e54"
/dev/sda2: PARTLABEL="bootloader_b" PARTUUID="a0085546-4166-744a-a353-fca9272b8e46"
/dev/sda24: PARTLABEL="dtbo_a" PARTUUID="a0085546-4166-744a-a353-fca9272b8e5c"
/dev/sda14: PARTLABEL="vbmeta_b" PARTUUID="a0085546-4166-744a-a353-fca9272b8e52"
/dev/sda12: PARTLABEL="misc" PARTUUID="a0085546-4166-744a-a353-fca9272b8e50"
/dev/sda9: PARTLABEL="init_boot_a" PARTUUID="a0085546-4166-744a-a353-fca9272b8e4d"
/dev/sda20: PARTLABEL="empty" PARTUUID="a0085546-4166-744a-a353-fca9272b8e58"
/dev/sda10: PARTLABEL="init_boot_b" PARTUUID="a0085546-4166-744a-a353-fca9272b8e4e"
/dev/sda7: PARTLABEL="vendor_boot_a" PARTUUID="a0085546-4166-744a-a353-fca9272b8e4b"
/dev/sda19: PARTLABEL="frp" PARTUUID="a0085546-4166-744a-a353-fca9272b8e57"
/dev/sda5: PARTLABEL="boot_a" PARTUUID="a0085546-4166-744a-a353-fca9272b8e49"
/dev/sda27: PARTLABEL="pstore" PARTUUID="a0085546-4166-744a-a353-fca9272b8e5f"
/dev/sda17: PARTLABEL="vbmeta_vendor_a" PARTUUID="a0085546-4166-744a-a353-fca9272b8e55"
/dev/sda3: PARTLABEL="env_a" PARTUUID="a0085546-4166-744a-a353-fca9272b8e47"
/dev/sda25: PARTLABEL="dtbo_b" PARTUUID="a0085546-4166-744a-a353-fca9272b8e5d"
/dev/sda15: PARTLABEL="vbmeta_system_a" PARTUUID="a0085546-4166-744a-a353-fca9272b8e53"
/dev/sda13: PARTLABEL="vbmeta_a" PARTUUID="a0085546-4166-744a-a353-fca9272b8e51"
/dev/sda11: PARTLABEL="super" PARTUUID="a0085546-4166-744a-a353-fca9272b8e4f"
/dev/sda8: PARTLABEL="vendor_boot_b" PARTUUID="a0085546-4166-744a-a353-fca9272b8e4c"
/dev/sda6: PARTLABEL="boot_b" PARTUUID="a0085546-4166-744a-a353-fca9272b8e4a"
/dev/sda18: PARTLABEL="vbmeta_vendor_b" PARTUUID="a0085546-4166-744a-a353-fca9272b8e56"

 

tablet.dts

[YODAI]

Thanks for your information.
1: In step 8 (`./sunxi-fw extract -n "wty:init_boot.fex" -o stock_init_boot.img Firmware.img`) you extract init_boot with sunxi-fx. How do you extract it?

#: I've tried 3 times and haven't succeeded. Can you tell me the steps? I might not be writing correctly somewhere. 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️
2: You say that if the message "lock bootloader" appears on the screen with TF UART, I can enter fastboot mode. What is the procedure?🤷‍♂️

Thanks

[Taz]

1. https://github.com/apritzel/sunxi-fw

2.  "adb reboot bootloader" takes you to fastboot if android boots up, "fastboot" if you are at u-boot terminal. See help for list of u-boot commands, I do not know that much about it but you can feed the list to AI and see if something useful comes up.

 

So to get acceleration we need to pull at least 6.12.x kernel from raxda a7a a7s a7z to get video acceleration going, maybe like https://github.com/radxa-build/radxa-a733/releases

Edited 24 minutes ago by Taz