Ubuntu Utopic for nvidia shield tv

[yahoo2016]

Thanks for the link and the really nice and detailed tutorial. Now, I think I have some more hints to go ahead and will use your post.

The only kernel source worked for me is CM source. I tried L4T kernel source and OP's config file but could not have Shield TV boot.
I believe the kernel source for Shield TV is more Android than mainline Linux, even the rootfs is Linux.

 

[dieter.reuter]

The only kernel source worked for me is CM source. I tried L4T kernel source and OP's config file but could not have Shield TV boot.
I believe the kernel source for Shield TV is more Android than mainline Linux, even the rootfs is Linux.

That's good to know, I will try your tutorial and scripts later when I'm back home from work. For me it's just important to get first an own build kernel running on the ShieldTV and tweak some kernel settings as well. Then I can try the hard way and will incrementally move to an 4.x upstream kernel.

Do you think, it's possible to install uBoot on the ShieldTV, maybe as a special boot.img? Then it's easier to use an own kernel, and it's more like the common Linux style.

 

[yahoo2016]

That's good to know, I will try your tutorial and scripts later when I'm back home from work. For me it's just important to get first an own build kernel running on the ShieldTV and tweak some kernel settings as well. Then I can try the hard way and will incrementally move to an 4.x upstream kernel.

Do you think, it's possible to install uBoot on the ShieldTV, maybe as a special boot.img? Then it's easier to use an own kernel, and it's more like the common Linux style.

U-boot has been installed on Android phones:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s2/general/uboot-bootloader-true-multiboot-t1680898

I believe it's possible.

 

[DroidMahn]

Anyone know how to increase the storage on the Ubuntu image? It's partition for two gigabytes by default but I have a 200 gigabyte SD card and I'd like to at least use 80 of it. Don't have access to a computer right now and I've been using it for word processing but it would be cool to download some TV shows

 

[gffmac]

Anyone know how to increase the storage on the Ubuntu image? It's partition for two gigabytes by default but I have a 200 gigabyte SD card and I'd like to at least use 80 of it. Don't have access to a computer right now and I've been using it for word processing but it would be cool to download some TV shows

I would boot into a http://gparted.org/ live cd/usb on a pc and extend the partition that way. How well does this run cant see any vids on youtube?

 

[Thanks_Meter]

Anyone know how to increase the storage on the Ubuntu image? It's partition for two gigabytes by default but I have a 200 gigabyte SD card and I'd like to at least use 80 of it. Don't have access to a computer right now and I've been using it for word processing but it would be cool to download some TV shows

Procedure to increase the partition size:
1.) sudo fdisk <device>
2.) delete partition (option 'd')
3.) create new partition with required size (option 'n')
4.) write new partition table (option 'w')
5.) reboot
6.) sudo resize2fs <partition>

 

[ShadowRii]

has anyone tried running steam?

_________
check out my new Android game https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pgviews.kobesadventure

 

[Thanks_Meter]

has anyone tried running steam?

ARM is not supported by steam - only x86.

 

[jagger11]

Hi,

The OP here. Didn't know so many people were interested in this exercise

In any case - I prepared a new image - this time based on upcoming Ubuntu Xenial (16.04LTS). As previously, available here - goo.gl / sl6rMu

The Xorg driver seems a bit more stable, and doesn't disconnect HDMI after some minutes. I also added restart of LXDE after initial boot, so you should see the LXDE login screen most of the times now (previously, it was very random, probably due to HDMI subsystem code). The image itself is also <2G, so it fits on 2G cards (but, there's only ~300MB free space left).

I skimmed through this thread, and it seems that people are trying to work more on this problem, including compiling the kernel. This seems to be solved now (in some other thread), but out of curiosity I tried to compile the newest available kernel from the nvidia's git, and even if it had compiled (btw, it requires a lot of manual patching), it doesn't work well: the HDMI constantly reports plugged/unplugged events, and the CPU voltage regulator goes crazy. So, the kernel in nvidia_boot.img is pretty much the same.

If you have any question of requests, please feel free to post it here, and I'll check the thread today and tomorrow, but I'm not sure how I could help you more at this point. I'm too lazy to work on dual boots, and other such shiny features, and I'm not really interested in CUDA (although having an accelerated gfx driver would be really cool), so.. that's it

 

[Thanks_Meter]

Hi,

The OP here. Didn't know so many people were interested in this exercise

In any case - I prepared a new image - this time based on upcoming Ubuntu Xenial (16.04LTS). As previously, available here - goo.gl / sl6rMu

The Xorg driver seems a bit more stable, and doesn't disconnect HDMI after some minutes. I also added restart of LXDE after initial boot, so you should see the LXDE login screen most of the times now (previously, it was very random, probably due to HDMI subsystem code). The image itself is also <2G, so it fits on 2G cards (but, there's only ~300MB free space left).

I skimmed through this thread, and it seems that people are trying to work more on this problem, including compiling the kernel. This seems to be solved now (in some other thread), but out of curiosity I tried to compile the newest available kernel from the nvidia's git, and even if it had compiled (btw, it requires a lot of manual patching), it doesn't work well: the HDMI constantly reports plugged/unplugged events, and the CPU voltage regulator goes crazy. So, the kernel in nvidia_boot.img is pretty much the same.

If you have any question of requests, please feel free to post it here, and I'll check the thread today and tomorrow, but I'm not sure how I could help you more at this point. I'm too lazy to work on dual boots, and other such shiny features, and I'm not really interested in CUDA (although having an accelerated gfx driver would be really cool), so.. that's it

I'm not interested in CUDA either but accelerated GPU is for me a must-have. The L4T drivers work quite nice since nvidia published them for the tx1 in November. Another interesting approach would be nouveau - even if the performance will be much worse. Nouveau for tx1 should be part of the upcomming Linux 4.4 kernel. Remember that you need the Linux compatible dtb for non Android kernels (see other thread).

 

[jagger11]

I'm not interested in CUDA either but accelerated GPU is for me a must-have. The L4T drivers work quite nice since nvidia published them for the tx1 in November. Another interesting approach would be nouveau - even if the performance will be much worse. Nouveau for tx1 should be part of the upcomming Linux 4.4 kernel. Remember that you need the Linux compatible dtb for non Android kernels (see other thread).

Understood, but as far as I understand, the nvidia's rootfs is 32bit, and my specific goal was to play with 64bit user-land. I tried to boot it with vanilla kernels, but no luck so far, hence no nouveau.

BTW, I think older kernels worked better than the one from L4TX1 - both source and the pre-compiled versions. They boot for me, but HDMI doesn't work ("plugged/unplugged HDMI" repeats in dmesg - I have a 4k display), and Xorg causes kernel to crash with NULL-ptr dereference somewhere in gfx subsystem when switching VT. Also, there seems to be bug somewhere in the kernel, which locks listing /proc - all processes hang on that from time to time.

So, in short - I think nvidia's kernel for TX1 needs still a lot of work to consider it stable.

 

[yahoo2016]

Understood, but as far as I understand, the nvidia's rootfs is 32bit, and my specific goal was to play with 64bit user-land. I tried to boot it with vanilla kernels, but no luck so far, hence no nouveau.

BTW, I think older kernels worked better than the one from L4TX1 - both source and the pre-compiled versions. They boot for me, but HDMI doesn't work ("plugged/unplugged HDMI" repeats in dmesg - I have a 4k display), and Xorg causes kernel to crash with NULL-ptr dereference somewhere in gfx subsystem when switching VT. Also, there seems to be bug somewhere in the kernel, which locks listing /proc - all processes hang on that from time to time.

So, in short - I think nvidia's kernel for TX1 needs still a lot of work to consider it stable.

Glad to see you again. I'm the OP of the other thread for building kernel from source. It took me and others many trial and error to find the combination of kernel from CM source and L4T rootfs is most stable. I believe everything works including Cuda except BT is not enabled. Nvidia has promised to have 64bit L4T rootfs with many improvements this month.

I was wondering how did you have Linux work for Shield TV in the first place, e.g., how did you come out the kernel configuration files and the init.c file.

I'll try your latest configuration file to build kernel. It appears you are using Linux kernel source tree, but I can only have kernel working with modified Android kernel source tree (CM1.21) with your original configuration file.

I could not have L4T kernel source compiled using your original configuration file, there were too many errors.

I just checked, it seems the kernel configuration file has not changed.

 

[jagger11]

I was wondering how did you have Linux work for Shield TV in the first place, e.g., how did you come out the kernel configuration files and the init.c file.

IIRC I installed TWRP, used adb, dumped /proc/config, downloaded kernel sources from that time from nv-repo...., and compiled it. I think that over time nvidia was changing the kernel sources, and the problems started to mount (unresolved symbols, problems with CROSS32 etc.) over time. I can see that now when compiling newer sources.

I created init.c mostly blindly, i.e. using __NR_reboot syscall to indicate that some other syscall succeeded or not - in the absence of any other feedback that was my best chance . Then I had to modify it a bit to make it usable (DEVTMPFS, android paranoid security). Once I got shell it was easy.

 

[yahoo2016]

IIRC I installed TWRP, used adb, dumped /proc/config, downloaded kernel sources from that time from nv-repo...., and compiled it. I think that over time nvidia was changing the kernel sources, and the problems started to mount (unresolved symbols, problems with CROSS32 etc.) over time. I can see that now when compiling newer sources.

I created init.c mostly blindly, i.e. using __NR_reboot syscall to indicate that some other syscall succeeded or not - in the absence of any other feedback that was my best chance . Then I had to modify it a bit to make it usable (DEVTMPFS, android paranoid security). Once I got shell it was easy.

Thanks. That's important hint to dump "/proc/config". I found I had to used some files from Shield TV, e.g., the WIFI firmware files.

The latest posts by deerish and Thanks-Meter from the other thread indicate when kernel source was from Linux (L4T), dtb partition has to be replaced with dtb from L4T. Is this a Linux/Android issue or version issue?

Is it true that, you don't need to replace stock dtb when using kernel from old Linux kernel source?

 

[jagger11]

Is it true that, you don't need to replace stock dtb when using kernel from old Linux kernel source?

I just checked and it's somewhat random. Some kernels will work with any dtb (e.g. from the current nv repo, or the prebuilt one from L4T), some with original dbt only (early Android kernel, similar to TWRP's).

PS. I just YOLO and uploaded incorrect DTB from L4T, and my shield tv is bricked. Was fun though .

 

[yahoo2016]

I just checked and it's somewhat random. Some kernels will work with any dtb (e.g. from the current nv repo, or the prebuilt one from L4T), some with original dbt only (early Android kernel, similar to TWRP's).

PS. I just YOLO and uploaded incorrect DTB from L4T, and my shield tv is bricked. Was fun though .

It's good to know the randomness of kernel/dtb combinations.

What ROM version do you have? ROM 2.1 bootloader is time bomb can be triggered by many events.

Do you still have Nvidia logo? If yes, it may be recoverable by tapping power buttons as posted by Thanks-Meter in the link below:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=64723006&postcount=85

 

[Thanks_Meter]

Do you still have Nvidia logo? If yes, it may be recoverable by tapping power buttons as posted by Thanks-Meter.

Don't get me wrong: I don't have experience with wrong dtbs. I just made the experience that if holding the power button does not work then tapping can be a solution.

I can verify that tegra210-foster-e-p2530-0930-e02-00.dtb which is 231260 bytes and which has sha256 7738251d3d5ce0e46377bc5709baea706e1c5bf99ee648df5ebc181197baccfe will work with standard Linux kernels (but not with Android kernels) and will not brick your shield tv - don't use anything else!

 

[crnkoj]

we really need to get u-boot on it working, than we can use it as a second/third stage bootloader and we can load whichever dtp, kernel we want and have rootfs on usb without issues....

 

[yahoo2016]

we really need to get u-boot on it working, than we can use it as a second/third stage bootloader and we can load whichever dtp, kernel we want and have rootfs on usb without issues....

I agree. I have thought of putting u-boot in Boot partition and put kernel/rootfs/dtb on SD or USB drive.

I have built u-boot's for Jetson TK1 and TX1 and tested on TK1. The problem is none has figured out how to add serial console port for SATV (Shield Android TV) and it's difficult to test u-boot without console logs.

I have read netconsole and OTG console for some ARM processors, but u-boot's for Jetson TK1 and TX do not have netconsole or OTG console implemented.

 

[dieter.reuter]

I agree. I have thought of putting u-boot in Boot partition and put kernel/rootfs/dtb on SD or USB drive.

I have built u-boot's for Jetson TK1 and TX1 and tested on TK1. The problem is none has figured out how to add serial console port for SATV (Shield Android TV) and it's difficult to test u-boot without console logs.

I have read netconsole and OTG console for some ARM processors, but u-boot's for Jetson TK1 and TX do not have netconsole or OTG console implemented.

u-boot would be really great. Maybe anybody can find out, if there are the UART pins available on the mainboard. I've just opened my Shield months ago, but wasn't able to see any UART pins. But I guess, it could be there - one have to dismount the mainboard, maybe the UART pins are hidden below...:fingers-crossed: