KVM full virtualization on Cortex-A15 showcased in ARM TechCon 2012

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Xen on ARM Cortex A15

                            XenSummit NA 2012: Xen on ARM Cortex A15 from Xen.org
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How to allwinner image building or packing A10 / Allwinner/Unpacking and building LiveSuit images

In the past few days, the developer of DroidMote has successfully created a custom LiveSuite image for the MK802, and this guide is based on his experience that he has shared with us.
This guide details how to deconstruct an existing image, such as the default image, and to build your own new image.
This guide requires a native Windows installation, I've tried to do it from Ubuntu using a Windows VM and it didn't work. This installation also requires a Linux install, either in a VM or a native install.

Required tools



Extracting and building the stock image (Windows)

Extract a10_flash_kitchen_v1.zip and look inside the directory, you'll see packer_gb and packer_ics. packer_ics is for Android ICS, so that is the one you will be using.
01_flash_kitchen.png
Open packer_ics and you will notice a bunch of directories and a couple of .bat scripts. We will spend a lot of time in these directories.
02_flash_kitchen_ics.png
Extract the stock firmware you downloaded earlier, and copy the .img file into this directory. Rename the file to original.img.
03_flash_kitchen_ics_image.png
Run the extract_image.bat script, and a command window will pop up while it is extracting.
04_flash_kitchen_ics_extract_bat.png
The command window will output like the following, it will display Press any key to continue . . . when it is complete. Press a key to close the window.
05_extract_output.png
Once the command window is closed, open the _extract directory and all of the extracted files will be there. The three following files are the ones we are interested in: RFSFAT16_BOOT_00000000000.fex (the boot partition), RFSFAT16_RECOVERY_0000000.fex (the recovery partition), RFSFAT16_SYSTEM_000000000.fex (the system partition, ext4 sparse).
06_extract_dir.png

Extracting, modifying and building partitions (Linux)


Setting up Linux

First of all, I won't go into detail about how to install and use Linux, as it is out of the scope of this guide. I will, however, go into great detail about the commands that have to be run, so it would be possible to follow the guide without deep Linux knowledge.
I would recommend installing an Ubuntu 12.04 64-bit VM using the free VirtualBox. Make sure you use the 64-bit version as some of the tools required are 64-bit. Also, you will need to install ia32-libs using sudo apt-get install ia32-libs from the terminal.
In my case, I added my Windows drive in the shared folders settings before launching the VM, and set it to auto mount. I then added my user to the vboxsf group, allowing read and write access to these directories (/mount/share_name). To add your user to the vboxsf group, use sudo usermod -aG vboxsf username from the terminal where username is the username of your user.
Once you've installed and booted into Ubuntu, you'll see something like this:
15_ubuntu.png

Prepare files

First, click on the home folder icon on the left, and navigate to your Windows drive. My Windows drive was at /media/sf_WINDOWS, which is accessible in the file manager via File System -> media -> sf_WINDOWS. If you get a permissions error, either you haven't added your user to the vboxsf group, or if you have done that you might need to log off and back on.
Now browse to your a10_flash_kitchen_v2/packer_ics/_extract directory, and locate the files RFSFAT16_BOOT_00000000000.fex, RFSFAT16_RECOVERY_0000000.fex, RFSFAT16_SYSTEM_000000000.fex.
16_ubuntu_extracted_files.png
Copy these files, and create a directory in your Home and paste the files in there. I created a directory called custom image. Be careful with having spaces in directory names, as the directory name will have to be quoted when we are in the terminal. Eg. cd "custom image".
17_ubuntu_copied_files.png
Rename the files as follows:
RFSFAT16_BOOT_00000000000.fex -> boot.img
RFSFAT16_RECOVERY_0000000.fex -> recovery.img
RFSFAT16_SYSTEM_000000000.fex -> system.fex
After renaming, your files should like like the following:
18_ubuntu_renamed_files.png
Copy the tools.tar.gz archive you downloaded earlier into the same directory.
19_ubuntu_copy_tools.png
To extract the tools, right click on the file and click Extract here.
20_ubuntu_tools_extract.png
This will extract the tools into a tools subdirectory.
21_ubuntu_tools_extracted.png
Now we want to do some work in the terminal. Click the Dash home button on the left.
22_ubuntu_dash_button.png
Type terminal to show the terminal application. Hit enter and the terminal will appear.
23_ubuntu_dash_terminal.png

Boot partition

Execute the following commands, substituting "custom image" for the name of the directory you created in your home. Running ls at the end will show the files we now have in the directory.
$ cd "custom image"
$ tools/split_bootimg.pl boot.img

$ ls
24_split_bootimg_command.png
Now extract the ramdisk file into a ramdisk subdirectory.
$ mkdir ramdisk
$ cd ramdisk
$ gunzip -c ../boot.img-ramdisk.gz | cpio -i
$ ls
25_extract_ramdisk.png
You are now able to modify the files as needed. For example, the DroidMote developer added insmod /system/vendor/modules/uinput.ko to the init.sun4i.rc file to load uinput on boot.
Once you have finished modifying the file, we will rebuild the image. Run the following commands.
$ cd ..
$ tools/mkbootfs ramdisk | gzip > ramdisk-new.gz
$ tools/mkbootimg --base 0x40000000 --kernel boot.img-kernel --ramdisk ramdisk-new.gz --cmdline 'console=ttyS0,115200 tw init=/init loglevel=8' -o new-boot.img
$ ls
26_build_new_boot.png

Recovery partition

This follows the same process as the boot partition. Execute the following commands to extract the image:
$ tools/split_bootimg.pl recovery.img
$ rm -rf ramdisk
$ mkdir ramdisk
$ cd ramdisk
$ gunzip -c ../recovery.img-ramdisk.gz | cpio -i
$ ls
27_split_and_extract_recovery_ramdisk.png
Modify files as needed, then rebuild the image with the following commands:
$ cd ..
$ tools/mkbootfs ramdisk | gzip > ramdisk-new.gz
$ tools/mkbootimg --base 0x40000000 --kernel recovery.img-kernel --ramdisk ramdisk-new.gz --cmdline 'console=ttyS0,115200 rw init=/init loglevel=8' -o new-recovery.img
$ ls
28_build_new_recovery.png

System partition

The process for the system partition is different, because it is not bootable and because it is ext4 sparse, so it cannot be mounted straight away. Execute the following commands to convert and mount the image:
$ tools/simg2img system.fex system.img
$ mkdir system
$ sudo mount -o loop system.img system
$ cd system
$ ls
29_convert_system.png
Here are the system files, modify as needed. Once you are done, execute the following commands to rebuild the system image:
$ cd ../tools
$ sudo ./mkuserimg.sh -s ../system ../new-system.fex ext4 ../tmp 300M
$ cd ..
$ sudo umount system
$ ls
30_build_new_system.png
Now switch back to the file browser and you will see many new files in your directory. The three files that you are interested in are new-boot.img, new-recovery.img, new-system.fex.
31_files_to_copy.png
Copy these to your Windows drive to the directory a10_flash_kitchen_v2/packer_ics/_input.
32_copy_to_input.png


Building the new image (Windows)

Once the files are copied, jump back to Windows and rename the files as following:
new-boot.img -> root.fex
new-recovery.img -> recovery.fex
new-system.fex -> system.fex
33_rename_files.png
Now we need to make some modifications to the image config file. Navigate to the files directory and you should see image.cfg.
09_image_config_location.png
Open this file using your text editor that supports Unix line endings. Using Notepad will break this file. Locate the two lines that reference OEM and VOEM as is highlighted below.
10_image_config_contents.png
Comment these lines by adding a semicolon (;) to the start of each line. Do not make any other modifications. Save the file once you have made the change.
11_image_config_commented.png
Go back to the packer_ics root directory and find the create_image.bat script. It will open a console while it is creating the new image.
34_create_image_script.png
Once the process is complete, you will see Press any key to continue . . . and you will have a new image called output.img.

35_create_image_output.png
Use LiveSuit to flash this image to an MK802. If you brick the device and it doesn't boot, just flash the stock firmware to bring the device back to life.
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TIBanner.png
TI81xx PSP Porting Guide
PSP
Follow the Link : http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/TI81xx_PSP_Porting_Guide

NOTE:


  1. This document interchangeably uses DM816x and AM389x. TI816x refers to DM816x/AM389x devices unless specified otherwise.
  2. This document interchangeably uses DM814x and AM387x. TI814x refers to DM814x/AM387x devices unless specified otherwise.
  3. TI81xx refers to both DM816x and DM814x.

ReadMe First

The purpose of this document is to describe how to port the PSP releases for custom hardware where minimal changes are required in the kernel. This document DOES NOT describe how to add features to the drivers shipped in the PSP releases. Feature additions in the driver is outside the scope of this document. Driver features are typically listed in the PSP Data-Sheet (Performance Guide) or the respective Driver User Guides.

Prerequisites

TI816x/TI814x Technical Reference Manual - Available on the TI website or with the local FAE.
TI816x/TI814x EVM schematics - Available on the board vendor's website or with the local FAE.
PSP release to be used as baseline for porting the drivers - Available on the software download page of the TI website or with the local FAE.
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Android Device Porting Walkthrough 

 

This talk is presented as a step by step tutorial meant for Android platform rookies, as to discover all Androidisms one has to tackle down to bring his own custom device to life. Based on a real-life Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich device porting experience, the talk will cover early board bringup (from U-Boot and Fastboot to Linux kernel and drivers), AOSP device integration, Android-specific device init customization, touchscreen input layer adaptations and Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) driver interfaces development. Benjamin Zores, Alcatel-Lucent Benjamin Zores is Open Source Software and Multimedia Architect at Alcatel-Lucent, leading enterprise-grade Linux/Android multimedia IP phones embedded devices design. He's also most known as the original author of the OpenBricks embedded cross-build framework, the GeeXboX HTPC Live distro and the uShare DLNA MediaServer.
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Ubuntu Today


Ubuntu/Linux Tips & Tutorials | UpUbunu

  • Install Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware 9.2 on Ubuntu 12.10/12.04 and Linux Mint 14/13

    Posted: 2012-11-26 12:14:08 UTC+01:00

    In this tutorial, we will see the installation of another CMS called Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware under Ubuntu/Linux Mint. This content management system is highly configurable with support for modules and it offers webmasters all needed features to create websites, portals, web applications, E-learning (quizzes, webinars, etc.), knowledge base, etc. For more information about TikiWiki, click here.
    Read more »

  • How To Reinstall/Repair The GRUB 2 Boot Loader Under Ubuntu 12.10/12.04

    Posted: 2012-11-21 20:52:14 UTC+01:00

    In this tutorial, we will show you how to use the Boot Repair utility to fix the Grub2 boot loader under Ubuntu/Linux Mint. Boot Repair is useful for users having boot issues that occur mainly when dual-booting Ubuntu with other operating systems like Windows 8/7, etc. You can also use it to re-install Grub 2 when you have misconfigured the boot loader.
    Read more »

  • How To Install The PHP-Nuke 8.2 CMS Under Ubuntu 12.10/12.04/Linux Mint 13

    Posted: 2012-11-20 17:06:54 UTC+01:00
    In this tutorial, we will see how to install PHP Nuke 8.2 locally in a system running Ubuntu/Linux Mint. The tutorial is also workable for other Debian-based systems. PHP Nuke is a popular CMS (Content Management System) that gives the administrator full control over his websites (portals). The latest version (8.2.4) comes with more bug fixes and security improvements. You can find here the added features for PHP Nuke 8.2.4.
    Read more »

  • Install Linux Kernel 3.6.7 In Ubuntu 12.10/12.04/Linux Mint 13

    Posted: 2012-11-18 00:26:19 UTC+01:00

    Linux Kernel 3.6.7 has been released recently bringing more improvements and bug fixes. As usual, we will help Ubuntu/Linux Mint users to upgrade to this new kernel using our simple bash script as described below. If you want to download and install manually the kernel deb packages, click here. Here are some of the changes and fixes taken from the ChangeLog of kernel 3.6.7:

    Read more »

  • How to Enable USB Support in VirtualBox 4.2.x under Ubuntu/Linux Mint

    Posted: 2012-11-17 13:50:30 UTC+01:00

    If you find difficulties mounting USB devices in VirtualBox, then you need to install the VirtualBox Extension Pack, which is not installed by default, to add support for USB drives. Once installed, this extension pack will add support for USB 2.0 devices, RDP (VirtualBox Remote Desktop), and PXE boot for Intel network card.
    Read more »

  • Install Skype 4.1 For Linux In Ubuntu 12.10/12.04/Linux Mint 13

    Posted: 2012-11-14 21:25:41 UTC+01:00

    Skype 4.1 has just been released for Linux systems which brings better compatibility for Unity and Gnome Shell. In this tutorial, we will help you install it under Ubuntu/Linux Mint. But first, let's see some new features and changes in this latest release:

    Chat with your Windows Live Messenger friends on Skype  
    Sign in using your Microsoft account without the need to create a new Skype account 
    Better video quality for video chat, etc. 
    Read more »

  • Install 15 Best Ubuntu 12.10 Themes For Unity And Gnome Shell

    Posted: 2012-11-13 20:25:43 UTC+01:00

    In this article, we will introduce 15 best GTK3 themes for Ubuntu 12.10 (Quantal Quetzal) compatible with Unity and Gnome Shell. The installation of the different themes will be from our PPA which can be added with these commands:

    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:upubuntu-com/gtk3 
    sudo apt-get update
    To enable the themes given below, you can use Gnome Tweak Tool. To install it in Ubuntu 12.10, run this command:

    sudo apt-get install gnome-tweak-tool

    1. ClearNIX

    Read more »
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