DEPRECATED VERSION – NEW VERSION HERE
I’m posting here a running (base) version of ubuntu 12.10 armhf, kernel 3.0.42+.
Quick, Working and (really) Dirty EDITION.
Easy to install on the NAND and ready to be tuned.
I’m stopping before the Xorg stuff because i don’t want to play with it. I’m kind of allergic to it.
The kernel is the one i use (wemac tuned, sata ok but compiled with all the modules for GFX stuff).
To proceed:
- Download the file: ubuntu_12.10_armhf_mele.img.gz
- Unzip the file.
- DD it to your MMC. You will need a mmc > 1Go (> mean strictly).
- 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.img> of=/dev/<MMC_DEVICE> - From windows, you can use Google to find a “dd” replacement or take this one: http://www.chrysocome.net/rawwrite
- Plug an RJ45 ethernet cable in the Mele (connected to a network with DHCP), put the MMC in the slot… cross fingers and power the mele
- After 15 seconds, you should see appear the mele on your network (ping scan via nmap or watch on your router/dhcp server for the mele). The default mac is 00AA.1100.0001
- SSH to it. User: root, Password: root
This is it.
You can continue with a nand install to be free of the MMC.
Don’t be afraid of bricking the device. It’s nearly impossible (instructions after to restore Android).
NAND Install
- SSH as root on the mele
- If you want another MAC address or hostname, edit the file /root/MMC_TO_NAND.sh with vim or nano (first lines).
- Launch this (the mele will automatically reboot).
/root/MMC_TO_NAND.sh
And confirm the repartionning. - Wait 15 seconds, and reconnect with ssh to the mele
- Launch once again the script:
/root/MMC_TO_NAND.sh - … wait …wait
- now it’s finished. You have a nice base ubuntu armhf on your mele’s nand
- REMOVE THE MMC and hard reboot
The mele is like any linux now. You can install Xorg:
apt-get install xubuntu-desktop
Or
apt-get install kubuntu-desktop
You can plug a sata disk in it. Activate the wireless. etc…
If you have your own distribution already running on MMC and want to install it to NAND.
You can check the stupid package here (your kernel should have CMDLINE with root=/dev/nandb in it)
install_to_nand.tgz
TO REVERT TO ANDROID ICS:
- Download the Android ICS Mele version available everywhere
- torrent: http://www.cnx-software.com/torrent/homlet_4.0_v1.0_20120609_dd.img.lzma.torrent
- dropbox: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/65312725/homlet_4.0_v1.0_20120609_dd.img.lzma
- mirror1: http://www.lundman.net/ftp/mele/homlet_4.0_v1.0_20120609_dd.img.lzma
- mirror2: http://www.j1nx.nl/downloads/homlet_4.0_v1.0_20120609_dd.img.lzma
- Uncompress the archive
- ‘DD’ it to the MMC
- boot the mele with the MMC in it
- wait until the light stopped blinking red/blue
- remove the MMC and you have a fresh Android
Thanks a lot. I will try it as soon as I have some spare time.
Ok. So I tried it.
It works, as in I managed to make the SD card, boot from SD-card, copy linux to NAND and boot from NAND.
Problem is that i cannot seem to get GUI to work. I installed the xorg desktop package, it spent alot of time configuring itself but nothing happens when i power on the mele, no signal either from HDMI or VGA.
I tried connecting with SSH and startx but gives no screens found error.
Ok at least it works and with nand install!
Did you use the windows rawwrite ?
Xorg… i wrote i don’t really want to play with it 😉
I will try to package a working one.
Nah. I used an Ubuntu bootable usb stick and created image with DD.
At the moment I need to “unbrick” the device because I messed up some drivers and it won’t connect to Mele with SSH.
I will reinstall from SD-card and try lubuntu instead. I am afraid that it’s some video driver problem, because i had no video output whatsoever at any point.
You always can reinstall from the MMC with the same procedure with /root/MMC_to_NAND.sh
Or revert to Android. I have update the procedure with download links.
Yes. Done and done, trying with lubuntu-desktop atm.
I found this page – https://www.miniand.com/forums/forums/2/topics/1
I wonder if it works with mele v1.7
Oh yes.
You can take the 512Mo version.
but it’s not armhf … will be quite slow.
Perhaps this one?
https://www.miniand.com/forums/forums/development/topics/linaro-12-06-armhf-build
linaro seems to have prebuild armhf.
perhaps i should update the one here with that.
The lubuntu from miniand but not working at all. No SSH connect, not detected by router.
I am seriously considering to give up. After all, no Mali driver support means no linux HTPC for mele.
I will try to see if I can manage to work something with Android, otherwise I will pursue my goal of a small HTPC, home-use torrentbox/NAS/FTP somewhere else, as in a cheap 13inch laptop and have the portability bonus included.
i’ve got one working, had to clean up some code to make the driver compile with this new version.
I will post it tomorrow.
ubuntu 12.10 armhf with xorg + fluxbox?
hi, in android, in forocoches.com forum,
there a little users comunity android mele a2000,
the user ProgramingTool is updating every week his (debian sd card) for android , works well also.
has samba,torrent,emule,ftp…. and you can
here is the new thread,
http://www.forocoches.com/foro/showthread.php?t=2986466
thanks.
Guillaume, thanks. I try t0 version and works, and finally used mele as samba,ftp,music subsonic server!!! 😉
I’ll post you my results, i’m very happy with sata suport.
-if I don’t want WIFI how can I disable in startup? I see
-if I use ssh, and no monitor, is there a solution for have more memory? shows me 316MG of the real 512Mg (it seems mali driver,true?).
good night
Hi Pere,
Thanks for the link, i will active my translation 😉
If you don’t want wifi, you can disable 8192cu from /etc/modules.
If you don’t need Mali, of course, you could disable all gfx stuff (from the same file from ‘lcd’ to ‘mali_drm’) but you will not get all the memory back.
For this you, will have to recompile a new kernel or simply use the debian i share on this website. This image have the last debian testing and a 3.0.42+ with the full network stack. It works nicely.
PLEASE!! post the ubuntu 12.10 armhf with xorg image soon! Users are looking for an armhf image with a working GUI, either LXDE, XFCE, or in this care fluxbox. In any case, please share your valuable contribution to the community. Much appreciated!!
Anything simple that works 🙂
Want a progress bar working with DD?
dd if=<PATH_TO_IMG> | pv -s `du -bc | cut -f 1 –output-delimiter=” ” | head -1` | dd of=/dev/<SD_CARD> bs=1M
Hi,
I dont have a Mele PC…but a tablet with similar hardware.
Ubuntu 12.10 armhf works perfectly on my SD card, but is slow (with Lubuntu-desktop).
Can I install Ubuntu 12.10 to NAND (even if I dont have a Mele PC)?
What NAND will be overwritten (nand or nanda or nandb…or nandh)?
Will Lubuntu run faster?
Will I be able to boot Android?
No, you have the same board as I do. Except that I have it inside laptop chasis. Trust me, you did nothing wrong. Problem is with the kernel module mali, which is not loadable, so even X does have mali driver library, it can’t use it’s potential. The same with GL ES libraries.
I think that guillaume said something that he’ll may release fixed version with full X11 support and working mali module. What is your product name? Or what it was. Running from NAND makes system little bit faster, but not too much. But it is good to have it running from NAND, because then you can utilize your SD as /home, or in case of my partitioned SD, as /home, /usr and swap. Especially swap will make things better a little.
How much RAM your tabled have?
thanks, your answer is very useful 🙂 .
I have 1 GB of RAM but lxde task manager recognize me only something like 350 MB of ram.
I use only around 150 MB. as you said, the problem is mali module.
Exactly. For the ram, you should apply http://guillaumeplayground.net/share/linux-armhf-gfx-1G-3.0.42-3.tar.gz
Then you’ll get something around ~960MB RAM. But problem with X performance without mali.ko loaded stays same…we’ll have to wait.
And … I missed something…if you are using newer then stock android uBoot, then you’ll have to modify /boot/linux/params file (/dev/nanda) the same way, change/add ‘mem=512’ parameter in cmdline to ‘mem=1024’
then you’ll be fine, except for the mali.ko which will still be unable to allocate memory block, and thus not working
Thank you. I have created a Swap partition of 695 MB and everything runs faster.
——
I can’t find something like this: /boot/linux/params file (/dev/nanda) .
Simply, I mount /dev/nanda and then there is a folder /linux but there isn’t any file called ‘params’.
Can you explain me better?
——
Another question. Is possible install Adobe flash player?
Hello everyone, can i use this steps for flashing mk802 nand flash?
i cant do it with normal flashing tool called livesuit because i have OTG broken…excuse me if this doesnt work for that, thanks!
Well, params isn’t there, because your uBoot do not support it. So you have to use uImage compiled with needed cmdline.
And no, no adobe flash on arm…flash is already obsolete, and html5 is pretty compatible with almost everything. just install chromium-browser