[Arm-netbook] going to try and build CM9 for my new A10 9.7" tablets

[lkcl luke]

On Sun, Jun 24, 2012 at 9:58 AM,  <simon at koala.ie> wrote:
> not sure if this is relevant to this list, but here goes...
>
> i am involved in a startup which requires us to use android tablets with
> some custom applications.
> after a lot of (faulty) research i bought some samples from china. i
> thought i knew what i was doing.
> turned out that i did not. ha ha ha.
>
> i bought a couple of 9.7" [16GB, IPS screen] devices and a couple of 7"
> [3G] devices from the same manufacturer. being out of work for the last 5
> months that was a big deal for me. fyi, it cost 580 yoyos for the 4
> including shipping to ireland and vat. roughly 150 each.
>
> then i asked for the linux kernel source so that i could modify it to add
> the device drivers that i needed.
> no such luck. seems that the manufacturer is just getting a .img from
> their supplier and have no knowledge of what is in it or how it was
> created.

 simon - what did i tell you, only a few days ago?!!

> i have been doing all the work on one of the 9.7" tablets. i installed CWM
> and bricked it trying to install CM9. that was 48 hours ago. since then i
> have been trying various .img files in an attempt to get the device
> working again. from a cost/benefit point of view this makes absolutely no
> sense whatsoever. but i am determined to get this tablet working again.

 so... how long is that going to take you, vs the actual lifetime of
the product?  you're not in control.  you *can't* base a business on
that kind of decision-making, can you?

> at first i was very angry with the vendor. but after a lot of digging over
> the last few days i have come to realise that they are just a small cog in
> a very large machine. they are probably making sod (it seems that swearing
> is allowed on this list :-))

 yep.  get that frustration out :)

> all money.

 in a word: yes.  worse, they probably paid good money for that
binary image (plus the associated hardware design), which they will
want to recoup.


> my request in this long rambing email is that if anyone can offer any
> advice and guidance i am all ears.

 in short?  given where you are now - help make the EOMA and
rhombus-tech initiative a success.  if you hear of anyone who would
like to buy products (e.g. on the IRC channel), tell them the story.
, or... anywhere.

> please don't tell me that i should have done better research.

 i won't.  i will say this: i went through the *exact* same thing -
and documented the experiences, time and time again, and then came up
with an alternative approach.  you didn't listen, but now perhaps
because it's actually cost you time and money, like it cost myself and
my associates time and money, you'll appreciate all the more what the
rhombus tech and EOMA initiative is about.

> i think i know that all to well at this stage.
>
> you live and learn.

 yep.  been there, simon.  now you not just _know_ why the EOMA and
rhombus-tech initiative exists, but you really *know* why the EOMA and
rhombus-tech initiative exists.

 it's not just this one hardware manufacturer that you bought tablets
from, and it's not just the one SoC vendor, it's *all* of them.  the
problem is absolutely endemic, right across the *entire* industry.

 in some ways this isn't the sort of thing you can do "research" on,
because as it's such an endemic problem (95%+ GPL violations rate)
you'd spend probably 10k on samples when you could actually spend that
money on getting a board _made_ for goodness sake, and solve the
problem entirely.

l.