Next Thing Co. CHIP (ntc-chip)
Next Thing Co. CHIP | |
Manufacturer | Next Thing Co. |
---|---|
Name | CHIP |
Codename | ntc-chip |
Released | 2015 |
Category | testing |
Pre-built images | no |
Original software | Debian |
Original version | ? (Linux 4.4) |
Hardware | |
Chipset | Allwinner R8 |
CPU | 1x 1.0 GHz Cortex-A8 |
GPU | Mali-400 MP1 |
Display | Composite video |
Storage | 8GB MLC NAND |
Memory | 512 MB DDR3 |
Architecture | ARMv7 |
Status: Kernel compiles and boots, u-boot needs to be packaged
USB Networking | |
---|---|
Flashing | |
Display | |
WiFi | |
FDE | |
Mainline | |
Battery | |
3D Acceleration | |
Audio | |
Bluetooth | |
Internal storage | |
USB OTG | |
NFC | |
Magnetometer | |
---|---|
Ambient Light | |
Proximity | |
Hall Effect | |
Barometer | |
Power Sensor | |
Built-in DVB | |
---|---|
Camera Flash | |
Keyboard | |
Touchpad | |
USB-A | |
HDMI/DP | |
Ir TX | |
Ir RX | |
Stylus | |
Memory Card | |
Haptics | |
Ethernet | |
FOSS bootloader | |
Contributors
- Symmetrist
Maintainer(s)
- Symmetrist
Status
At the moment it is possible to build a pmOS image using the commands explained below.
However to boot this image we need to change u-boot configuration, and unfortunately the procedure explained below does not work on all the version of u-boot for CHIP around.
The next step is to package and compile u-boot to provide a uniform bootloader for pmOS.
Users owning this device
How to enter flash mode
The CHIP has two different flashing modes:
- FEL mode: used to flash bootloader and rootfs
- Fastboot mode: used to flash rootfs
To enter FEL mode:
- Connect the FEL and GND pins with a jumper cable
- Power on the CHIP
To enter Fastboot mode:
- Connect an serial (UART) USB adapter to UART1-TX, UART1-RX and GND
- Power on the CHIP
- Press enter during boot up to access the U-Boot console
- On the console type
fastboot 0
Configure U-Boot
PostmarketOS loads an initramfs together with the kernel, while original Debian installation only used the kernel.
To boot PostmarketOS we need to change the U-Boot configuration to support the initramfs.
From the U-boot serial console issue the following commands:
- Print the current value of the
bootcmd
, save it in case you want to restore it later.
> printenv bootcmd
- Change the
bootcmd
value
> printenv bootcmd
> setenv bootcmd "gpio set PB2; ${bootcmd_fel}; ${boot_initrd};"
> saveenv
Create the UBIfs image
- Configure the installation and build the system
$ pmbootstrap init
$ pmbootstrap install
In workdir/chroot_rootfs_ntc-chip
there is the rootfs for your ntc-chip
The following commands needs to be launched from your pmbootstrap workdir
- Copy dtb from linux-ntc-chip
$ sudo cp cache_git/pmaports/device/testing/linux-ntc-chip/sun5i-r8-chip.dtb chroot_rootfs_ntc-chip/boot/
Install mtd-utils from your distro repositories e.g. pacman -S mtd-utils
- Create the UBIfs image
$ mkdir ubi
$ sudo mkfs.ubifs -m 16384 -e 0x1f8000 -c 2000 -r chroot_rootfs_ntc-chip ubi/ubifs.img
$ sudo chown youruser:youruser ubi/ubifs.img
$ ubinize -o ubi/ubi.img -m 16384 -p 2MiB -s 16384 cache_git/pmaports/device/testing/device-ntc-chip/ubinize.cfg
$ img2simg ubi/ubi.img ubi/ubi.img.sparse 2097152
Flash the UBIfs image
- Enter fastboot mode as described above
- On your computer
$ fastboot erase UBI
$ fastboot flash UBI ubi/ubi.img.sparse
$ fastboot reboot