Mele: Ubuntu 12.10 armhf base with nand install (v1)

I’m posting here a running (base) version of ubuntu 12.10 armhf (V1), kernel 3.0.42+.

Quick, Working and not so Dirty EDITION.

Easy to install on the NAND and ready to be tuned.
I added an easy configurator in it (explain at the end of the post).

Xorg stuff integrated.

The kernel is the one i use (wemac tuned, sata ok but compiled with all the modules for GFX stuff).

UPDATE
After boot failure report from v1.3 mele owner, please try this one (for all mele version):
ubuntu_12.10_armhf_v1_mele_t0.img.gz
It’s a patched 3.0.42+ around a clock problem and seems to solve the issue !
This pre-release also includes latest DRI2 driver 😉
/UPDATE

To proceed:

  1. Download the file: ubuntu_12.10_armhf_v1_mele.img.gz (MD5: 32e181589ac4232fdaac3e9f86546e87)
  2. Unzip the file.
    Linux: gunzip ubuntu_12.10_armhf_v1_mele.img.gz
  3. DD it to your MMC. You will need a mmc >= 1Go.
    • From linux (put your SDCard and type ‘dmesg’, you will see something about mmcblk0 or sdX appear at the end of dmesg print. Use the device you see to replace <MMC_DEVICE>)
      dd if=<path_to_mele_ubuntu_12.10_armhf_v1.img> of=/dev/<MMC_DEVICE> bs=1M
    • From windows, you can use any “dd” for windows or choose one of these:
  4. If you want to use SSH, plug an RJ45 ethernet cable in the Mele (connected to a network with DHCP)
  5. Put the MMC in the slot… cross fingers and power the mele
  6. After 15 seconds, you should see a fast led flash Red/Blue. It means the mele has boot properly. If you have no VGA but RJ45 cable, you will see the mele on your network (ping scan via nmap or watch on your router/dhcp server for the mele). The default mac is 000A.2000.1000
  7. You can use a VGA screen or SSH to it. User: root, Password: root

Video and Other
By default, it’s booting in VGA mode.
If you want HDMI and have no VGA, just ‘ssh root@<IP>’, Password: root, and launch PIMP_MY_MELE to configure the video output.

Also, i have add a funny program to it to easy some tasks:
Configure Video Output/Mode, Change mac address, Install to nand, etc..
Pimp my Mele (screenshot and details).
Log as root and type PIMP_MY_MELE

Xorg
As root, add some programs for X:
apt-get install xterm ...

You can launch Xorg with ‘startx’ or add ‘gdm’ or ‘slim’ or anything.

Highly recommanded:

# ssh-keygen -t rsa -f /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key
# ssh-keygen -t dsa -f /etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key

# passwd

# passwd user
OR
# deluser user

# echo “<MY_HOSTNAME>” > /etc/hostname

And more:

  • edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config
    Change: UsePAM no
    Change: PasswordAuthentication no (and use authorized_keys to connect)
    Change: PermitRootLogin no (and create your own user with password or authorized_keys)
  • Firewall the mele with iptables.
  • etc…

For wifi:
To scan AP around:
ifconfig wlan0 up
iwlist wlan0 scan

For sata:
modprobe sw_ahci_platform
Run this for permanent sata:
echo "sw_ahci_platform" >> /etc/modules

PS: If it’s working for you, let me know 😉

PS2: If it’s not working:

  1. Check your SDCard
  2. Unzipped img, DD img
  3. If the network connector (connected) have light, try to ssh to it to change video mode as explained
  4. Check the led: Uboot/Kernel = Red-Blue, Userland init = Blue, End = Fast Red-Blue switch and finally blue

171 thoughts on “Mele: Ubuntu 12.10 armhf base with nand install (v1)

      • ooops sorry i didn’t read the text accurately xD but the mele doesn’t seem to boot, i mean some signal is arriving to the screen but no access interface appears and no red/blue flashing led are occurring during startup 🙁

  • Try to ssh to it.
    Is your sdcard correct?
    What mele version do you have?
    In the first phase, the led is red/blue. After it’s blue and at the end, it’s fast switching 2 times Red/Blue and stabilize to blue.

    I retried it from scratch and working on mine.

    • i tried to ssh to it but it doesn’t seem to answer :/ the sdcard is hopefully correct, the led isn’t flashing anyway… it’s connecting to the router since it’s identified as something connected and the light of the ethernet plug is on but nothing appears on the screen… version of the board is 1.3

  • not fully booting and led flash here too..

    [ 2.420000] regulator_init_complete: axp20_ldo2: incomplete constraints, leaving on
    [ 2.430000] regulator_init_complete: axp20_ldo1: incomplete constraints, leaving on
    [ 2.440000] sunxi-rtc sunxi-rtc: sunxi_rtc_gettime
    [ 2.440000] sunxi-rtc sunxi-rtc: read time 2010-1-1 0:0:10
    [ 2.450000] sunxi-rtc sunxi-rtc: setting system clock to 2010-01-01 00:00:10 UTC (1262304010)
    [ 2.460000] Waiting for root device /dev/mmcblk0p2…
    [ 3.220000] [mmc]: mmc 0 detect change, present 1
    [ 3.520000] [mmc]: mmc 0 power on !!
    [ 3.560000] [mmc]: sdxc_request_done(L1113): smc 0 err, cmd 52, RTO !!
    [ 3.560000] [mmc]: sdxc_request_done(L1113): smc 0 err, cmd 52, RTO !!
    [ 3.570000] [mmc]: sdxc_request_done(L1113): smc 0 err, cmd 5, RTO !!
    [ 3.580000] [mmc]: sdxc_request_done(L1113): smc 0 err, cmd 5, RTO !!
    [ 3.590000] [mmc]: sdxc_request_done(L1113): smc 0 err, cmd 5, RTO !!
    [ 3.600000] [mmc]: sdxc_request_done(L1113): smc 0 err, cmd 5, RTO !!
    [ 3.630000] mmc0: new high speed SDHC card at address b368
    [ 3.640000] mmcblk0: mmc0:b368 NCard 7.46 GiB
    [ 3.650000] mmcblk0: p1 p2
    [ 3.670000] EXT3-fs (mmcblk0p2): error: couldn’t mount because of unsupported optional features (240)
    [ 3.680000] EXT2-fs (mmcblk0p2): error: couldn’t mount because of unsupported optional features (244)
    [ 4.620000] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p2): recovery complete
    [ 4.630000] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p2): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: (null)
    [ 4.640000] VFS: Mounted root (ext4 filesystem) on device 179:2.
    [ 4.650000] devtmpfs: mounted
    [ 4.650000] Freeing init memory: 164K

    it freezes here… no ping, no vga, no serial consola.

    thanks.

    • Thanks for your log, it’s odd.
      I will get other mele from my office to try if it’s blocking also.
      You can try this on your desktop:
      $ mount -oloop,offset=15728640 /dev/YOUR_SDCARD /mnt/
      edit /mnt/etc/modules and comment all modules except sun4i_gpio (the led).
      $ umount /mnt
      take back your SD and try to boot it from mele.
      Once on the ubuntu in ssh, modprobe each one in the same order to see if one is blocking.

  • I read in title “nand install” but I want to leave untouched original nand with android.

    Is this possibile? Is nand install an optional or default?
    Thanks for your kind help.

    • Optional but the nand is more reliable and it’s harmless for the mele. You can always rollback to android if needed.

      • For “rollback to android” you mean “restore from android img CF”, right?

        P.S. How can I mount my SATA hdd? With “fdisk -l” it’s not listed…

        • Yes, put android ICS back to your nand via the SDCard.

          To get sata, ‘modprobe sw_ahci_platform’ as written or put it in /etc/modules.

          You need a 2.5″ disk. Mele only support 5V powered disks.

  • thanks guillaume, I’ll try.

    this works on a sd card. next if I need a webserver.
    only configure server like this? i’ll find manuals online
    apt-get nginx….php5.

    —-

    i would like to try a little wordpress page and php tests and if
    subsonic server works for my music database.

    thanks.

    • For the config, nginx + php5 should do the trick.
      To host your database and the content, you should also add a sata disk (SSD works great, or a more 2.5″ classic hard drive).

      This ubuntu is by default running with cpufreq governor performance (1Ghz).
      The mele perform well for static content with nginx (reach 80Mbps), that’s what i’ve done for my cluster (in headless armhf).

  • All works fine but where’s my 4gb CF space?


    root@mele:/# apt-get install xubuntu-desktop
    Reading package lists... Done
    Building dependency tree
    Reading state information... Done
    The following extra packages will be installed:
    abiword ...
    xz-utils yelp yelp-xsl zeitgeist zeitgeist-core zeitgeist-datahub zenity zenity-common zip
    Suggested packages:
    apmd alsa-oss ...
    0 upgraded, 913 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
    Need to get 306 MB of archives.
    After this operation, 1,015 MB of additional disk space will be used.
    E: You don't have enough free space in /var/cache/apt/archives/.

    and


    root@mele:/# mount
    /dev/root on / type ext4 (rw,noatime,discard,errors=remount-ro)
    none on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
    none on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
    devtmpfs on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
    none on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=0620)
    none on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
    none on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
    tmpfs on /tmp type tmpfs (rw)
    none on /run type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,size=10%,mode=0755)
    none on /run/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,size=5242880)
    none on /run/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
    none on /run/user type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,size=104857600,mode=0755)

    Sorry for my noobie 🙂

    • It’s an image so the partition is already prepared with 1Go only.
      You can:
      1) If you install on the nand, you will have a nice 4Go in the root.
      2) Add a new partition to your SDcard and move some files on it like the /var, etc… change your fstab and symlink the directories.
      3) Don’t install xubuntu-desktop and use something lighter 😉
      4) Tune the .img
      5) Perhaps resize your MMC partition?

    • so it works for someone, which version of mele board are you using? and did you follow the guide or changed some parameters?

  • Hey – this is great stuff. Just curious – where does the ‘heartbeat’ on the LED come from ? thats a great idea, and I’d love to modify it for an image for the Hackberry…

    Thanks!

      • Hi, the -t0 version should work. It works with everyone so far.
        There’s probably no boot log if you don’t get the vga prompt or a ssh client.
        If you have the TTL-USB adapter, you can follow the loader.

        • Thanks, it finally worked. Thing is after “fail” I left it for like 10 mins and suddenly I saw login prompt. It was t0 indeed.

          • It’s probably the dhcp timeout. You should connect the ethernet cable or simply disable eth0 in /etc/network/interfaces if you are using wlan0.

          • I had no blinking of LED so I just thought I have MMC unable to boot from. Now I discovered I have no keyboard with USB, just PS2, so for now I can’t discover anything with my mele. You seem to have pretty much knowledge about the equipment, so I’d like to ask you two things. I have ttl-usb and don’t know how to use it and what can I do with it. Do you know where on the web are good for noobs tutorials? Second, more important thing is – XBMC. Did you happen to think about creating mmc image with working XBMC? People have a lot of problem with building it.

          • You can connect your TTL-USB to the white connector which is the more near the front of the mele.
            Bottom of the first picture here:
            http://rhombus-tech.net/allwinner_a10/hacking_the_mele_a1000/

            The current armhf xbmc from ubuntu is just too damned slow.
            I’m trying to get a working armhf xbmc… quite hard and it takes ages to compile.
            I have a bin but it’s not running for now 🙁
            If i get something working properly, i will post it.

          • I tried some dd-images earlier and it’s yours which I managed to successfully boot so I woul’d be really grateful if you’d post some working stuff. I’m kind of newbie you know :D.

  • Thank you Guillaume

    And I need your help…

    Downloaded and installed lubuntu-desktop on my mele A2000, it’s look fantasy (saw this in the cpu gorvernor :> ) .

    Without Lan cable it boot very slow otherwise it’s much faster
    (Look like it wait for network interface before finish the init process, this problem is not very important because ssh help me comunnicate with my mele without a proper monitor)

    I’m looking for ANOTHER KERNEL VERSION that support squasfs, overlayfs and more free ram (this is more important to me).
    I had a little experience with kernels, if you don’t mind, please post the source and I would please to play with it a while before asking you the next question.
    I believe that squashfs and overlayfs are more suitable for our mele (nand IO is about 2.5MB/s :< ) and I just want to fill my time by make my mele more fantasy.

    Regards,

    • Hi,
      If it’s booting slowly without ethernet cable, you should edit /etc/network/interfaces and comment this line:
      # iface eth0 inet dhcp
      Because by default, eth0 is looking for a dhcp server and will timeout after some time.

      For the kernel stuff, the main kernel source is here: https://github.com/amery/linux-allwinner/tree/allwinner-v3.0-android-v2
      You can compile it. You have a great page here: Building_Debian_From_Source_Code_for_Mele which includes the process to cross compile the kernel.

      I don’t want to share an alternative/patched source without trying before to discuss with Amery and patch his repository properly.
      I will add cramfs, squashfs as module in the next release.

  • Many thanks,

    I will play with these stuff for a while!

    #iface eth0 inet dhcp
    Worked, it’s boot well

    As far as I know shockware flash won’t be available for ARM, this will make some user restore android. I tried gnash but it seem to old to with flash >= 10. Do you know any way to work around this?

    If i rebuild the kernel, Do I have to rebuild u-boot,script.bin…or I can use yours?

    • Flash, i don’t know. HTML5 is the way 😉

      If you rebuild the kernel, you just have to put the new uImage in the first partition of the mmc and the modules in the second partition. Nothing else to change.
      Have fun !

  • Hey this works like a charm.. and it fast i could get login promt in around 8 seconds. Just wanted to know if you were able to compile XBMC form https://github.com/empatzero/xbmca10 Looking at your mele setup i understand that you are not so interested in using it as mediaplayer 😉 just wanted to check as i brought my mele to run XBMC

    • Hi,
      Xbmc is a great project, i’m a big fan.
      I first used it more than 10 years ago on my old modded xbox (v1).
      My current setup is a speedy homemade htpc with a heavily tuned audiophile asus sonar stx and xbmc with bit-perfect playback… sadly running windows for audio drivers.
      I have read some articles about vpu problems with Mali… not sure it will work properly. If the video is not running fast, it could at least play bitperfect music via a DAC. I can give it a try this week.
      Bye.

      • Love your work! you’ve saved me soooo much effort. I’m building a wifi hotspot so I don’t need a ‘head’. Still am just playing around with it and seems like it’s just using a framebuffer and no mali support at all. Are there any drivers for supporting mali chip? I don’t see any in the 12.10 repository, is it possible to roll-our-own?

        Also, I have Mele2000, Is your debian image headless? Or does it have vga output drivers?

        Cheers, and thanks for all your work, I’ll post a link to my image when I’m done.

  • Thanks for this alternative Mele distro. It’s a lot of work to get the wireless networking up and running, but that’s just typical Linux business 🙂

    • You can use the NetworkManager… works.
      Or better option from my own opinion, ‘wicd’ which is far more lighter than all this gnome networkmanager dbus stuff:
      http://wicd.sourceforge.net/

      wicd manages wpa and all the rest nicely. Just apt-get it.

  • Hi guillaume,
    just wanted to check if lirc kernel module is built in.. and what version of mali is used? is it r3p0?

    Thanks for your image.. i am running it as a torrent box and file server 🙂 only thing remaining is to use is as media player.. closely following empat0’s work.

  • Works well so far. I installed lubuntu and it’s pretty fast compared to all the other distros I tried.

    One thing: I can’t get it to recognize my bluetooth adapter, even with blueman and bluez-tools installed. Toby’s Linaro didn’t have this problem.

    Any ideas?

    • Hi,
      Like my reply to ‘Graffiti’, i’m not sure for the lirc and bluez, i will check.
      If it’s not i will repackage a proper ubuntu v2.
      Bye.

  • Guillaume,
    Thanks for this image it works well on my Mele !!!
    Just a question: can you release your kernel .config. I am trying to compile “LinuxTV” to add my webcam, and the build process need it !

    Thanks a lot !

    Nik0

  • Hi Guillame,

    Just wanted to say thank you for a great image, I’m finally using my Mele for something useful (low power sickbeard/couchpotato/transmission/NAS box)

    Cheers,
    Craig

    • Yes it seems too 😉 (jas-hacks previous comment).
      I will package one tonight for the mele if it works for me too. Bye!

      • XBMC not working for me so far.
        Tried my compiled version and jas-hacks and many different script.bin / kernel.

        Both fails to init display:
        // XBMC:
        02:06:17 T:1097203712 NOTICE: InitWindowSystem: Using EGL Implementation: A10
        02:06:17 T:1097203712 ERROR: EGL error in InitDisplay: 3003
        02:06:17 T:1097203712 ERROR: InitWindowSystem: Could not create display
        02:06:17 T:1097203712 FATAL: CApplication::Create: Unable to init windowing system

        // STRACE:
        open(“/dev/mali”, O_RDWR) = 14
        fstat64(14, {st_mode=S_IFCHR|0666, st_rdev=makedev(244, 0), …}) = 0
        ioctl(14, 0xc0048205, 0xbeef6154) = 0
        close(14) = 0
        gettimeofday({1352769148, 101281}, NULL) = 0
        write(7, “02:12:28 T:1097175040 ERROR: E”…, 62) = 62
        gettimeofday({1352769148, 102348}, NULL) = 0
        write(7, “02:12:28 T:1097175040 ERROR: I”…, 74) = 74
        gettimeofday({1352769148, 103444}, NULL) = 0
        write(7, “02:12:28 T:1097175040 FATAL: C”…, 85) = 85
        write(2, “ERROR: Unable to create GUI. Exi”…, 37ERROR: Unable to
        create GUI. Exiting) = 37

          • The mali lib is the one from /allwinner.
            I have check every linked libs with ‘ldd’ on xbmc.bin.
            All links seems correct and are going to the right libs.

          • Yes… the script.bin seems to be heavily linked to how EGL/Mali will load with xbmc.
            I get no kernel Oops with xbmc… just the ‘EGL error in InitDisplay’… So far, i have a compiled xbmc working like jas’s one but his or my version are falling the same way.
            I will investigate more in xbmc source from now.
            Your kernel Oops seems related to the classic kernel clock problem. Are you using my kernel ?
            For my error, i’m not sure… because i tried a lot of tuning around the clock and ratio around kernel PPL and Mali drivers. Nothing worked so far.

          • I am using kernel from jas’s image.. i just replaced the script.bin in the first partition. jas pointed out that i have to replace u-boot from your image as jas’s u-boot is for hackberry with 1gb ram.
            please can you guide me how to extract u-boot from your image. or shall i push hno’s u-boot form git?

          • Sadly not. Mine keeps failing to init the EGL. I had not the time to investigate more deeper in the 3003 error which is EGL_BAD_ALLOC.
            My FB is good, everything is good… i don’t get it.
            Nobody around succeed to make it work ?

          • Oh yeah baby! this one is working !! i know this ubuntu image 😉
            First time i get a xbmc running on my mele!

            It intrigued me so i have investigate.
            It is kernel 3.0.57… and after some test, it’s because of its mali/ump driver.
            No fancy library or xbmc tuning.

            Now it’s working on mine with sata (on a 3.0.42+ and fresh mali/ump drivers).

            XBMC interface is fast but 720p video has a big lag… nice for pictures or audio perhaps?
            This bloody Mali… the hardware video decoding is just too crappy 😉

            This image runs xbmc in Xorg which is not really good but xbmc is running in standalone mode… but i only get failed video decoding in it.

            I will release this new kernel and a xbmc package soon.
            Need to sleep now 😉

            PS: Vous êtes francais expat en Russie?

          • NO , just found it digging on XBMC forum.

            BTW when I launch PIMP_MY_MELE I get on my mele A2000 :

            /usr/bin/perl: error while loading shared libraries: /usr/lib/libperl.so.5.14: invalid ELF header

            I guess I have this file corrupted ? It doesn’t seems so.

          • ACtually I have this problem with every library so I can’t use it.

            I’m tried the russian Build and , surprise, they include the PIMP_MY_MELE script ! But I couldn’t change to TV output with it.

            However the russian build seems promising , I could use XBMC with 30% CPU load in Menu and even decode 1080p Webm without droped frames.

            Maybe we could join our forces for a “raspbian” equivalent but for Mele ?

            Guillame : could you detail how you build your image and XBMC so I could give a try ? I guess you’re using some of the tutorials from http://linux-sunxi.org/ ?

          • The russian build includes PmM because it is my ubuntu image 😉

            “raspbian” is useless.
            It’s just mirroring and having the feeling to create something. They just reinvent the wheel and should put time in supporting existing Linux distributions… but hey! you have a Pi! you need a Pi distribution! 😉

            The ubuntu / debian ports are great. Armhf is well supported.
            For dedicated software for the mele (like non-free libs, xbmc tuned for Mali, specific kernel), you just have to create a single apt source extending the debian / ubuntu ports.

            Image is quite straightforward to build (i have followed rhombus to do mine, switched it properly to armhf).
            I have also a running compiled xbmc on mine.
            I will release it perhaps but if you want to compile one or get any other answer, i will be happy to help.

            Bye.

          • I have played a little with the boot sequence, and I’ve managed to get something. It looks like mali.ko/ump.ko makes kernel panic upon insertion.

            Once my display lit up, whole system freezes…there should be X (KDM) login in 5 secs after reboot, but instead, nothing.
            Black screen is fault of framebuffer, which does not like plymouth, which auto installed if you’ll install X

  • After having it run for a while it seems that the wifi is not too stable (Mele A2000).

    Running torrents with it I eventually have to reboot the box to get wifi working.

    Also – just a tip for people, avoid using ntfs formatted USB disks because the ntfs-3g runs like shit and hogs lots of CPU 🙂

    Any ideas on the wifi?

  • Hi, It would be nice if you could include support for USB audio(snd-usb-audio). I’d like to run mpd with my XMOS board.

  • I’m currently in the process of reading up on all this to compile what I need for my MK802. I seem to remember running past a comment a couple of months ago (but now I can’t find it) as to why everyone is using a 3.0.XX kernel and not a newer one.

    Could someone please enlighten me (by explanation or URL) as to the reason for this? I would like to run at least a 3.5 kernel, is that possible?

    Cheers!
    Fredrik

  • hi guillaume,
    I downloaded the image and replaced the script.bin.. every thing is working.. just have to edit /etc/network/interfaces to eth0 to access network over wired lan.

    • Really? xbmc is working? Which mele version do you have?
      If it’s working, it should be a kernel problem so?
      I will study servili007 work to see. Thanks Graffiti.

  • Hey Guillaume could you please point out how you got the Mali GPUs Linux EXA/DRI2 and X11 Display Drivers working with your Ubuntu 12.10 build. I am running a custom made headless Debian Wheezy with a 3.042+ kernel on the Hackberry device and would like to get it bootinh on screen via HDMI connect. Any help would be highly appreciated. Besides great work man huge respect!

  • Hi,
    I use your image… it run fawless with apache2,mysql,php5 …I’m newbie with linux and I’ve a problem with ram: My system is mele2000g with 1gb of ram but i have only 315mb …There’s a solution?
    Thanks

    • If you put it to nand, it should use the full memory i think. Not perfectly sure 😉
      For the mmc, you have to edit boot.cmd from its first partition and force a new ‘mem=1G’.
      Bye.

      • Hi Guillame
        can you help me? I tried to add ‘mem=1G’ in boot.scr but won’t work..this is my edited file:

        setenv root ‘/dev/mmcblk0p2’
        setenv panicarg ‘panic=10’
        setenv bootdelay ‘2’
        setenv extra ‘rootwait mem=1G’
        setenv loglevel ‘7’
        setenv setargs ‘setenv bootargs console=${console} root=${root} loglevel=${loglevel} ${panicarg} ${extra}’
        setenv kernel ‘uImage’
        setenv boot_mmc ‘fatload mmc 0 0x43000000 script.bin; fatload mmc 0 0x48000000 ${kernel}; if fatload mmc 0 0x43100000 uInitrd; then bootm 0x48000000 0x43100000; else bootm 0x48000000; fi’
        setenv bootcmd ‘run setargs boot_mmc’

        is correct?
        Thanks

  • Hi guillaume !!

    I managed to boot from NAND my A2000G thanks to your PIMP script. It´s great !!!

    I couldn´t make the change MAC address function to work. It causes a eth0 not found error while booting and the ethernet doesn´t start. I was able to change the MAC setting hwaddress ether xx:xx:xx… in /etc/network/interfaces. That way the MAC address is changed and ethernet works ok.

    I have a nasty problem when I enable the use of the 1GB RAM adding mem=1024M to the kernel cmdline. “free -m” reports the full gigabyte but the system becomes unstable. It panics randomly and had corrupted my MMC and the SATA drive a couple of times.

    Is for sure the A2000G all ways has 1GB RAM ? Is there any way of testing/checking that RAM ?

    Thanks !!!
    Alberto

    • Where did you write the “mem=1024M”. I also have the mele A2000G, but I’m not able to enable the 1Gb RAM.
      Thanks

    • Hi Alberto.

      I have manage to solve the issue with the change of the MAC address, all the problem is with the udev configuration files. How to solved is easy: after you have changed the MAC address using the PIMP script edit this file:

      /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules

      Please comment the first “eth0” device which has the default MAC address “00:0a:20:00:10:00” and in the second one replace “eth1” with “eth0″. By instance in my case I did this:

      # This file was automatically generated by the /lib/udev/write_net_rules
      # program, run by the persistent-net-generator.rules rules file.
      #
      # You can modify it, as long as you keep each rule on a single
      # line, and change only the value of the NAME= key.

      ### Original from installation
      ### Unknown net device (/devices/platform/wemac.0/net/eth0) (wemac)
      ### SUBSYSTEM==”net”, ACTION==”add”, DRIVERS==”?*”, ATTR{address}==”00:0a:20:00:10:00″, ATTR{dev_id}==”0x0″, ATTR{type}==”1″, KERNEL==”eth*”, NAME=”eth0″

      # Unknown net device (/devices/platform/wemac.0/net/eth0) (wemac)
      SUBSYSTEM==”net”, ACTION==”add”, DRIVERS==”?*”, ATTR{address}==”00:ec:56:a7:36:81″, ATTR{dev_id}==”0x0″, ATTR{type}==”1″, KERNEL==”eth*”, NAME=”eth0″

      # USB device 0x:0x (rtl8192cu)
      SUBSYSTEM==”net”, ACTION==”add”, DRIVERS==”?*”, ATTR{address}==”00:58:00:1e:f2:bc”, ATTR{dev_id}==”0x0″, ATTR{type}==”1″, KERNEL==”wlan*”, NAME=”wlan0″

      After you saved it the changes, reboot the mele and you will see your system working with the new MAC address.

      In another hand, I have a Mele 2000G too, but I was not able to get it recognize the 1GB (it only show 512MB), please could you give me more details how you manage to get it works with 1GB?

    • Hello,
      can you please tell me where you have added mem= parameter?
      I have mounted /dev/nanda to /mnt, and changed it in the /mnt/linux/params file, but it does not work. Any solution? My A10 does have 1GB of RAM, but it uses something around 340MB…

        • Thanks. Sorry for my lack of searching.
          Just in case you doesn’t already know (a2000g):
          linux-armhf-gfx-1G-3.0.42-5.tar.gz – works fine booted from sd (detects only 512MB RAM). Patching nand causing boot hangs. (from what I read in comments, probably because mali driver).
          linux-armhf-headless-1G-3.0.42-3.tar.gz – same as above – booted from sd detects only 512MB RAM BUT after nand flash there is full 1GB available.

          Good work! I’ll visit this blog more often. Currently trying to learn more about arm hardware/software 🙂

          • Thanks for your feedback. Have you done something special to patch nand ?
            In can’t see/mount the nand partitions on my A2000G.

          • @Nicolas
            No, nothing special. Guillaume explained everything very well. First of, install http://guillaumeplayground.net/share/ubuntu_12.10_armhf_v1_mele_t0.img.gz on your sdcard. Then go to http://guillaumeplayground.net/mele-armhf-3-0-57-kernel-update/ and download patch that interesting you. As I said before, linux-armhf-gfx-1G-3.0.42-5.tar.gz doesn’t work properly on my a2000g so I recommend you to patch with linux-armhf-headless-1G-3.0.42-3.tar.gz. (again, everything is well explained there mele-armhf-3-0-57-kernel-update).

            You don’t have to mount nand partitions to patch nand. You have to flash your nand, boot from that nand and run Guillaume’s patch:

            # cd
            # make nand
            # sync

            But anyway
            If you want to mount your nand flash just type:
            mkdir /mnt/nanda
            mkdir /mnt/nandb
            mount /dev/nanda /mnt/nanda
            mount /dev/nandb /mnt/nandb

            If you want to mount your sd card:
            mkdir /mnt/sd1
            mkdir /mnt/sd2
            mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /mnt/sd1
            mount /dev/mmcblk0p2 /mnt/sd2

          • @Marcin
            Thanks again for this additional information. I should have make clear that everything is working on my mele A2000G except that I can’t access nand partition so I have to keep the operating system on the sd card for now:

            root@mele:~# mkdir /mnt/nanda
            root@mele:~# mount /dev/nanda /mnt/nanda
            mount: special device /dev/nanda does not exist
            I tried several images, none of them have been able to detect/read nand partitions. I believe that I have a modified version of the A2000G compared to yours. Mine is new, I bought it a couple of days ago. I checked the version on the circuit board, I found AB10-G39-V1.30-0 and a date 2012-05-24 (see http://demo.ovh.net/download/75e64d6631a33f70f9c4a1491aeb5367/A2000G_board_reference.png). Do you have the same version ?

            Otherwise, I have access to 1G of RAM (I had to modify boot.scr too) and the headless image is doing great. I particular I checked UnixBench results on this distribution, I got a “System Benchmarks Index Score” = 230. With other images it was only 130!

          • Thanks for sharing your boot.cmd! However it does not enable to access nand partitions on my mele.
            Can you see them in /dev/ ? Here is what I get when I try to list them:

            root@mele:~# ls /dev/n*
            /dev/network_latency /dev/network_throughput /dev/null

            /dev/net:
            tun

          • @Nicolas
            Strange, I think I can’t help you. No idea why.
            I just paste my output:
            root@mele:~# ls /dev/n*
            /dev/nand /dev/nandc /dev/nandf /dev/nandi /dev/network_latency
            /dev/nanda /dev/nandd /dev/nandg /dev/nandj /dev/network_throughput
            /dev/nandb /dev/nande /dev/nandh /dev/nandk /dev/null

            /dev/net:
            tun

  • Hello,

    First I want to say thank you for making a very easy to use image of Ubunutu for Mele that comes stripped down, and also pimp my mele is a wonderful tool.

    I just had a question about hardware acceleration and DRI2 support with the Mali400. I am new to ARM platforms and not sure how one goes about installing the needed drivers to get it to work. I currently have an error with glxinfo that states “libGL error: failed to load driver: Mali DRI2” and the graphical systems seem to be a little slow. I tried to follow the instructions on the Mali400 wiki page on http://linux-sunxi.org/ under the Mali-400 X11 DRI2 drivers section and wasn’t successful and not sure if it has something to do with the version of the mali kernel module. If you have a guide or can point me in the right direction for help it would be very appreciated. Even though you have already helped me a great deal by making such a good image.

    Thanks,

    • Thanks for your comment. I’m pleased to read you enjoy the image.

      I have probably the solution for DRI2 which worked on mine after releasing the image.
      I didn’t had the time to package a new one after.
      Mali uses GLX and xorg loads by default AIGLX… which makes DRI2 fail.

      You have to edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf and add a section “ServerFlags” with this option inside:
      Option “AIGLX” “false”

      It will explicitly disable AIGLX and let GLX load properly.

      Bye,

      • So the process on the linux-sunxi.org website for the DRI2 setup should work? Or DRI2 support was included in your image and turning off AIGLX should solve the problem?

        I went back and installed a clean image on my Mele after I felt like I may have mess something up and I turned off AIGLX and still do not have GLX support. I am wondering if I should follow the instructions at http://linux-sunxi.org/Mali400#Mali-400_X11_DRI2_drivers and if there are any modification to those instruction for your particular image.

        Thank you again for the help.

  • I have ubuntu installed on MELE. I did not realize that when I unplugged the SDcard the Droid would die. I can boot with ubuntu with the SDcard plugged in.
    Does the OS exist on the SDcard or in memory on the MELE?
    How do I get more memory to install ubuntu-desktop?

    Thank you for your help.

    • Hi,
      Ubuntu exists on the SDcard of course, unless you have install it on the NAND via PmM as explained.
      To install ubuntu-desktop, i guess the memory your are talking about is the filesystem space? if that’s so, you can install it on the NAND or just resize the second partition on your SDcard from your linux desktop.
      Bye

  • You are outstanding genius. It’s because of you I bought Mele 🙂 I just put that useless comment to thank you.

    Keep up good work.

  • Just to say a massive thanks for this — working fantastically here!

    I tried your headless Debian image (using it for mpd) not realising that version was also “earless” (does headless preclude audio output?), but this image is working far better. Incidentally, I did snoop about looking for which module needed loading to enable sound, but figured it was a better use of my time to tweak this image — thanks again!

  • Im trying to get my Huawei E353 (DNA Model) 3G Dongle working. Used usb_modeswitch as mentioned on other forums. But there is no dev node created (/dev/ttyUSB*).

    Modproble usbserial module is not found.

    I want to connect with wvdial but dont know in what way without having the dev node.

  • I am trying to get my Huawei E353 (DNA Model) 3G Dongle working. Used usb_modeswitch as mentioned on other forums. But there is no dev node created (/dev/ttyUSB*).

    Modproble usbserial module is not found.

    I want to connect with wvdial but dont know in what way without having the devnode.

  • Sorry for all the double comments.. somehow it was send as a reply.

    Im trying to get my Huawei E353 (DNA Model) 3G Dongle working. Used usb_modeswitch as mentioned on other forums. But there is no dev node created (/dev/ttyUSB*).

    Modproble usbserial module is not found.

    I want to connect with wvdial but dont know in what way without having the dev node.

  • Thank for your work .
    I was testing your release with a dead Android media player called GV-17 (https://www.google.ro/search?q=gv-17+android ) .
    I wa trying to install Ubuntu on NAND ( using PIMP_MY_MELE ) and I get some errors .
    The first one is :
    mount : special device /dev/nanda does not exist

    Does this mean that NAND is bad or have a problem ?

    This is the reason why player is dead and not booting Android ?

  • Thank for your work .
    I was testing your release with a dead Android media player called GV-17 (https://www.google.ro/search?q=gv-17+android ) .
    I wa trying to install Ubuntu on NAND ( using PIMP_MY_MELE ) and I get some errors .
    The first one is :
    mount : special device /dev/nanda does not exist

    Does this mean that NAND is bad or have a problem ?

    This is the reason why player is dead and not booting Android ?

    And another problem . This device has 2 USB . The only one working is the one on top . The bottom one is not working at all .
    Do I have to make any modifications to script.bin to make it work ?

  • is it possible to get the following files?

    /lib/modules/3.0.42+/kernel/drivers/usb/serial/usbserial.ko
    /lib/modules/3.0.42+/kernel/drivers/usb/serial/usb_wwan.ko
    /lib/modules/3.0.42+/kernel/drivers/usb/serial/option.ko
    /lib/modules/3.0.42+/lib/crc-ccitt.ko
    /lib/modules/3.0.42+/kernel/drivers/net/slhc.ko
    /lib/modules/3.0.42+/kernel/drivers/net/ppp_generic.ko
    /lib/modules/3.0.42+/kernel/drivers/net/bsd_comp.ko
    /lib/modules/3.0.42+/kernel/drivers/net/ppp_deflate.ko
    /lib/modules/3.0.42+/kernel/drivers/net/ppp_async.ko

  • I have the same request/problem as “White”. USB audio devices are not being recognized correctly by the software. Is it possible to add this function in your next release. If possible add this function also to the Debian “headless” version. This Distri is perfect for headless Audio/server applications.

    If there is a simple workaround please let me know.

    • Sorry but i was too busy recently to post anything.

      I will post a new updated release of debian and ubuntu with all modules everybody asked.

      I confirm the mele is just perfect for bit perfect audio 😉
      With a good DAC, it’s working just great.
      (NAS -(CIFS)-> MELE -(USB-ASYNC)-> DAC)

      I will include my alsa/mpd config in it.

      My next project is mele as a remote audio player with a mini lcd screen attached on the composite (just received it on monday).
      I will create a page for this (perhaps this week-end too if i have time to do the casing).

  • Guillaume, I can’t get iptables to work. I get the error:

    “FATAL: Module ip_tables not found”

    It doesn’t show up when I do a modprobe -l

    I’m a bit of noob to kernal compiling and moding, is there a simple way to get it working?

  • Thanks for the images and info. I was able to get Debian running on my Allwinner A10 netbook, in large part, because of this site.

    What I did (which may be of use to others in similar circumstances):

    Overview – Replace Guillaume’s script.bin with one suitable for your hardware.

    1. Booting ubuntu_12.10_armhf_v1_mele_t0.img with an RJ45 cable plugged in allowed me to SSH in, but lsusb didn’t show my wireless adapter and the LCD screen didn’t work.

    2. I booted into Android and mounted /dev/block/nanda. This allowed me to extract Android’s script.bin (script0.bin was identical to script.bin on my system). This script.bin should have all the properties required for your screen to work.

    3. I used bin2fex to decompile Android’s script.bin into script.fex. Script.fex had “usb_wifi_usbc_num = 2” but “usb_host_init_state” in “[usbc2]” was “0”. This means that the USB port never got powered on. I changed the “usb_host_init_state” to “1” for the appropriate “[usbcx]”. (Thanks to #arm-netbook for a hint in this direction.)

    4. I recompiled script.fex with fex2bin. I replaced the default script.bin in the first partition of ubuntu_12.10_armhf_v1_mele_t0.img with the one I just compiled.

    5. I inserted the SDCard into my netbook and booted. The screen and wireless adapter worked!

  • i installed this image fine on my cubieboard. The problem is when I boot, there is no output on the LCD. It’s using HDMI connection.

    I have ran the PIMP_MY_MELE script and tried every option under HDMI. Still can not get any output on my monitor.

    Was running another image just fine with the LCD and HDMI.

    Any suggestions.

    Dwaine

  • hi guillaume, u’ve done a great job!

    My model is mele A100, which is almost identical to A1000, except no esata interface. I tried you ubuntu_12.10_armhf_v1_mele_t0.img and everything(ethernet, wifi, video) goes well.

    Thank u very much!

  • Hi, Guillaume! Your name must be always written in uppercase, so good you are!

    In quite similar a way like other people here, I have finally made something useful with my MeLE.

    I have an application I wrote for a BeagleBoard xM and XUbuntu and immediately tried to recompile it in the MeLE. After skipping the differences between both platforms, I managed to get it running on the MeLE. Terrific work!

    I used to connect the BeagleBoard to a serial channel via a Belkin USB-RS232 adapter. However, kernel version 3.0.42 doesn’t seem to have neither usbserial nor mct_u232 modules; they doesn’t seem available elsewhere either. Do you have any plans to include them in future releases (maybe 3.0.57)?

    When using the BeagleBoard, I used to tell one board from others via its “dieid”. Is there any hardcoded ID in the MeLE? Of course I could manually set a different MAC for each one, but something “native” seems a better aproach in my case.

    Last question: When adjusting VGA size, I chose 1280×768. After svaing the changes and restarting it all, I got a screen displaced some 10 mm on the left. Any hint to solve it? Where do I look for help?

    Thanks a lot for your wonderful works.
    Antonio

    • Hi, Guillaume!

      You can proudly put another mark on your scoreboard: I have just upgraded the kernel to 3.0.42-3 and updated my /etc/modules contents.

      After reboot, my Belkin USB-to-serial adapter is properly registered and enumerated in the system, and the application uses it as expected.

      I have read elsewhere you’re starting to pull the brake on your kernel efforts. On the one hand, I get your point. On the other one, I can only say it is a big pity!

      Thank you so much for your help to date.

      Any idea on how to re-center the display area on the screen?
      Kind regards,
      Antonio.

      • A couple of precisions.

        The misplacing display is a problem related to VGA only. The HDMI settings do work as expected.

        I have tested two working USB-serial adapters with the MeLE. Both of them are currently 100% operative, but none of them sends characters over the line (they both receive whatever the other end sends to them).

        Any idea for solving th latter?
        Kind regards.
        Antonio

        • Sorry for the USB-to-Serial adapters. It was my fault when configuring minicom…

          One more point in your scoreboard…

          Antonio

      • Hi,

        Thank you for all your thanks 😉

        For the vga, seems more related to your vga screen i think.
        In VGA, only your screen could readjust the image.
        Did you try another one?

  • Hi,
    I’m using Ubuntu 12.10 armhf.
    I need to install lubuntu-desktop, but unfortunately I deleted all lines in /etc/apt/sources.list

    How can I configurate correctly /etc/apt/sources.list (to install lubuntu-desktop)?

  • Receiving error ubuntu_12.10_armhf_v1_mele_t0.img
    any idears? thanks

    root@mele:~# startx
    hostname: Name or service not known
    xauth: (stdin):1: bad display name “mele:0” in “add” command

    X.Org X Server 1.13.0
    Release Date: 2012-09-05
    X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
    Build Operating System: Linux 3.2.0-1419-omap4 armv7l Ubuntu
    Current Operating System: Linux mele 3.0.42+ #8 PREEMPT Sat Nov 3 01:46:07 CET 2 012 armv7l
    Kernel command line: console=ttyS0,115200 root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 loglevel=7 panic=1 0 rootwait
    Build Date: 09 October 2012 04:08:45AM
    xorg-server 2:1.13.0-0ubuntu6 (For technical support please see http://www.ubunt u.com/support)
    Current version of pixman: 0.26.0
    Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
    to make sure that you have the latest version.
    Markers: (–) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
    (++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
    (WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
    (==) Log file: “/var/log/Xorg.0.log”, Time: Thu Feb 14 14:47:13 2013
    (==) Using config file: “/etc/X11/xorg.conf”
    (==) Using system config directory “/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d”
    Initializing built-in extension Generic Event Extension
    Initializing built-in extension SHAPE
    Initializing built-in extension MIT-SHM
    Initializing built-in extension XInputExtension
    Initializing built-in extension XTEST
    Initializing built-in extension BIG-REQUESTS
    Initializing built-in extension SYNC
    Initializing built-in extension XKEYBOARD
    Initializing built-in extension XC-MISC
    Initializing built-in extension SECURITY
    Initializing built-in extension XINERAMA
    Initializing built-in extension XFIXES
    Initializing built-in extension RENDER
    Initializing built-in extension RANDR
    Initializing built-in extension COMPOSITE
    Initializing built-in extension DAMAGE
    Initializing built-in extension MIT-SCREEN-SAVER
    Initializing built-in extension DOUBLE-BUFFER
    Initializing built-in extension RECORD
    Initializing built-in extension DPMS
    Initializing built-in extension X-Resource
    Initializing built-in extension XVideo
    Initializing built-in extension XVideo-MotionCompensation
    Initializing built-in extension XFree86-VidModeExtension
    Initializing built-in extension XFree86-DGA
    Initializing built-in extension XFree86-DRI
    Initializing built-in extension DRI2
    Loading extension GLX
    GET_UMP_SECURE_ID_BUF1 returned 0x1 offset: 0 virt address: 0x40638000 fb_virt: 0x40638000
    GET_UMP_SECURE_ID_BUF2 returned 0xffffffff offset: 3145728 virt address: (nil) f b_virt: 0x40638000

    (FREEZES HERE)

  • I’m not sure why it isn’t working for me; I downloaded both images and dd’d them to my sd card, but my LED just stays blue, I don’t get video output nor does it connect to the network.

  • i have a problem wit my webcam (logitech c920)
    i installed luvcview and try it but it didn’t work because the driver is not installed
    so i installed the driver http://www.ideasonboard.org/uvc/#download
    when i ./build it give some error :

    ******************
    * Start building *
    ******************
    make -C /home/user/OpenCV-2.4.3/release/media_build/v4l allyesconfig
    make[1]: Entering directory `/home/user/OpenCV-2.4.3/release/media_build/v4l’
    make[2]: Entering directory `/home/user/OpenCV-2.4.3/release/media_build/linux’
    Applying patches for kernel 3.0.42+
    patch -s -f -N -p1 -i ../backports/api_version.patch
    patch -s -f -N -p1 -i ../backports/pr_fmt.patch
    patch -s -f -N -p1 -i ../backports/v3.1_no_export_h.patch
    patch -s -f -N -p1 -i ../backports/v3.1_no_dma_buf_h.patch
    patch -s -f -N -p1 -i ../backports/v3.1_no_pm_qos.patch
    patch -s -f -N -p1 -i ../backports/no_atomic_include.patch
    patch -s -f -N -p1 -i ../backports/v4l2-compat-timespec.patch
    Patched drivers/media/dvb-core/dvbdev.c
    Patched drivers/media/v4l2-core/v4l2-dev.c
    Patched drivers/media/rc/rc-main.c
    make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/user/OpenCV-2.4.3/release/media_build/linux’
    ./scripts/make_kconfig.pl /lib/modules/3.0.42+/build /lib/modules/3.0.42+/build 1
    Preparing to compile for kernel version 3.0.42
    File not found: /lib/modules/3.0.42+/build/.config at ./scripts/make_kconfig.pl line 33, line 4.
    make[1]: *** [allyesconfig] Error 2
    make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/user/OpenCV-2.4.3/release/media_build/v4l’
    make: *** [allyesconfig] Error 2
    can’t select all drivers at ./build line 451.

    is there any other way to install the driver “uvcvideo” ?

  • I am considering buying a Cubieboard as the Pi is a bit slow when it comes to RDP.

    Has anyone tried using freerdp ? If so did you manage to get Multimedia redirection and USB working ?

    Thanks for the hardwork !

  • Thanks Guillaume.
    This is great. I installed with no problems.

    I’m trying to “optimize” for my needs.
    I dont have a SATA drive available or cables for that matter.
    I’m trying to move the rootfs to a usb connected drive/partition.

    I’ve created an ext4 partition on a usb drive and with rsync -avxS moved all files of the root partition “/” to that partition.

    Now i’m trying to boot from it.
    I edited the boot.src file on the fat32 partition of the sdcard and instead of pointing boot to /dev/mmcblk0p2, I put /dev/sda4 which is my partition.
    It did not boot => so I imagine this is a failed test.

    Do you have any pointers or ideas on how to help me on this ?
    Thanks

    • Yes… it’s because the sw_ahci_platform (the sata) is a module here.
      You could compile a kernel with the module inside or put it in an initramfs…
      That’s the only way to get your /dev/sda loaded as rootfs.

      I never did it myself because the nand felt like a good place to store the rootfs to me, inside the box and static… and nothing stop you to put your /home or /opt or anything else on your sda after the boot process (and sata module load).

      • Hi Guillaume,

        Thanks for the info.
        The main reason I want to use the usb drive is because I want to gain on speed.
        The micro sd is slow.

        Question1: if I use your tool to put the ubuntu in the nand, I assume this will replace the android that is in there.
        I personally don’t use it, and never will. But, if I replace it with your ubuntu, will I be able to change this later on ? or put it back like it was ?
        Question2: will it be fast ? fastest solution ?
        Question3: maybe it’s better that I recompile the kernel ? is this complicated to do ? can I just recompile the existing one that is running in the image you provided and just add the sw_ahci_platform module ? (If I do this, will writing /dev/sda4 in the boot.scr file suffice ?)

        Thanks in advance for your help.

        Cheers

  • Uh-oh, u-boot configuration in this image is MINDBLASTING. I need to change kernel commandline and I’ve got stuck since u-boot scripting boot sequence is horrible, to say the least. Why it have to be so overcomplicated? Any hints how to change kernel command line before giving it a boot? How default u-boot boot seq looks in terms of u-boot commands? (without that goddamn scripting).

  • Hello,
    thank you for the image.
    I have a few questions :
    – it is written NaND install, but the procedure seems to contain only image writing to sd card.
    – are there some ubuntu update channels available ? (If I install this image, will I receive updates for software and kernel or is this image a fixed-in-time system ?)

    Thank you,
    Best regards.

    • What’s the difference? desktop or server is just the apt sources and packages you install on it.

      If you want a real server distribution, use the debian image (headless in this image).

  • salut guillaume i have tried your img but i does not work i dont know if is possible i have a netbook H6 A10 allwinner acheté chez honkgonkgeek http://hongkongeek.fr/netbook/1478-10-netbook-allwinner-a10-1ghz-android-40-webcam-4go.html?redirect=true

    il y a une led bleue destinée au wifi qui s allume et le processus de boot est gelé
    il parait qu on peut booter de la sdcard mais je n y suis pas arrivé j ai essayé de voir si le reseau ether etait actif mais le nmap -sP ne donne rien . toute info serait bien venue merci

    • some more informations .
      it seems that something happens because when il mount the SDcard on another PC i can see somes files in /var/log/upstart dated of the day but i don t know how to analyse it

  • Guillaume,
    I’ve bought a second MELE a2000g and wanted it to run Ubuntu from NAND like my other MELE a2000g……but this one doesn’t seem to work from NAND. The VGA and the Ethernet doesn’t seem to start up when installed to NAND.
    When I work from SD it works fine.
    The Debian Image seems to work from NAND but I highly prefer working with Ubuntu from NAND. I Tried both V1 images. FYI, it dated june 2013 so it’s a pretty new version.
    Any clue what has gone wrong?

    • Fixed it by restoring the unit to Android and then repartition the NAND with the ubuntu image (PIMP_MY_MELE). Now the Mele starts up OK with ubuntu on NAND.
      Is the partitioning in PIMP_MY_MELE different in de Debian image?

      • @Laurens and community

        I’ve also a MELE a2000g received a couple of days ago it says HTPC v2.0.1 with Android 4.0.4 on it. I tried everything in this forum, to get Ubuntu on NAND and see 1GB RAM, but I was not able to make this work. I hope you or someone reading this can help me out with a detailed explanation (step-by-step). This would be awesome…. Thank you to everybody.

        • Well, It seems that there are different boards inside different MELE´s and clonics. I have a Woxter TV 500, which is nearly or identical to the Mele A2000G. I compared pictures. Mele A1000/A2000 is built on boards labeled with “AB10-G32-V.1.20” where the A2000G has the “AB10-G39-V.130”. The differences, among other things, are the increase of RAM 512MB to 1GB and the NAND flash from 4GB to 8 GB. The problem, is that the image build for the A1000/A2000 doesn’t work properly on the G39 boards (A2000G). The kernel parameters on boot.scr, uImage, and script.bin doesn’t match with the existing hardware, so only 512MB are detected/usable and the NAND is not mounted. Again, it seems that the kernel parameters to mount the NAND storage fails due a different values.
          As result of that ( /dev/nandx doesn´t exist)and the dmesg it shows the following error message “[SCAN_ERR] search nand physical architecture parameter failed!”.
          If PIMP_MY_MELE script is run on this boards, consequently no NAND can be found and is not possible to copy it.

          I´m guessing that there´s one possible solution.
          Get access to the boot files on the native android NAND boot partition and replace them on the SD card, to succesfully mount the NAND storage.

          Also, to rebuild a new image to this specific hardware.

          I would like to ask you, if there´s anyone who has access to its A2000G boot files ( boot.scr, uImage, script.bin) please seed, or post it somewhere.

          Meanwhile, i will try to create an image from scratch for this specific model.

          If there´s anyone who can share more information it will be appreciated.

          @guillaume if you have by chance more information regarding this problem or other users have reported to solve it I would love to contact me or post any news on this.

          Cheers!

  • Hi,

    I’m testing some of your images on a Justop Android TV Box 4.0 like this one:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Z521xGvVnk

    No matter what parameters/files I change once I get it installed in the NAND, it won’t show the full 1GB of RAM (448MB always) and replacing the kernel doesn’t seem to work either as it won’t boot with the updated kernel for 1GB.

    I have the original Android boot partition with system.bin and some other files. I tried swapping some of the files after installing to the NAND and also swap them in the first partition on the SD card (when booting from there).

    The other issue is the GPIO pin for the red LED. I think it’s a different one. The blue works fine but not the red when using PIMP_MY_MELE.

    Please, let me know if you could give me a hand solving these issues.

    Thanks!

    • Hi,

      This ram size problem in nand is located in the stock uboot used. With nand boot, my script is using the one from the nanda (the one booting the android kernel).
      I can’t provide a 100%-all-boards working solution as i have only mele for test. You could investigate by replacing the stock uboot and providing some ‘mem=’ parameter to the kernel.
      For the gpio, you have to check PimpMyMele internals and which gpio i’m targeting. On your board, the red led is probably in another proc file.

      Hacking these little boards is sweat and fun 😉
      Regards.

      • Thanks for your reply. I already tried the “mem=” with the same results but I’ll test again and have a look at the stock uboot.

  • Hi,

    I have a MELE A1000G with 1G memory.
    I have followed your instructions and I am not able to install the image on NAND.

    For one, when I boot the MELE with the SD card, and I check the LED , it never goes thought Uboot/Kernel = Red-Blue, Userland init = Blue, End = Fast Red-Blue switch and finally blue, as you describe. It is just solid blue and than I get command prompt with VGA and network.

    When I try PIMP_MY_MELE, at fitst stage it erases the NAND, but after the necessary reboot, it does not install on NAND and just hangs.

    I followed Marcin’s recommendation and still fail

    Standard firmware upgrade from SD card wih MELE’s firmware, works fine

    I use the folloing files:
    ubuntu_12.10_armhf_v1_mele_t0.img.gz
    linux-armhf-headless-1G-3.0.42-3.tar.gz

    I have attached the error log.

    Please advise
    BR
    George

    cp: cannot stat `/home/user’: Input/output error
    cp: cannot stat `/lib/klibc-6nLb5AjYTRZ6C8D-jIJ18a17wug.so’: Input/output error
    cp: cannot stat `/lib/libGLESv2.so.2′: Input/output error
    cp: cannot stat `/lib/libxtables.so.7.0.0′: Input/output error
    cp: cannot stat `/lib/libiptc.so.0.0.0′: Input/output error
    cp: cannot stat `/lib/libply-splash-graphics.so.2.0.0′: Input/output error
    cp: cannot stat `/lib/libGLESv1_CM.so’: Input/output error
    cp: cannot stat `/lib/libply-splash-graphics.so.2′: Input/output error
    cp: cannot stat `/lib/libGLESv2.so’: Input/output error
    cp: cannot stat `/lib/recovery-mode’: Input/output error
    cp: cannot stat `/lib/libUMP.so’: Input/output error
    cp: cannot stat `/lib/libEGL.so’: Input/output error
    cp: cannot stat `/lib/libMali.so’: Input/output error
    cp: cannot stat `/lib/hdparm’: Input/output error
    cp: cannot stat `/lib/libip6tc.so.0.0.0′: Input/output error
    cp: cannot stat `/lib/udev/pci-db’: Input/output error
    cp: cannot stat `/lib/udev/findkeyboards’: Input/output error
    cp: cannot stat `/lib/udev/accelerometer’: Input/output error
    cp: cannot stat `/lib/udev/keymaps’: Input/output error
    cp: cannot stat `/lib/udev/ata_id’: Input/output error
    cp: cannot stat `/lib/udev/cdrom_id’: Input/output error
    cp: cannot stat `/lib/udev/rules.d/README’: Input/output error
    cp: cannot stat `/lib/udev/scsi_id’: Input/output error
    cp: cannot stat `/lib/udev/firmware’: Input/output error
    cp: cannot stat `/lib/udev/collect’: Input/output error
    cp: cannot stat `/lib/udev/keymap’: Input/output error
    cp: cannot stat `/lib/udev/write_cd_rules’: Input/output error
    cp: cannot stat `/lib/udev/mtd_probe’: Input/output error
    cp: cannot stat `/lib/udev/usb-db’: Input/output error
    cp: cannot stat `/lib/udev/v4l_id’: Input/output error
    cp: cannot stat `/lib/udev/keyboard-force-release.sh’: Input/output error
    cp: cannot stat `/lib/libnewt.so.0.52′: Input/output error
    cp: cannot stat `/lib/plymouth’: Input/output error

  • Is NFS 3 supported in the kernel? It seems not to be. I only get

    root@mele:~# rpcinfo -p

    100003 2 tcp 2049 nfs
    100003 2 udp 2049 nfs

    also:
    root@android:/proc # zcat /proc/config.gz | grep NFS
    # CONFIG_USB_FUNCTIONFS is not set
    CONFIG_NFS_FS=y
    # CONFIG_NFS_V3 is not set
    # CONFIG_NFS_V4 is not set
    CONFIG_ROOT_NFS=y
    # CONFIG_NFSD is not set
    CONFIG_NFS_COMMON=y

  • I installed it on a Woxter tv 500 (Mele a2000 clone) with 1gb ram.

    Using a modified boot.src to use all ram, system never boots.

    Tried with 1024,900,800 and 700 memmory.

  • Hello, Guillaume. Thank you for sharing your good work.

    I’ve put this image on an SD and almost everything runs fine on my Mele A2000G, but I can’t find NAND, so I can’t live without my old SD. I’ve already updated the kernel, but this problem persists.

    I also found weird that Ubuntu says there is only 308MiB of memory, despite my Mele having 1GiB. There is a fix for this?

    Thank you very much and have a very happy new year!

  • Hello @guillaume, I’ve got a MELE A2000G but I’m not able to flash NAND from your PIMP_MY_MELE script because /dev/nand* don’t seem to exist (driver problem maybe?). Check log:
    mount: special device /dev/nanda does not exist
    cp: target `/mnt/linux/’ is not a directory
    mount: mount point /mnt2 does not exist
    cp: cannot stat `/mnt2/uImage’: No such file or directory
    cp: cannot stat `/mnt2/script.bin’: No such file or directory
    umount: /mnt2: not found
    umount: /mnt: not mounted
    Could not stat /dev/nandb — No such file or directory

    The device apparently does not exist; did you specify it correctly?
    mount: special device /dev/nandb does not exist
    cp: cannot create regular file `/mnt/bin/nisdomainname’: No space left on device
    cp: cannot create regular file `/mnt/bin/ypdomainname’: No space left on device
    cp: cannot create regular file `/mnt/bin/bunzip2′: No space left on device
    cp: cannot create regular file `/mnt/bin/uncompress’: No space left on device
    cp: cannot create regular file `/mnt/bin/dnsdomainname’: No space left on device
    cp: cannot create regular file `/mnt/bin/bzip2′: No space left on device
    cp: cannot create symbolic link `/mnt/dev/block/7:7′: No space left on device
    cp: cannot create symbolic link `/mnt/dev/char/189:384′: No space left on device
    cp: cannot create symbolic link `/mnt/dev/char/4:22′: No space left on device
    cp: cannot create regular file `/mnt/run/NetworkManager.pid’: No space left on device
    cp: cannot create regular file `/mnt/run/dhclient.eth0.pid’: No space left on device
    cp: cannot create directory `/mnt/run/network/static-network-up-emitted’: No space left on device
    cp: cannot create regular file `/mnt/run/network/ifup.eth0′: No space left on device
    cp: cannot create regular file `/mnt/run/sendsigs.omit.d/wpasupplicant.pid’: No space left on device
    cp: cannot create regular file `/mnt/sbin/ifquery’: No space left on device
    cp: cannot create regular file `/mnt/sbin/ifdown’: No space left on device
    cp: cannot create regular file `/mnt/sbin/getty’: No space left on device
    cp: cannot create regular file `/mnt/sbin/wpa_action’: No space left on device
    cp: cannot create regular file `/mnt/sbin/iwpriv’: No space left on device
    cp: cannot create regular file `/mnt/sbin/e2fsck’: No space left on device
    cp: cannot create symbolic link `/mnt/sbin/iptables-save’: No space left on device
    cp: cannot create regular file `/mnt/sbin/ipmaddr’: No space left on device
    cp: cannot create symbolic link `/mnt/sbin/mkfs.vfat’: No space left on device
    cp: cannot create regular file `/mnt/sbin/sfdisk’: No space left on device
    cp: cannot create regular file `/mnt/sbin/fsck’: No space left on device
    cp: cannot create regular file `/mnt/sbin/upstart-udev-bridge’: No space left on device
    cp: cannot create regular file `/mnt/sbin/modinfo’: No space left on device
    cp: cannot create symbolic link `/mnt/sbin/ip’: No space left on device
    cp: cannot create regular file `/mnt/sbin/ntfscp’: No space left on device
    cp: cannot create regular file `/mnt/sbin/nfnl_osf’: No space left on device
    cp: cannot create symbolic link `/mnt/sbin/poweroff’: No space left on device
    cp: cannot create regular file `/mnt/sbin/iwgetid’: No space left on device
    cp: cannot create symbolic link `/mnt/sbin/fsck.ext3′: No space left on device
    cp: cannot create regular file `/mnt/sbin/ldconfig.real’: No space left on device
    cp: cannot create regular file `/mnt/sbin/mkfs’: No space left on device
    cp: cannot create symbolic link `/mnt/sbin/stop’: No space left on device
    cp: cannot create regular file `/mnt/sbin/shutdown’: No space left on device
    cp: cannot create regular file `/mnt/sbin/debugfs’: No space left on device
    cp: cannot create regular file `/mnt/sbin/badblocks’: No space left on device
    cp: cannot create directory `/mnt/tmp’: No space left on device
    cp: cannot create directory `/mnt/usr’: No space left on device
    cp: cannot create directory `/mnt/var’: No space left on device

    I’m not able to install anything, apparently no space left:
    apt-get install xterm
    Reading package lists… Error!
    E: Could not open file /var/cache/apt/pkgcache.bin – open (28: No space left on device)
    E: Failed to truncate file – ftruncate (9: Bad file descriptor)
    E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.

  • Hello @guillaume,
    I’m using your latest ubuntu_12.10_armhf_v1_mele_t0.img.gz on a Mele A2000G. I’ve been experiencing some problems while trying to flash Nand with your PIMP_MY_MELE script. The problem seems to be related to non-existing /dev/nanda. May it be caused due to an incorrect version of nand driver (as some suggests in this forum)? Assuming the version is not correct, how would you proceed to overcome this situation?
    Besides, I’m not able to install any package, because a no-space-available error is always reported. I’ve checked my mmc and write-lock is disable…. and still 10% free space.
    Running out of ideas to solve the problem

  • Hello,
    so, after some entry comments reading, my conclusion is that even with latest image MELE A2000G, nand could not be correctly used (probably because it’s differente from A1000 and A2000 models) and flash it, it’s not possible.
    Am I right or did someone find a workaround for this issue?
    Thanks in advance and best regards

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