Pipo M9 Pro 3G OTG-attached USB Devices

[PNman-55]

I use the above tablet. I must use both an Ethernet USB dongle and an external WiFi USB dongle and attached antenna with this tablet. I'm thinking a reasonably safe bet for hardware selection would be Linux-compatible devices. I suspect many such devices would require a custom kernel--which I would like to avoid if I can. Anyone know which chipset drivers for such USB devices are included in the Android build for this tablet? Where can I find an introduction to the Android Kernel and the tablet's ROM directory structure?

I'm toying with customizing my Android kernel to get what I need. That will require the official Android Software Development Platform installed and configured on an Ubuntu PC. My sojourns into Google's official Android development site tells me the learning curve for both the development platform and the kernel customization are very, VERY steep. Frankly, this may be way beyond my capabilities. There seems to be an assumption the reader has some basic core background which I seem to lack. My entry-level BASIC and COBOL programing skills are hopelessly out of date. I've recompiled a few Linux kernels for hardware optimization but that was a very long time ago. So, again, if anyone knows of a basic introduction to the Android kernel, I'd appreciate a push in the right direction.

[rrileypm]

Check with d33.

He is handling our Pipo kernel development.

Pipo has an old list of compatible USB devices on their site, but D33 can help you with what he has seen in the code we have.

You might even be of some assistance in helping with providing some info he needs on the M9 Pro.

[PNman-55]

Thanks. I'll look him up and message him. I'll see if I can help. Have to recover my tablet too--I so very nicely bricked it this afternoon.

[rrileypm]

Good luck unbricking.

The wonderful thing about Rockchip devices is that you can always unbrick when things go bad...but it's a huge pain in the butt. The first time it happened for me, I had to walk away from it for a day, but I finally got it. Now it's about a 30 minute job.

[PNman-55]

Good luck unbricking.

The wonderful thing about Rockchip devices is that you can always unbrick when things go bad...but it's a huge pain in the butt. The first time it happened for me, I had to walk away from it for a day, but I finally got it. Now it's about a 30 minute job.

I looked up the Un-bricking (is that even a word?) post of yours. I launched the ROM loader you include in your builds. It didn't see the tablet. Plugged in the charger and AC power. I was looking at the recovery info in the recovery post when Windows announced it had found the Rockchip USB device and the Rockchip loader could now see the device. I clicked on Reboot to flash mode which the tablet apparently did without displaying anything on the tablet screen. As per instructions, I pressed and held the tablet power button until Windows once again reported it initialized the device. Loaded the ROM files. Tablet accepted the load and rebooted. I again rebooted to Flash mode, erased the NAND, and then reloaded the ROM. After removing the USB cable, the tablet displayed a message about "this is the Empty mode" or something similar (sorry, short-term memory and pain meds for the idiopathic neuropathy don't mix very well.) Used the power button to reboot and the tablet was functional. Just piecing things back together now. Don't know if my SD card was erased as well. If so, oh well. Having worked in the computer industry so long, you very quickly learn NOT to use your mobile device as the sole repository of critical data. I keep anything important on my PC's hard drive and share ti with my tablet via Google drive. Run out of the free space and you can always rent some more. I can always redownload my music from Amazon, etc.

[rrileypm]

Hahaha....yes, my spell checker never likes the word unbrick....but in the Android world, it IS a word. Likely not to show up in any dictionary anytime soon.