Ubuntu 14.04 and 15.04 on MK808b Plus

[yushir]

Got it to boot without trouble on an HD18Q, Android boots also without problems. However, I did found the following issues:
- Ethernet is not detected - I assume it requires the same module as the wifi one (though Ethernet is included in the S805 specification...)
- Wifi is not detected, I am using the module 8188.eu and still seems trouble getting a proper one to run under linux. Could I get your upload reuploaded astateofmind ? Thanks
- Setting the output to 1080p leaves a big black space in the output (though it gets detected as 1080p by the window manager, so I wonder it's something related with the framebuffer
- Audio output via the A/V output doesn't seem to work (applied the fixes stated above, but looks like it's only for HDMI).
- When booting, there's a 6-try delay trying to start the Wifi - I assume it's the Broadcom driver that needs to be taken out.
- Internal NAND is not recognized if booting from SD Card.
- Hotplug of USB devices (e.g. mouse or keyboard) isn't detected properly.

PD: Has anyone tried loading all these drivers by using DKMS? That would solve a lot of problems imho.

Some of the issues posted here are present, some are new. Could you please give me a hand on this?

[sammaz]

- Wifi is not detected, I am using the module 8188.eu and still seems trouble getting a proper one to run under linux.
Get this : http://www.amazon.com/Edimax-EW-7811.../dp/B00FW6T36Y
Works great in 5Ghz @ 433Mbps in Openelec\Android\Linux Ubuntu

- Setting the output to 1080p leaves a big black space in the output (though it gets detected as 1080p by the window manager, so I wonder it's something related with the framebuffer
This resolves after you power on\off again...give it a few reboots

- Audio output via the A/V output doesn't seem to work (applied the fixes stated above, but looks like it's only for HDMI).
Correct. HDMI only


- Internal NAND is not recognized if booting from SD Card.
This is by design to leave your Openelec\Android NAND untouched

[astateofmind]

http://www.filedropper.com/showdownload.php/8723bs the module for ubuntu.

[yushir]

astateofmind Thanks for the file!. It seems, though, I end up requiring the module for 8188eu. Do you have the instructions to compile/download this module somewhere?

[astateofmind]

you might have a different clone than mine, one that uses a different nic/module.

[DanielSB]

In case you want to put this on a 4GB MicroSD (e.g. if like me you want to get rid of the Mate GUI stuff and use Ubuntu as a headless server), here's how:

1. Get the image file; I got _ubuntu-mate-15-04-s805-standard-0_95_Beta.img.xz
2. Extract it:
   xz -dk _ubuntu-mate-15-04-s805-standard-0_95_Beta.img.xz
3. Have a look at the partition layout:
   fdisk -lu _ubuntu-mate-15-04-s805-standard-0_95_Beta.img
4. Note the "Start" value of partition 2. For this image, it started 518144 blocks in.
5. Map the partition to a loop device, (note where I'm putting in the start value from before, and replace if you have a different image):
   sudo losetup -o $((518144*512)) /dev/loop1 _ubuntu-mate-15-04-s805-standard-0_95_Beta.img
6. Shrink the fs to the minimum size possible (about 2.3GB):
   sudo e2fsck -f /dev/loop1
   sudo resize2fs -Mp /dev/loop1
7. Make partition 2 smaller in the img file:
   fdisk _ubuntu-mate-15-04-s805-standard-0_95_Beta.img
   [press d]
   [press 2, enter]
   [press n]
   [press p, enter]
   [press 2, enter]
   [type "518144" (or your value from before if it differs), enter]
   [type "+3G", enter]
   [press w, enter]
8. Copy the image file to your MicroSD card. It's important to know the correct device name, so you don't overwrite some other disk. You can run "dmesg" in a terminal after plugging it in, and check the last line that mentions something about a disk being inserted. On my system, I got "[ 2306.856080] sd 3:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI removable disk", which means my SD card is available at /dev/sda. /dev/sda is pretty much always the main system root drive, but as I'm running a Live CD in a VMware Fusion virtual machine which has no hard drives, my SD card became /dev/sda. Yours is probably sdb, sdc or something like that.
9. Make sure that no existing partitions on your SD card aren't mounted, in case they were automatically mounted (replace "sda" with your device):
   sudo umount /dev/sda*
   (Ignore error messages about stuff not being mounted)
10. Use dd to write the image file (again, replace "sda" with your SD card):
    sudo dd if=_ubuntu-mate-15-04-s805-standard-0_95_Beta.img of=/dev/sda bs=1M
11. After a pretty long (depending on how fast your SD card is) while, dd will error out, complaining about no space being left on the SD card device. This is fine.
12. Now we need to expand the partition to the biggest size your SD card allows (again, replace "sda" where applicable):
    sudo partprobe
    sudo fdisk /dev/sda
    [press d]
    [press 2, enter]
    [press n]
13. [press p, enter]
    [press 2, enter]
    [type "518144" (or your value from before if it differs), enter]
    [press enter to accept the suggested last sector]
    [press w, enter]
    sudo e2fsck -f /dev/sda2
    sudo resize2fs -p /dev/sda2
    sudo sync
    sudo eject /dev/sda
14. Enjoy.

[yushir]

Ok, part by part. At least 1080p is working now:
You need to replace the last line 'echo 0x10001 > /sys/class/graphics/fb0/free_scale'
for 'echo 0 > /sys/class/graphics/fb0/free_scale', and you'll be getting a full 1080p output .

[sammaz]

I have been wondering if this will work :

http://oph.mdrjr.net/odrobian/doc/or...roduction.html

Can someone take a fresh install of this Linux distro and try this -

[COLOR=#000000] odroid:$ sudo -s[/COLOR]  
 odroid:# apt-get update && apt-get install odrobian-platform-*  	This will basically upgrade Odrobian Platform to pull latest "insta-ORGA" utility.  odroid:# insta-ORGA --defaults 	This will convert your system to RetroGaming Arcade with default recommended settings for your particular ODROID platform. 	 odroid:# reboot

[DanielSB]

I have been wondering if this will work :

http://oph.mdrjr.net/odrobian/doc/or...roduction.html

Can someone take a fresh install of this Linux distro and try this -

[COLOR=#000000] odroid:$ sudo -s[/COLOR]
odroid:# apt-get update && apt-get install odrobian-platform-* This will basically upgrade Odrobian Platform to pull latest "insta-ORGA" utility. odroid:# insta-ORGA --defaults This will convert your system to RetroGaming Arcade with default recommended settings for your particular ODROID platform. odroid:# reboot

The question isn't whether this command would work, it's whether Odrobian could be installed on an MK808B Plus. I'd like to know, too, but you're probably not gonna get a lot of answers in this thread since it's about the Linux MiniPC Ubuntu image

[DanielSB]

One question for whomever knows: I am currently on finless rom. If I install openelec on nand and Ubuntu on sd card, will I be able to install back finless? I would like to try Ubuntu on the stick but if it doesn't meet my needs, can I install back Android? Not stock but this custom rom? It was pretty easy install from sd to nand over stock Android

Sent from my x600 using Tapatalk

Don't know why the instructions tell you to install OpenELEC to NAND first. I have Wetek Android on NAND, and running Ubuntu from SD works just fine without doing anything to the NAND. Just remember to flash the zip from the SD card in TWRP using the pinhole boot and you're all set

[yushir]

Wihtout the proper kernel headers it's a try-and-fail scenario when trying to add a module. astateofmind Could you at least point where did you grab the headers?
We could install dkms as to easily compile the kernel modules and add support for other items (see: wifi, xpad...).

Has anyone managed to replace the kernel? As far as I can see from the boot.img, we have the following hardcoded:
setenv linuxargs root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 rootwait rw console=tty0 console=ttyS0,115200n8 no_console_suspend vdaccfg=0xa000 hdmimode=720p m_bpp=32
setenv bootargs ${linuxargs}
bootm 0x12019000

(This is in case you're using the image marked as 32 bpp). This is not present in the uImage from ODroid (yet again, this image doesn't have any initramfs tools!).

From what I can understand, the following happens:
- The bootloader that's flashed in the bootloader.img partition (the zip file) 'loads' a file called 'boot.img' from the first partition of the SSD on the address 0x1201000 or 0x1200000.
- Then the 'kernel' sets his own booting parameters and boots.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, I wonder this is done so that the kernel 'can't be replaced'.

[astateofmind]

That was a while back, i remember doing some extensive search for headers and copying some code from another headers. Didn't keep the procedure and tried a lot of things, lol

[DanielSB]

I've been doing some speed testing on three different SD cards, trying to pick one to use for a small web server, and I've noticed a couple of things:

1) The Wi-Fi dying and needing a reset issue seems to be tied to disk I/O — perhaps triggered by the kernel locking up due to the slow SD. I also noticed some fs-related oopses in dmesg sometimes preceding a WiFi "hiccup"

2) I've experienced several complete system freezes (as in needing to power cycle the stick) when doing heavy I/O, with either of the three cards, once again signifying a (more severe) problem tied to I/O congestion.

Anyone else experiencing anything like this? Any ideas what's happening here? Is this installation using AUFS or UnionFS or something?

[sammaz]

http://www.filedropper.com/showdownload.php/8723bs the module for ubuntu.

I got this 8723bs module working...Thanks so much! I couldnt believe it when I rebooted and it appeared and connected!

[yushir]

I have made a uboot/kernel source request to the owner of the code, should that succeed we might be able to fix many of the issues already present (e.g. HDMI output is hardcoded in the kernel). I may try what astateofmind said and use plain 3.10.70 headers (trying my luck) - in any case I believe that having the headers and using them along dkms should allow us to virtually build any module - including an updated Mali one (that doesn't have this weird transparency issues).
Regarding the AMLAUDIO component, I am for analyzing what the SettingsMbox.apk program is doing and try to emulate the same system calls (selection between PCM/SPDIF/HDMI).