TC in a Stick

[naf456]

I can now confirm that Core and Tiny Core runs fine on the original mk802!

Awesome!
I'm actually currently not working on the port to the mk808. I'm actually researching into the possibility of creating a custom desktop environment at the mo
I like FLWM but it's just not pretty enough :L

 

[roberts]

Everyone has there favorites when it comes to desktop and GUI apps. That is why I now stay focused on just the Core. The latest Core is even more embedded.

As for the original mk802 with 1GB, it can be had so cheap and having 1 GB or ram makes such a difference. I will be showing the mk802, mele, cubieboard, and raspberry pi at Scale. This year it is all arm at the Tiny Core booth. Well almost, another team member will have x86-64. But even the demo vidoes will be running on arm.

[Lee]

This year it is all arm at the Tiny Core booth

Nice kit for an expo - I'm picturing the whole mess except for monitors in one decent sized cardboard box. 

I'm curious to hear how much attention the booth draws from the general linux crowd,  And of course to see pictures - a photo gallery on the forums or on the main web page would be cool.

[lovenini]

I can now confirm that Core and Tiny Core runs fine on the original mk802!

they've released a quad core MK402 version 4.0 based on rockchip rk3188

I think A31 quad core A7+sgx544MP2 version will come out soon

[pioj]

Takin' in count this post:
http://www.newaydeals.com/testing-of-allwinner-quad-core-chip-a31-cpu/

And after  reading Robert has the Samsung gpu-based in mind, makes me guess our next target will be Cortex A9, instead of the A15 or the Allwinner A31...

[pioj]

[UPDATE]  The Rk3188 Linux source code has been released:

https://github.com/aloksinha2001/Linux3188

[athouston]

A big thank you to everyone involved in these efforts. I'm an old phart who hand built his first computer back in about 1980 (an S100 based system featured in Byte magazine). I hand etched the motherboards, hand soldered the components and hex keyed the boot strap loader for CP/M.

The work being done here is reminiscent of the "glory" days of computers when geeks were geeks and RAM chips were very afraid.

I have learnt a lot from playing with TC and am very grateful for the help everyone so freely gives.

I have an MK802 (1GB version) that I would like to put TC on. There is plenty of info available but I can't seem to find the start button. How do I download the core to the MK802 without pulling it apart to get at the sd card (assuming it has one and not on-board rom).

For what its worth, I also have a Zealz GK802 based on the Freescale iMX6 quad core chip. It runs really well and that would be a good candidate for TC. From what I have read Freescale is pretty open with data and firmware and there are a couple of Ubuntu / Xuntu type ports happening.

Be well.

[roberts]

mk802 1gb does run Core. mk802 uses a micro SD card and is sometimes difficult to insert properly, at least it was for me. Poor vision here.
Anyway start by writing the a10Core image see:

http://tinycorelinux.net/4.x/armv7/README/README-1st.txt

As this image is for the Cubieboard 1GB you will have to get the proper files for mk802 1GB see:

http://tinycorelinux.net/4.x/armv7/hardware/README-bootloader.txt

The needed files for mk802 1GB are here:

http://tinycorelinux.net/4.x/armv7/hardware/mk802ii/

[athouston]

Thank you Mr Roberts. Most kind. That will give me something to do today.

BTW: I came across an article on the Liliputing web site about Rockchip releasing the source code for Linux. Here's the Github link if that's of any interest.
https://github.com/aloksinha2001/Linux3188.

Cheers.

[roberts]

Once you have the mk802 successfully booting to a prompt then to get wireless working see:
http://tinycorelinux.net/4.x/armv7/README/README-wifi.txt

[athouston]

Just one small question. My MK802 is a sealed plastic unit with a single (empty) sd card slot available. I need to use an uploader program to update the Android image.

Are we talking about loading the TC sd card in this empty slot or do I have to break open the plastic case to get at the internals?

[roberts]

You should use a USB to micro sd card reader for your regular computer. Download and write image to sd card.
The instructions posted are for using a Tiny Core computer, as I don't have or use Windows.

No need to break open the mk802, just very carefully insert the micro sd card into the open slot, it should feel springy and then click into place.
Then connect cables to mk802 and finally apply power.

The Android image is not distrubed. It remains totally untouched. With sd card in slot you will boot to Core, take out the sd card and you will boot to Android.

[athouston]

Beaut. Thanks again. That's the bit that had me confused.

The fact that I can't boot into TC means I haven't got the process right yet. I'm not beaten yet though.

Be well.

[athouston]

WooHoo. I'm on.

The missing bit is the need to pick the "manage labels" option in gparted and mark the partition bootable.

Now I can start playing with X11 and get a GUI up.

I haven't had this much fun for 111 days (since a heart triple bypass op).

[athouston]

I have come across another problem.

When I try and grow the partition size in gparted from the 8MB that the DD xx.img creates to anything else (32MB or 2048MB) I get an error. When I mount the partition gparted reports that all the new space is used but DF shows the original size.

What else can I use to expand the partition.

I have attached the fault log in case you want to look.