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Author Topic: Newest Hardware with a10s processor  (Read 5468 times)

AdamBialas

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Newest Hardware with a10s processor
« on: February 13, 2013, 04:38:53 AM »
I trying to start Tiny Core Linux on my mk802+ with a10s version processor , what I have to change in config make image for this ??? Or maybe someone start this linux on mk802+ ????

Offline roberts

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Re: Newest Hardware with a10s processor
« Reply #1 on: February 13, 2013, 11:32:42 AM »
Sorry to have to inform you that the A10s is not an A10 processor.
It is even classed as a different family 5 versus 4. Originally Allwinner was to call it an A12 which is somewhere between an A10 and A13.
Interestingly enough A12 (A10s) and A13 have less features than the A10. Hard to figure why Allwinner would produce "newer" processors that are less capable. With an A10s or A13 you will need a new kernel, a new u-boot, and new script.bin. Now whereas the A13 does boot from an SD card, at the moment the A10s does not boot from SD card. There are some hardware guys looking into making the A10s boot from SD card. Still with new kernel, u-boot, et al, it makes one question is the effort worth the result.
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Offline speedbug78

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Re: Newest Hardware with a10s processor
« Reply #2 on: June 28, 2013, 12:14:44 PM »
I also have some a10s hardware (MK802+ as shown here: http://linux-sunxi.org/MK802) and recently there has been a release of Fedora for it here: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Architectures/ARM/AllwinerA10  It installs and boots off of the SD card now.  It would be nice to have TC for it, but thought people would like to know there is "something" you can boot.

Offline hlavery

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Re: Newest Hardware with a10s processor
« Reply #3 on: June 28, 2013, 07:56:56 PM »
Very interesting, speedbug...I would have thought the differences with the A10s version would have gone way deeper than just a u-boot file.  Although I don't have any of the A10s devices, I felt motivated to try a little experiment: 

(1) I downloads the Fedora 18 image you linked to and followed the instructions to get a working (Hackberry A10) version.  Fedora 18 is painfully slow on the Hackberry, but it works.

(2) I took everything in the Fedora first partition and hid it in a new directory (say, FEDORA/)

(3) I copied the contents of the Tinycore armv7 release (today's dCore v5!) first partition into the ex-Fedora first partition, and then

(4) booted to Tinycore.

If you were to do the same for A10s, you might get TinyCore working.  Of course, the real solution would be to dig out the u-boot.bin from the Fedora scripts, but I have no incentive to do that. 

EDIT: Fedora will run with the TC kernel, so any a10s fixes to the kernel config must be small /EDIT
« Last Edit: June 28, 2013, 11:40:29 PM by hlavery »