[Arm-netbook] A new MK802 failing to boot from SD

[Joe Michael]

On Thu, 2013-03-07 at 18:50 +0600, Roman Mamedov wrote:
> On Thu, 7 Mar 2013 12:26:43 +0000 (UTC)
> Olaf Holgerson <dragonarch at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > Did you solve the issue with sd-card boot on MK802?
> > 
> > I'm just bought two mk802's and one of them doesn't boot from SD, 
> > so I gather some information about the issue. 
> > 
> > First of all I've made and connect an uart cable on problematical device.
> > 
> > Second step - I've grab content from /dev/block/nanda for both of devices -
> > bootable (good) and not (bad).
> > 
> > Third obvious step - compare content of boot0.bin and boot.bin content on both
> > devices - there are some differences (tried to convert *.bin to *.fex, next 
> > diff good-boot.fex bad-boot.fex > diff-boot.fex 
> > - this operation shows me a lot of differences).
> > 
> > Fourth step for me (on the way) - dig the differences and change problematical
> > device *.fex to fix the issue, compile to *.bin, upload to nanda and check that
> > it helps. If it doesn't help - change u-boot on the nand and try to boot again.
> > 
> > Last step, if fourth falls - upload my linux distro over android to nand and
> > rest in peace with it.
> > 
> > So, Roman - did you already solve the issue and get the positive result on 
> > SD card booting, or I must go my way?
> 
> Hello,
> 
> No I did not solve it. I still have the problematic MK802 lying around, so if
> you come to any solution please tell me about it, so I can try it too.
> 
> Last time I experimented with it, in the end I placed my own kernel into nanda
> with root= hardcoded to be /dev/mmc0blk1p2; it successfully loads that kernel
> from nanda and then proceeds to boot with rootfs on SD. But this is very
> inconvenient, I would have to update kernel in nanda each time on kernel
> upgrades, and if the new kernel fails to work, it's then a messy process with
> Android and adb to swap back to the previous kernel (not the usual "just
> insert SD into some other device").
> 

If its not a hardware issue, and its a MK802 with a genuine A10 chip
inside, then I got working MK802 image here:
http://www.gplsquared.com/mk802/mk802.html

It comes with Gambas3 for developing GUI applications and it has espeak
- so it can talk through HDMI.
The advantage of Gambas3 is that it works on x86. Any applications
made on x86 and compiled on x86 will work seamlessly with ARM version of
Gambas3 without having to recompile.