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September 16, 2014June 15, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 16 Comments

How to Build Android 4.4 for Rockchip RK3288 Devices (Tronsmart Orion R28)

After blowing up my ATX power supply, and learning such things as “FULL” power supplies do exists, I finally managed to build Android for Tronsmart Orion R28 using the provided SDK. I haven’t tried to load it on the device yet, but the build could complete successfully after following the steps below in Ubuntu 14.04. The SDK is probably not specific to one device, so it might just also work on other RK3288 TV boxes and tablets. First download Android 4.4 SDK for RK3288, or use the one in the micro SD card provided with the Beta version of R28 Pro and Meta. Install some dependencies:

sudo apt-get install git-core gnupg flex bison gperf libsdl1.2-dev libesd0-dev libwxgtk2.8-dev \
squashfs-tools build-essential zip curl libncurses5-dev zlib1g-dev pngcrush schedtool libxml2 \
libxml2-utils xsltproc lzop libc6-dev schedtool g++-multilib lib32z1-dev lib32ncurses5-dev \
lib32readline-gplv2-dev gcc-multilib libswitch-perl gcc-arm-linux-gnueabi lzop libncurses5-dev \
libssl1.0.0 libssl-dev

sudo apt-get install git-core gnupg flex bison gperf libsdl1.2-dev libesd0-dev libwxgtk2.8-dev \

squashfs-tools build-essential zip curl libncurses5-dev zlib1g-dev pngcrush schedtool libxml2 \

libxml2-utils xsltproc lzop libc6-dev schedtool g++-multilib lib32z1-dev lib32ncurses5-dev \

lib32readline-gplv2-dev gcc-multilib libswitch-perl gcc-arm-linux-gnueabi lzop libncurses5-dev \

libssl1.0.0 libssl-dev

Extract the SDK:

tar xvf Orion_R28_SDK_doc.tar.gz

1	tar xvf Orion_R28_SDK_doc.tar.gz

And build the kernel first: Enter the kernel directory:

cd RK3288_R-BOX_ANDROID4.4.2-SDK_V1.0.0/kernel/

1	cd RK3288_R-BOX_ANDROID4.4.2-SDK_V1.0.0/kernel/

Change arch/arm/boot/dts/Makefile to use RK3288 device tree file instead of an RK3188 (may not be needed, but the build failed for me without that change…):

dtb-$(CONFIG_ARCH_ROCKCHIP) += rk3288-box.dtb

1	dtb-$(CONFIG_ARCH_ROCKCHIP) += rk3288-box.dtb

It’s also quite […]

September 2, 2014September 2, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

Cloud Media OpenHour Chameleon Quad Core TV Box Boots Android or Linux from SD Card

Cloud Media, previously known as Syabas, has been selling Popcorn Hour media players based on Linux for several years, but with OpenHour Chameleon the company is about to launch their first Android media player powered by Rockchip RK3288. The device is similar to other RK3288 TV boxes, except it does not come with internal storage at all, and instead boots Android 4.4.2 from a provided 8GB SD card, with later plans to have support for Linux operating systems such as Ubuntu. Another particularity is that they’ll use an aluminum casing for better heat dissipation of the Rockchip RK3288 processor which can get pretty hot… OpenHour Chameleon specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3288 quad core ARM Cortex A12 / A17 processor with ARM Mali-T764 quad-core 3D GPU supporting OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0/3.0, and OpenCL 1.1 System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – No Internal storage + SD card slot with 8GB card (including […]

September 2, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Linaro 14.08 Release with Kernel 3.16 and Android 4.4.4

I’m a little late for that one, as Linaro 14.08 was released last Thursday. Nevertheless, this release features Linux kernel 3.16 (baseline), Linux 3.10.52 (LSK), and Android 4.4.4. As usual Linaro has worked on member hardware such as Qualcomm based IFC6410 and ARM Juno &Vexpress boards. They’ve also committed changes for LLVM, big Endian, and added a workload generator tool (rt-app) to the Ubuntu and Android image. This tool has been developed and used by the power management working group, presumably to measure and optimize power consumption under various loads. Here are the highlights of this release: Linux Linaro 3.16-2014.08 GATOR version 5.19 (new version) updated topic from Qualcomm LT (ifc6410 board support) updated Versatile Express ARM64 support (FVP Base and Foundation models, Juno) from ARM LT (Landing Team) updated Versatile Express patches from ARM LT updated LLVM topic (follows the community llvmlinux-latest branch) Big endian support (the 2014.05 topic […]

August 24, 2014June 22, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 24 Comments

Linux (Enlightenment and Lubuntu) in WeTek Play Amlogic TV Box

Last week I reviewed WeTek Play, a TV box with two DVB-S2 tuners, powered by Amlogic AML8726-MX dual core ARM Cortex A9 processor, and running Android 4.2, but the company also released several Linux based images including one with Enlightenment window manager, and another, temporary one, with Ubuntu core which allows you to install Lubuntu or Xubuntu with apt-get. There are also working on OpenELEC, but have not released the binary yet. Today, I’ll try the Enlightenment image because it also supports hardware video decoding via Gplay (gstreamer), and show how to install Lubuntu. The instructions below have been done in a computer running Ubuntu 14.04, but a Windows computer can also be used. Download Wetek-Linux.img.bz2 Connect a micro SD card to your computer, extract and flash Wetek-Linux.img: In Linux using a terminal window:

bzip2 -d Wetek-LInux.img.bz2
sudo dd if=Wetek-Linux.img of=/dev/sdd bs=1M
sync

bzip2 -d Wetek-LInux.img.bz2

sudo dd if=Wetek-Linux.img of=/dev/sdd bs=1M

sync

In Windows, extract the image, and use Win32DiskImager to copy the image to your micro SD […]

August 23, 2014June 18, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 44 Comments

How to Build and Run Android L 64-bit ARM in QEMU

[Nov, 2014 Update: The method below does not seem to work anymore, but a 64-bit ARM emulator “emulator64-arm64” has now landed in AOSP, and updated instructions are available here]. Most people can’t afford Juno Cortex A57/A53 development board, and mobile processors based on the latest 64-bit ARM cores are only expected by early 2015. But thanks to a small team at Linaro, you can now build and run Android L 64-bit ARM in the latest version of QEMU that supports Aarch64. Alex Bennée, an engineer working for Linaro, wrote a blog post in Linaro’s Core Dump blog explaining the Android emulator is actually based on QEMU, the differences compared to mainline QEMU, the work they’ve done on Android L at Linaro, and most importantly, provided the basic steps showing how to build and try Android L 64-bit ARM (ARMv8) in QEMU. I’ve just done that, but unfortunately, albeit the builds […]

August 14, 2014August 15, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 22 Comments

Unboxing of WeTek Play DVB-S2 Android / Linux STB

WeTek Electronics, a company based in Hong Kong, has sent me an Android TV powered by Amlogic AML8726-MX dual core Cortex A9 processor. Nothing new here, but I was very very interested in reviewing it because it includes a DVB-S2 tuner, and on top of their stock Android firmware, the company provides various Android and Linux firmware files such as CyanogenMod, ParanoidAndroid, OpenELEC, Linux with Enlightenment desktop environment, Lubuntu 14.04 and so on. Today, I’ll list the hardware specifications of the device, show some unboxing pictures and video, and as usual, open the device to see what’s inside. I’ll provide a full review in one or two more posts. WeTek Play Specifications Apart from the DVB-S2 tuner are the serial port, the hardware specifications sound familiar: SoC – Amlogic AML8726-MX dual core Cortex A9 @ 1.5GHz with Mali-400MP GPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3 Storage – 4 GB NAND flash […]

August 13, 2014November 23, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Toshiba TZ5000 ApP Lite Media Player Development Kits Run Android 4.4 and Ubuntu Linux

Toshiba has recently announced two development kits powered by their TZ5000 ApP Lite SoC featuring two ARM Cortex A9 cores, PowerVR SGX540 GPU, PowerVR VXD395 GPU, an optional 4GB MLC NAND, and Ensigma C4500 Wi-Fi baseband engine into a single chip solution that targets Over-The-Top (OTT) tuners and IP media boxes, wearable devices, digital signage, thin clients, and more. The first development kit, RBTZ5000-6MA-A1, is a full size board that supports Ubuntu, the other one, RBTZ5000-6MA-A1, is an HDMI stick form factor board running Android 4.4. Toshiba RBTZ5000-2MA-A1 Board (Ubuntu) RBTZ5000-2MA-A1 Starter Kit specifications: SoC – Toshiba TZ5011XBG dual core Cortex A9 processor @ 1.0 GHz with PowerVR VPU and GPU, and Ensigma C4500 Wi-Fi baseband engine System Memory – DDR3L-1600 Storage – 8GB eMMC (external) + MicroSDXC Connectivity – Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac 2×2 MIMO (via Ensigma C4500), Bluetooth 4.0. Ethernet is available via a daughter board connected to ADB. USB […]

August 10, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Android-x86 4.4 Stable Released for x86 Computers, Laptops, Netbooks…

There are several methods to run Android in an x86 computer or laptop, but Android-x86 could be one of the best to do that, and the developers have just released the first stable release for Android-x86 4.4 Kitkat. This release includes support for OpenGL ES hardware acceleration for AMD Radeon and Intel graphics, ffmpeg integration to support HD video playback in apps, and more. The file to download is android-x86-4.4-r1.iso, which you can then install on a USB flash drive:

sudo dd if=android-x86-4.4-r1.iso of=/dev/sdX

1	sudo dd if=android-x86-4.4-r1.iso of=/dev/sdX

where /dev/sdX is the device name of your usb drive. If you are a Windows users you can use Win32DiskImager utility instead. Android should then boot from USB, and you can decide to run it from USB or install it on you hard drive. I haven’t done this, but instead, I’ve created a new Linux 32-bit virtual machine in VirtualBox without internal storage to try it out quickly in […]