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OLIMEX Teres-I (olimex-teres i)

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Revision as of 03:46, 23 January 2024 by Kreyren (talk | contribs) (Intro adjustments)
Note New device port in works by the community maintainer
OLIMEX Teres 1
The Odrysian King at FOSDEM2017
The Odrysian King at FOSDEM2017
Manufacturer OLIMEX
Name Teres 1
Codename teres_i
Model Rev.C
Released 12 Oct 2017
Type laptop
Hardware
Chipset Allwinner A64
CPU 4x 1152 MHz Cortex-A53
GPU 600Mhz Mali-400 MP2
Display 1366x768 IPS (N11BGE-EA2 Rev.C3)
Storage 16 GB eMMC (MTFC16GAKAENA-4M) + SDCard
Memory 2GB DDR3L RAM (2x Hynix H5TC8G63AMR-PBA)
Architecture aarch64
Software
Original software Android
FOSS bootloader yes
postmarketOS
Category testing
Pre-built images no
Mainline yes
postmarketOS kernel linux-postmarketos-allwinner
Unixbench Whet/Dhry score Untested
Features
Flashing
Works
Internal storage
Works
SD card
Works
Battery
Works
Screen
Works
Touchscreen
Works
Keyboard
Works
Touchpad
Works
Multimedia
3D Acceleration
Works
Audio
Works
Camera
Works
IR TX
Works
IR RX
Works
Connectivity
WiFi
Works
Bluetooth
Works
Ethernet
Works
GPS
Works
NFC
Works
Modem
Calls
Works
SMS
Works
Miscellaneous
FDE
Works
USB-A
Works
SATA/eSATA
No data
USB OTG
Works
HDMI/DP
Works
Sensors
Accelerometer
Works
Magnetometer
Works
Ambient Light
Works
Proximity
Works
Barometer
Works
Power Sensor
Works
U-Boot
Primary Bootloader
Works
Secondary Bootloader
Works
Mainline
Works
Internal Storage
Works
SD card
Works
USB Host
Works
USB Peripheral
Works
Display
Works
Keyboard
Works
Buttons
Works

Another unsuspecting wanderer graces these humble pages. Did you stumble upon this realm by accident, or did a cruel hand of destiny somehow decide you needed to witness the desolation within? Welcome, I suppose.. Do you dare to find a comfortable place to sit and prepare for a tale steeped in sorrow? click to listen to the tale..

Engineers, Maintainers and Contributors

  • Tsvetan Usunov -- Hardware Engineer and Supplier
  • Dan Koloff -- Main Repository Maintainer
  • Dimitar Gamishev] -- The Linux Kernel Mainline and Hardware Engineer
  • Lub -- Official Technical Support
  • KREYREN -- Maintainer of Armbian, Debian GNU/Linux, Ubuntu, (Devuan GNU/Linux), NixOS, (GNU Guix GNU/Linux), PostmarketOS, (Alpine Linux), Parabola GNU/Linux, (Archlinux ARM). Contributor to The Linux Kernel
  • JC Staudt -- Debian GNU/Linux Maintainer
  • Milan P. Stanić -- Alpine Linux Maintainer
  • Tom Hall (former) -- NixOS Maintainer
  • Bill Auger -- Parabola GNU/Linux Maintainer
  • Denis 'GNUtoo' Carikli -- Parabola GNU/Linux Maintainer
  • Alexey Korepanov (former) -- Gentoo Linux Maintainer
  • Jeff Moe -- Engineer of 3D printable case
  • (and many more!)

Users owning this device

Installation

Use pmbootstrap to build your own image.

Insert your desired sdcard in the build system and note it's device identifier (e.g. /dev/mmcblk1)

$ pmbootstrap init  # vendor: olimex, device: teres_i
$ pmbootstrap install --fde --sdcard=/dev/your-sdcard-device

Disconnect the sdcard from your build system and insert it into a laptop, it's expected to boot.

Alternatively you can flash a pre-built images from ...

U-boot Updates

Warning WARNING: This process might result in a device that will not boot postmarketOS, make sure you understand how you might recover from this situation before proceeding!!
# update-u-boot --board=teres_i --device=/dev/your-device
Updating teres_i u-boot in /dev/your-device in 3 seconds...
Completed successfully.
# sync

Serial console

Teres has a serial port in the headphone connector.

The default UART is 115200n8

The pinout for the serial connector on the headphone jack is:

 TX  RX
  |   |    
 === == ====|||||||||---------
          |
         GND

The serial connection is 3.3V

You can also buy the debug cable from the supplier's web store or make one.

For instructions and firmware: https://github.com/d3v1c3nv11/teres1-debug

Storage

The SD card is /dev/mmcblk2 and the eMMC is /dev/mmcblk0

Booting

Teres boots using u-boot. The bootrom in the A64 soc will look for u-boot on the SPI flash chip, then the eMMC and then the SD card slot and It will boot the first functioning u-boot image it can find.

Booting from SD

To boot from the SD the SPI bootloader and eMMC bootloader need to be disabled. Then the SoC will fallback to a bootloader on the SD card so postmarketOS can be fully booted from SD.

Teres comes with an empty SPI chip from the factory so that doesn't need anything by default.

Booting from eMMC

To boot it from eMMC you have to overwrite the OS that's on the eMMC already. This is possible to do from an OS booted from SD with the steps above and then flashed on the eMMC using live system.

Fastboot mode is work-in-progress

Booting from SPI

TBD

Kconfig

Reference only

# section
CONFIG=value # comment

Recommended Mods

Add VCC-in Fuse

In case the charging is too slow for you or you often change chargers, then consider adding a fuse to the VCC-in to protect the internal electronics:

The stock charger can provide 5VDC1A while with the fuse it's sane to use a 5VDC3A charger (at your own risk!).

Cut the power cable

To be able to charge teres from practically anything that provides the very common 5V 1~3A you can cut the power cable and use WAGO connectors for wire splicing or making a USB-A to Barrel Jack cable.

Known issues

Power connector wear

The power connector starts to expire after around 1000 insertions and needs to be serviced.

Phone signal might disrupt audio

The cell phone signal on a phone put close to the device might produce static noise.

Power-on power supply connection

The device powers on when connected to the power supply

Disfunctional display on u-boot<=2024.01-r2

Alpine's u-boot <=2024.01-r2 has a broken display during the u-boot phase, use >=2024.01-r3.

Troubleshooting

..

See also