[Arm-netbook] Side-Topic: Liberating PocketCHIP

[Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton]

---
crowd-funded eco-conscious hardware: https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68


On Thu, Aug 3, 2017 at 9:38 PM, Pablo Rath <pablo at parobalth.org> wrote:
> On Fri, Jul 28, 2017 at 11:08:16AM -0400, doark at mail.com wrote:

>> I asked in to forums about how to solve this and it's been weeks without
>> any answer (I only ever got one, and that user told me not to side load
>> software (which I explained that I never did or even thought of)).
>
> I still don't get why you believe that ntc is evil. In my opinion they
> are not evil just because the configured PocketChip like you described.

 i concur.  they're a group of enterprising people who have utilised
one of the lowest-cost china SoCs with an extremely high libre
reputation, thanks to the sunxi community's work about five years ago.

> Please read my previous email on this list.
> Basically you put PocketChip into fel-mode and connect it with another
> computer. You can then use a "special" version of U-Boot via fel and
> boot an OS on USB or Debian Installer on USB.

 i've done this a lot.  it's my primary method of development and
debugging.  i upload the FEL sub-16k loader to initialise the SoC's
DDR3 RAM, then upload u-boot directly into the DDR3 RAM, then ask FEL
to *execute* u-boot directly in RAM.

 in the past i've even loaded an entire kernel *and initrd* into
memory over FEL - that takes a while but it can take less time than
having to insert and remove micro-sd cards (and rewrite them, and
mount them, and blah blah).

 you cannot expect companies to drop everything and help just you.
you're just one person: you're expected to work these things out for
yourself.

 now, if you were placing an order for ten THOUSAND *then* they might
be interested.

l.