ST-Ericsson NovaThor U8500: Difference between revisions
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Notice how this puts the device tree binary <code>dtb.foo</code> into the "second bootloader firmware". | Notice how this puts the device tree binary <code>dtb.foo</code> into the "second bootloader firmware". | ||
=== Flashing a Custom Kernel === | |||
You install a custom kernel into the device by booting into U-Boot as described above, go to '''fastboot''' mode by holding down {{Button|Power}} + {{Button|Volume Down}} or by holding {{Button|Volume Down}} while you insert the serial cable. Then you can flash a new kernel image like this: | |||
fastboot flash boot.img | |||
After this reboot the phone and your new kernel should start. | |||
== See also == | == See also == |
Revision as of 10:43, 30 August 2020
Manufacturer | ST-Ericsson |
---|---|
Name | NovaThor U8500 |
Architecture | armv7 |
CPU | 2x 1 GHz ARM Cortex-A9 |
GPU | ARM Mali-400 MP |
Year | 2011 |
Process | 40nm |
Mainline | yes |
Components | |
CPU |
Works |
UART |
Works |
Storage |
Works |
USB |
Works |
Display |
Works |
GPU |
Works |
Pinctrl |
Works |
I²C |
Works |
SPI |
No data |
Audio |
No data |
Video |
No data |
Thermal |
Works |
Modem |
No data |
GPS |
No data |
Camera |
No data |
NPU |
No data |
Suspend |
No data |
Ethernet |
No data |
SATA |
No data |
Devices with this chipset
This chipset is used similarly in the following devices:
Device | Codename | Mainline |
---|---|---|
Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 GT-I8160 | samsung-codina | Y |
Samsung Galaxy Amp (SGH-I407) | samsung-kyle | Y |
Samsung Galaxy Beam | samsung-gavini | Y |
Samsung Galaxy Exhibit (SGH-T599) | samsung-codina-tmo | Y |
Samsung Galaxy S Advance | samsung-janice | Y |
Samsung Galaxy S III Mini | samsung-golden | Y |
Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2 GT-S7710 | samsung-skomer | Y |
Sony Xperia Go | sony-lotus | |
Sony Xperia P | sony-nypon | |
Sony Xperia U | sony-kumquat |
Other devices using this chipset but not yet ported to postmarketOS (remove once they are ported):
- Samsung Galaxy Beam GT-I8530 codename samsung-gavini (wikipedia)
- Sony Xperia Go (sony-lotus) (wikipedia)
- Sony Xperia Sola (sony-pepper) (wikipedia)
Flash and SDcard Layout on Samsung NovaThor U8500 Devices
When working with these devices, we install U-Boot and the kernel in the internal flash of the phone, using the Samsung flash tool Heimdall.
After installing U-Boot, we regularly reflash the phone internal eMMC kernel image using U-Boot's fastboot implementation, on the host side we use the Android fastboot command-line tool to do the reflashing of new kernels. pmbootstrap will hide these details, but it's good to know.
The root filesystem for PostmarketOS will be stored on the SDcard, so you will need to set up an SDcard using pmbootstrap install --sdcard=/dev/nnnn
.
U-Boot on Samsung NovaThor U8500 Devices
There is a port of (mainline) U-Boot for U8500 currently maintained at: https://github.com/novathor-mainline/u-boot
It contains a board called stemmy
, which is intended for all Samsung devices using U8500 (see above). It provides a simple Android fastboot interface as replacement for Samsung's proprietary flashing procedure. As a device tree compatible bootloader, it can be also used to boot mainline without any hacks in the Linux kernel.
Note: In this case, U-Boot does not replace the Samsung bootloader. Instead, it is packaged into an Android boot image (if necessary), and flashed to the Android boot partition like a regular Linux kernel. |
Installation
Pre-built images are available from: https://github.com/novathor-mainline/u-boot/releases. Alternatively, you can build it from source. See #Building below.
Choose the Android boot image (u-boot.img
) or the raw binary (u-boot.bin
), depending on your device. Most newer devices (e.g. samsung-golden
) use the Android boot image format, but some older (e.g. samsung-janice
) use the raw binary.
Install it normally to the boot partition:
heimdall flash --Kernel u-boot.img
Usage
U-Boot will try to boot an Android boot image from the boot
partition by default. Pressing one of the volume keys during boot allows to change that behavior:
Volume Down
: Enter Fastboot modeVolume Up
: Boot into recovery (recovery
partition)
Note: Since the boot partition is already used for U-Boot itself, U-Boot reads the Android boot image with 1 MB offset from the boot partition. This offset is applied automatically when using fastboot flash boot boot.img . |
In Fastboot mode, kernels can be directly booted from RAM using fastboot boot ...
. Alternatively, partitions can be flashed using fastboot flash <partition> ...
.
U-Boot itself can be also flashed from U-Boot using fastboot flash u-boot u-boot.img
(in this case, it will not apply the offset for the boot
partition).
Building
Requirements: ARM cross compiler (e.g. arm-non-eabi-gcc
)
export CROSS_COMPILE=arm-none-eabi- make stemmy_defconfig make
If your device uses Android boot images, package it into an Android boot image:
mkbootimg --kernel u-boot.bin --base=0x00000000 --kernel_offset=0x00100000 --ramdisk_offset=0x02000000 --tags_offset=0x00000100 --output=u-boot.img
Kernel Hacking on NovaThor U8500
These sections detail some tricks needed when working on kernel development.
Some details can be found at the external page for [Ux500 mainline work].
Assembling a Custom boot.img
When used with PostmarketOS the boot.img
that you flash into the phone should come out of the pmbootstrap utility, but if you for some reason want to assemble the boot.img
using some prefabricated kernel, ramdisk and device tree, the process is like this this:
mkbootimg --kernel zImage --ramdisk initrd --second foo.dtb --base=0x00000000 --kernel_offset=0x00008000 --ramdisk_offset=0x02000000 --second_offset=0x00f00000 --tags_offset=0x00000100 --output=boot.img
Or using abootimg
:
abootimg --create boot.img -k zImage -r initrd -s foo.dtb -c "pagesize=0x800" -c "kerneladdr=0x8000" -c "ramdiskaddr=0x02000000" -c "secondaddr=0x00f00000" -c "tagsaddr=0x100"
Notice how this puts the device tree binary dtb.foo
into the "second bootloader firmware".
Flashing a Custom Kernel
You install a custom kernel into the device by booting into U-Boot as described above, go to fastboot mode by holding down
+ or by holding while you insert the serial cable. Then you can flash a new kernel image like this:fastboot flash boot.img
After this reboot the phone and your new kernel should start.
See also
- This chipset has a [wikipedia page]