[DEV] Ubuntu 11.10 for A43/A101 [RELEASE 1]

wilbr · Apr 17, 2012

Thanks for the answers! I eneded up getting an A43 off ebay for a good price. I tried to download your rootfs file, but got a 404 error from dropbox.

Also, on the openaos site I saw a post where you said that you had a good image of Debian for the A43 on the debian-archos site, but that site is down. Is there anyway that you can post the info or the links here?

Thanks again, and I really am looking forward to checking out your work!

CalcProgrammer1 · Apr 22, 2012

http://code.google.com/p/hp-touchpad-ubuntu/wiki/Installation

Look at the "Mirrors for last file" category, any of those should work (it's the TouchPad Ubuntu rootfs that I based this install off of). Also, it is possible to update that rootfs to 12.04 after getting it up (just updated it on my TouchPad, if you have networking up on A43 it should work as well, just run update manager, enable all the software sources, then sudo update-manager --devel-release).

k1nk33 · Apr 22, 2012

@Calc
Hey dude, any chance that you could enable the touch screen for the 101 ? I understand it isn't as simple as just a few clicks but I've just read a review for the new Ubuntu release and its very positive ( seemingly the built in keyboard is the **** too ) and I'd love to have this going on the tablet.
Thanks for all the work so far and here's hoping you can help us out

CalcProgrammer1 · Apr 22, 2012

The problem is that I have no clue how to enable the touchscreen for the 101 as I do not have a 101. I know it's USB and I think that is our bigger problem, that USB overall is not working properly. On my A43 it detects USB devices at boot and immediately shuts them off. If you could post a dmesg log of A101 booting with and without devices plugged into the USB host port it might help. To post a dmesg, just pull the "dmesg" file from /var/log/ after you have booted Ubuntu. Even if Ubuntu is unusable, you can mount the Ubuntu filesystem after rebooting and pull the log, then put it up on Pastebin. This might help me figure out the USB system on A101 and compare against my A43.

BTW the keyboard on 12.04 is awesome looking, works great on my TouchPad. Can't wait to get it up on A43 as well. The GNOME classic fallback is greatly improved as well.

grim-a101 · Apr 23, 2012

Just to be sure. Are we talking about the micro USB port, or the full size USB port?
In the first case (and I think this is what we are talking about), I can't provide anything as I don't have an adaptator cable

CalcProgrammer1 · Apr 23, 2012

grim-a101 said:
Just to be sure. Are we talking about the micro USB port, or the full size USB port?
In the first case (and I think this is what we are talking about), I can't provide anything as I don't have an adaptator cable

The full size USB port. The micro is common across all gen8's I think, and I have already confirmed it isn't working on A43. I would like a dmesg for the A101 without anything USB connected as well as one with something plugged into the full size (host) port so I can see if the interfaces are being detected.

I'm going to look into the power management device, Archos isn't implementing the battery monitor properly and thus it is always showing the battery very low. I think we can fix this by modifying how the battery information is presented to the OS. The battery monitor on my TouchPad does work properly, and I'm going to attempt to reformat the Archos battery output to match that of the TouchPad (also need to check my laptop to see if it matches).

grim-a101 · Apr 23, 2012

Thanks for the clarification.
So I've already got a dmesg without anything plugged into the USB port, and here it is:
http://pastebin.com/XSg3Cuiv

I'll pastebin tomorow another one with an USB Drive plugged-in

divx118 · Apr 23, 2012

grim-a101 said:
Thanks for the clarification.
So I've already got a dmesg without anything plugged into the USB port, and here it is:
http://pastebin.com/XSg3Cuiv

I'll pastebin tomorow another one with an USB Drive plugged-in

CalcProgrammer1: In the dmesg line 187 is the touchscreen device for the 101.

grim-a101 · Apr 24, 2012

Here it is, the dmesg with an USB drive plugged in:
http://pastebin.com/CTkV11mp

Hope it helps

I don't have seen many differences between those 2, I even wonder if it "see" the USB flash drive (I know for sure that my USB Host is OK, I can use a Keyboard/Mouse combo in Froyo)

EDIT : I've made another one, with another USB flash drive... I don't see any differences :/
http://pastebin.com/CVzwLAkY

EDIT Again: For what I've seen, it seems to me that there is no drivers for this particular device. Looking at drivers/hid/hid-ids.c, all we can find is:

Code:

#define USB_VENDOR_ID_UNITEC    0x227d
#define USB_DEVICE_ID_UNITEC_USB_TOUCH_0709     0x0709
#define USB_DEVICE_ID_UNITEC_USB_TOUCH_0A19     0x0a19

So, the 0x0a1a is, if I understand well, not known. May be a good start point (I'll look into the archos kernel to see if we can find a 0x0a1a in there)

EDIT (Last one I hope): In the archos-gpl-gen8, there is what we are missing:

Code:

#define USB_VENDOR_ID_UNITEC            0x227d
#define USB_DEVICE_ID_UNITEC_PROTO_TS   0x0103

#define USB_DEVICE_ID_UNITEC_10_TS_V0   0x0a19
#define USB_DEVICE_ID_UNITEC_10_TS_V1   0x0a1a

#define USB_DEVICE_ID_UNITEC_7_TS_V0    0x0709
#define USB_DEVICE_ID_UNITEC_7_TS_V1    0x070a

I think this is a good starting point to resolve this issue, whereas I'm not sure what to do with that :s

CalcProgrammer1 · Apr 24, 2012

Awesome info! I'm still not sure how the USB system works entirely, will be something to look into definitely.

For comparison, here's the dmesg from my A43 with a USB hub + keyboard and mouse attached at boot. This is also running 12.04

http://pastebin.com/Qzpuh9nh

Edit: Again, but this time with just a USB optical mouse plugged in (one of the old Dell ones)

http://pastebin.com/9iEavK1C

Looks like it doesn't think it can supply enough power to the device and just shuts off. I know the hardware is capable, I've used the hub, mouse, and keyboard on the OpenAOS kernel just fine plenty of times. It looks like the A43 is only registering a 50mA bus power limit while most devices request 100mA even if they aren't actually using it. I think the hardware is capable of at least 100mA.

Edit Again!

Looks like something that is set in archos-usb-musb.c, the value is 50 in the file but the comment says 100. Possibly a scalar has changed in the rest of the kernel code? I'm changed it to 100 and will see what happens, hopefully mouse will work.

grim-a101 · Apr 24, 2012

I'm actually struggling with getting a Kernel source + .config that boot up on my a101.
I've reinstall a new box with Ubuntu 12.04, I've compiled the toolchain, but I've made so much test on all the kernel sources and .config that I have ... I'm a little lost.
Seems that I've found a .config that is working with Nicktime's git repo, I'll try to make the touchscreen working by adding the device ID in the generic touchscreen driver. I'll tell if that made a difference or not.

---------- Post added at 08:30 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:04 PM ----------

GOT IT!

Well almost.
The touchscreen is reacting, but as the display is upside-down, the touchscreen is inverted (ie I have to touch the bottom-right side of the screen to click on the upper-left).

What I did (In nicktime's archos-linux-2-6-37-gen8) :
drivers/hid/hid-ids.h
replace:

Code:

#define USB_VENDOR_ID_UNITEC    0x227d
#define USB_DEVICE_ID_UNITEC_USB_TOUCH_0709     0x0709
#define USB_DEVICE_ID_UNITEC_USB_TOUCH_0A19     0x0a19

by:

Code:

#define USB_VENDOR_ID_UNITEC    0x227d
#define USB_DEVICE_ID_UNITEC_USB_TOUCH_0709     0x0709
#define USB_DEVICE_ID_UNITEC_USB_TOUCH_0A19     0x0a19

#define USB_DEVICE_ID_UNITEC_10_TS_V0   0x0a19
#define USB_DEVICE_ID_UNITEC_10_TS_V1   0x0a1a

In drivers/hid/hid-multitouch.c:
Replace

Code:

 /* Unitec panels */
        { .driver_data = MT_CLS_DEFAULT,
                HID_USB_DEVICE(USB_VENDOR_ID_UNITEC,
                        USB_DEVICE_ID_UNITEC_USB_TOUCH_0709) },
        { .driver_data = MT_CLS_DEFAULT,
                HID_USB_DEVICE(USB_VENDOR_ID_UNITEC,
                        USB_DEVICE_ID_UNITEC_USB_TOUCH_0A19) },
        { }

by

Code:

 /* Unitec panels */
        { .driver_data = MT_CLS_DEFAULT,
                HID_USB_DEVICE(USB_VENDOR_ID_UNITEC,
                        USB_DEVICE_ID_UNITEC_USB_TOUCH_0709) },
        { .driver_data = MT_CLS_DEFAULT,
                HID_USB_DEVICE(USB_VENDOR_ID_UNITEC,
                        USB_DEVICE_ID_UNITEC_USB_TOUCH_0A19) },
        { .driver_data = MT_CLS_DEFAULT,
                HID_USB_DEVICE(USB_VENDOR_ID_UNITEC,
                        USB_DEVICE_ID_UNITEC_10_TS_V0) },
        { .driver_data = MT_CLS_DEFAULT,
                HID_USB_DEVICE(USB_VENDOR_ID_UNITEC,
                        USB_DEVICE_ID_UNITEC_10_TS_V1) },

        { }

Those modifications just tell the hid-multitouch driver to handle the 0x0A1A device.
Now, I've got to find where in the .config (or source file) is the screen invertion.

CalcProgrammer1 · Apr 24, 2012

Awesome! I'm trying to fix the USB issue on the A43 now too, but for some reason I can't even get it to boot properly (using arm-linux-gnueabi-gcc compiler included in Ubuntu, perhaps the update to 12.04 screwed it up?). I don't have much time today to keep working, but as soon as I can get my compiler fixed up and booting, I'll merge your changes.

You may try the screen rotation boot arguments as I described in the second post, though instead of rotating 90 degrees rotate 180. The A43's panel is oriented correctly with the touchscreen, but it's vertical and I want landscape, though doing that screws up the touchscreen as well for me.

grim-a101 · Apr 24, 2012

Thanks!
omapfb.vrfb=y omapfb.rotate=2 on the CMDLINE did the trick!

The screen is now in the "good" direction, at least the same as the touchscreen.

I'll check later for the USB Host, I've kickly looked at the board-archos-a101it.c file, it seems to be defined a 500mA if read it correctly.

At least, now Ubuntu is usable, so I'll try to plug/unplug some stuff inside the USB Host and look at the syslog to see if there is some info in there

grim-a101 · Apr 24, 2012

Well, I don't know if this is due to the fact that my rootfs is on a (bad?) SDCard, but the whole system is extremly slow, and can't really do anything once I'm logged id.
Plus, I can't get an onscreen keyboard (the a11y icon is not up there once logged in) and it's so laggy that I can't use the Unity main menu.

I'll maybe make a try on the Internal Memory, if I found how to make an extf3 partition without breaking everything (and not bricking it, my wife would kill me

)

EDIT : I think I've figure this out (partitioning). Simply plug the device in Recovery / MMC, and resize the FAT32 in order to make place for the new ext3 one. Well, I first need to make some room, as it is only a 8Go A101IT!

CalcProgrammer1 · Apr 24, 2012

When I used an SD card it was really slow too, not sure why. You can put "mmcX" as the LED trigger in the arch/arm/mach-omap2/archos-leds.c file under the power LED trigger. This will make the power LED into a disk activity LED and you will be able to tell if it's working or just plain locked up.

As long as you make your partition on the user drive you should be fine. I have 3 partitions on mine, the first should be the storage data drive though. Note that this kernel identifies blocks differently than the stock, MMC0 is the SD card in this kernel and if it is removed then MMC0 becomes the internal memory (really annoying) so when you set up your kernel cmdline for the new drive you must take into account whether or not you're going to have the SD card inserted.

grim-a101 · Apr 24, 2012

CalcProgrammer1 said:
As long as you make your partition on the user drive you should be fine.

That's what I've figured out. I'm actually resizing the FAT32 partition, and make a new ext3 after that.
I'll go for the start without SD Card, so I guess that my new root will be /dev/mmcblk0p2 (p1 is the FAT32 one I suppose).

---------- Post added at 12:07 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:00 AM ----------

CalcProgrammer1 said:
You can put "mmcX" as the LED trigger in the arch/arm/mach-omap2/archos-leds.c file under the power LED trigger. This will make the power LED into a disk activity LED and you will be able to tell if it's working or just plain locked up.

Not sure if this is the right things to do, but I'll go to editing

Code:

.default_trigger        = "default-on",

into

Code:

.default_trigger        = "mmc0",

Am I right?

grim-a101 · Apr 25, 2012

Found myself that I was right

My new issue is that I must have miscopied my rootfs from my SDCard to my Internal Memory. The rootfs is well mounted, but it then complains about missing init.
I'm getting a fresh root from your 2 files from the first post, and see if it boots up

CalcProgrammer1 · Apr 25, 2012

Make sure you set your root= cmdline properly, look at the init messages and you'll see when it mounts the card, if you leave your SD card in it should be /dev/mmcblk2p2 (mmcblk0 is SD, mmcblk1 is system, mmcblk2 is user). If you remove the SD then it is /dev/mmcblk1p2 (where mmcblk0 is system and mmcblk1 is user). The third mmc that it detects is actually the WLAN card which uses the SDIO interface.

Also, what compiler are you using? For some reason my builds aren't working and I don't know whether my compiler changed or my config is broken.

grim-a101 · Apr 25, 2012

Don't know why, but with the SDCard in, if I use /dev/mmcblk2p2 as root, it complains about not being able to find it.
It now boots without SDCard in and with /dev/mmcblk1p2 as root. I'll try to understand later why it doesn't work with /dev/mmcblk2p2 and SDCard in.

Thanks again for all your explainations

Let's see now if it runs smoother or not now that the rootfs is in internal memory

---------- Post added at 01:43 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:39 AM ----------

CalcProgrammer1 said:
Also, what compiler are you using? For some reason my builds aren't working and I don't know whether my compiler changed or my config is broken.

I've build chrulri's toolchain from http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=891056 on a fresh Ubuntu 12.04 (gcc version 4.6.3 (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.6.3-1ubuntu5))
I use this command line to build my kernel:

INSTALL_MOD_PATH=~/archos/Ubuntu/Kernel/modules_install/ make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=~/archos/KernelBuild/archos/archos-gpl-gen8/buildroot/build_arm/staging_dir/usr/bin/arm-linux-uclibcgnueabi-

I can't build your git repo, so I use Nicktime's one

By the way, I don't know what's going wrong, but my A101 is stuck at the top left blicking cursor for a while now... something must be wrong with my rootfs

CalcProgrammer1 · Apr 25, 2012

Thanks for the info on the toolchain. It definitely is a compiler issue as I just built the exact same .config, files, everything on 11.04 and 12.04, works fine with 11.04's compiler. I need to fix my root= again since I reset my configuration. In my repo there's a file called linux.config, that is the .config file to configure the kernel.

Do

Code:

cp linux.config .config

before compiling, then I'm building with

Code:

make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabi- -j9

EDIT:

Fixed the A43 USB host errors, the USB constant of 50 should have been 100 which made it work properly. Weird thing is that the mouse works for a while and shuts off, seems to be the Ubuntu system shutting it off because the kernel set it up correctly. Might be my USB charging script, need to get switch working so I can dynamically select charging modes for A43's USB charging.

[DEV] Ubuntu 11.10 for A43/A101 [RELEASE 1]

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