CWM 6.0.2.8 for Allwinner A10 & A13 Tablets - v2a

Below are six different flavors of CWM-based Recovery v6.0.2.8 for devices that use Allwinner A10 and A13 chips and are running Android 4.x. If you're unsure whether one of them is appropriate for your device, see "Which version should I choose?", below.

Unlike some versions, these will not erase the partition or SD card containing the update.zip that's just been installed. Also, the "wipe data/factory reset" option will not erase your internal SD card ('/emmc'). The button assignments should be what you'd expect: Vol- / Vol+ move the highlight up or down, Power selects, and any other button acts as a Back button. If your tablet has capacitive (touch) buttons and uses an ft5x touchscreen controller, they should act as Back buttons as well.

Installation

The files are packaged as update zips and can be installed from your existing stock or CWM recovery. Alternately, you can unzip the file and install it from a normally-booted system using a script.

From Recovery: Copy the entire file still zipped to your internal or external (removable) SD card. Reboot into Recovery, then choose 'install zip from sdcard'. Root access is not required if CWM is installed this way.

From a Running System: Unzip the file and copy recovery.img and install-recovery.sh to your internal or external SD card. Next, either run "adb shell" or open the Terminal app, then change the directory to where you stored the files. If you're using Terminal, start by running "su" to get root access (you may already have it if using adb). Now, type in "sh install-recovery.sh" then press Enter. Messages will appear telling you whether it succeeded or failed.

Which version should I choose?

Do I have an A10 or A13? From an adb shell or from the Terminal Emulator app, run "cat /proc/cpuinfo". Look next to the 'Hardware' entry: it should say either "sun4i" (A10) or "sun5i" (A13). If it says anything else, don't use these files.

Do I have 9, 10, or 11 partitions? From an adb shell or from the Terminal Emulator app, run "cat /proc/partitions". If the last of the "nand" entries is "nandi", you have 9; if it's "nandj", you have 10; if it's "nandk", you have 11. If you choose the wrong version, everything else will work correctly but CWM won't be able to mount your internal SD card (a.k.a. '/emmc'). If so, try installing the other version.

IMPORTANT: If your device has 8 or fewer partitions (i.e the last one is "nandh") do not install this version. It will end up in the wrong partition and likely require the entire ROM to be reflashed.

Booting into (CWM) Recovery

Getting into Recovery should be simple but sometimes it isn't. Try these methods in the order listed:

1. With the tablet off, press and hold both Vol+ and Power. It may take 10 seconds or more for the first logo or icon to appear.
   
2. With the tablet on and booted normally, press and hold the Power button until the tablet turns off - ignore the Shutdown popup. Now, try method #1 again.
   
3. From an adb shell prompt or from the Terminal Emulator app, enter
   "echo -e 'boot-recovery\0' > /dev/block/nandf; sync"
   (note: that's a "backslash zero" in the line above)
   Now, press and hold Power until the tablet turns off, then turn it back on normally (i.e. no buttons pressed).

If none of the above work, post a question - perhaps someone else has a better solution.

(Edit: Previously, I'd said that "adb reboot recovery" should also do the trick but I've never had it succeed. I was mistaken: it does work on my A10 tablet but not on my A13. You may want to try it as an alternative to the suggestions above.)

Updates

• v2
  • assigned additional key values to the navigation (up/down) functions, so each key should do something (if the various buttons on your tablet don't generate "standard" values", there's no way to predict what each will do until you test them)
  • fixed the syntax error in install-recovery.sh
  • fixed the reboot recovery menu item on the Advanced menu
• v2a
  • added versions for tablets with 11 partitions

i finaly done and install recovery
and boot into it with batch commande with adb
it seem my tablet doest boot from keys

i attached the batch commands to install and boot to CWM
just add recovery.img to it

It doesn't work for me

My last NAND entry was nandj, CPU A13 sun5i so I installed the CWM for A13-10. After installing CWM the tablet only boots into the recovery with these lines at the lower part of the screen:

E:Can't mount /cache/recovery/command
E:Can't mount /cache/recovery/log
E:Can't open /cache/recovery/log
E:Can't mount /cache/recovery/last_log
E:Can't open /cache/recovery/last_log

I can access to the sdcard and flash new zip files. I tried to flash cyanogenmod and installs correctly (a part from two errors related to "/recovery/last_install" but still boot directly into the recovery. Also I tried to flash the rest of the A13 CWM (9 and 11) but the result is the same. And with Livesuite all the installs fail at the 5% with a 0x162 error.

Any idea? The "brand" doesn't have any firmware on his website.

------------

Edit: I tried at least 15 ROMs and Livesuite is incapable of flashing a single one. I can't remove CWM.

-----------

After spending a lot of hours downloading and failing to flash the ROMs, finally found one that worked! I remembered some info about the build.prop, and with this I found a blog with a collection of ROM and data about the Alwinner CPU's. And one of the uploaded files matched the same info (Inet-86VS-REV01) printed into the board.

So if someone has the same tablet don't install CWM! And if you did, here is the link:

http://moveontechnology.com/hugoenchina/?page_id=220

http://dfiles.eu/files/mus464gwg

dolorespark said:

Below are four different flavors of CWM-based Recovery v6.0.2.8 for devices that use Allwinner A10 and A13 chips. If you're unsure whether one of them is appropriate for your device, see "Do I have an A10 or A13?", below.

Unlike some versions, these will not erase the partition or SD card containing the update.zip that's just been installed. Also, the "wipe data/factory reset" option will not erase your internal SD card ('/emmc'). The button assignments should be what you'd expect: Vol- / Vol+ move the highlight up or down, Power selects, and any other button acts as a Back button. If your tablet has capacitive (touch) buttons and uses an ft5x touchscreen controller, they should act as Back buttons as well.

Installation

The files are packaged as update zips and can be installed from your existing stock or CWM recovery. Alternately, you can unzip the file and install it from a normally-booted system using a script.

From Recovery: Copy the entire file still zipped to your internal or external (removable) SD card. Reboot into Recovery, then choose 'install zip from sdcard'. Root access is not required if CWM is installed this way.

From a Running System: Unzip the file and copy recovery.img and install-recovery.sh to your internal or external SD card. Next, either run "adb shell" or open the Terminal app, then change the directory to where you stored the files. If you're using Terminal, start by running "su" to get root access (you may already have it if using adb). Now, type in "sh install-recovery.sh" then press Enter. Messages will appear telling you whether it succeeded or failed.

Which version should I choose?

Do I have an A10 or A13? From an adb shell or from the Terminal Emulator app, run "cat /proc/cpuinfo". Look next to the 'Hardware' entry: it should say either "sun4i" (A10) or "sun5i" (A13). If it says anything else, don't use these files.

Do I have 9 or 10 partitions? From an adb shell or from the Terminal Emulator app, run "cat /proc/partitions". If the last entry is "nandi", you have 9; if it's "nandj", you have 10. If you choose the wrong version, everything else will work correctly but CWM won't be able to mount your internal SD card (a.k.a. '/emmc'). If so, try installing the other version.

Booting into (CWM) Recovery

Getting into Recovery should be simple but sometimes it isn't. Try these methods in the order listed:

1. With the tablet off, press and hold both Vol+ and Power. It may take 10 seconds or more for the first logo or icon to appear.
   
2. With the tablet on and booted normally, press and hold the Power button until the tablet turns off - ignore the Shutdown popup. Now, try method #1 again.
   
3. From an adb shell prompt or from the Terminal Emulator app, enter
   "echo -e 'boot-recovery\0' > /dev/block/nandf; sync" (note: that's a "backslash zero" in there)
   Now, press and hold Power until the tablet turns off, then turn it back on normally (i.e. no buttons pressed).

If none of the above work, post a question - perhaps someone else has a better solution. (Note: "adb reboot recovery" should also do the trick but I've never had it succeed.)

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

I'm getting a syntax error when executing the script - syntax error: '(' unexpected

EDIT: removed the parenthesis from the script using notepad, it ran fine. Thanks!

Hi,

Thanks for your work on this!!

No mount cache errors! woohoo!

Couple of things I needed to do on my tab (Cheap china a10 closest stock firmware mapad mx19a)

removed (dopa) from the install-recover.sh (notepad) including brackets
No luck with the hardware keys for navigation so pluged in a keyboard and after reboot cursor keys work.

Had no luck yet on installing a CWM firmware, goes through the steps of installing, reboots, get first logo but then sits on black screen (can just see the back light glow left it overnight but no change.)

But at least I've made a big step forward with your CWM recovery...