Nvidia Tegra armv7 (nvidia-tegra-armv7)

From postmarketOS Wiki

A generic port for Nvidia Tegra 2/3/4 devices.

Nvidia Tegra ARMv7
Manufacturer Nvidia
Name Tegra ARMv7
Codename nvidia-tegra-armv7
Released 2011
Type generic
Hardware
Chipset Nvidia Tegra 2/3/4
GPU ULP GeForce
Architecture armv7
Software
FOSS bootloader yes
postmarketOS
Category community
Pre-built images yes
This device is based on the Tegra 2.
See the SoC page for common tips, guides and troubleshooting steps
This device is based on the Tegra 3.
See the SoC page for common tips, guides and troubleshooting steps
This device is based on the Tegra 4.
See the SoC page for common tips, guides and troubleshooting steps

Contributors

  • Clamor
  • Jenneron

Devices

Device Category Chipset primary secondary
Asus Eee Pad Transformer community Nvidia Tegra 2 (T20) Y Y
Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime community Nvidia Tegra 3 (T30) Y Y
Asus Transformer Infinity community Nvidia Tegra 3 (T33) Y Y
Asus Transformer Pad community Nvidia Tegra 3 (T30L) Y Y
Asus Transformer Pad 3G community Nvidia Tegra 3 (T30L) Y Y
Google (ASUS) Nexus 7 (2012) community Nvidia Tegra 3 (T30L) Y N
Google (ASUS) Nexus 7 (2012) GSM community Nvidia Tegra 3 (T30L) Y N
LG Optimus 4X HD testing Nvidia Tegra 3 (AP33H) Y P
LG Optimus Vu community Nvidia Tegra 3 (AP33) Y P
Toradex Colibri T30 testing Nvidia Tegra 3 (T30)
WEXLER Tab 7t testing Nvidia Tegra 3 (T30L) Y N

Prerequisites

In order to install postmarketOS on your device you need a few conditions to be met. You MUST have one of compatible devices (check list above) with unlocked bootloader and ability to boot at least into recovery mode.


Installation process

Step 0: creating backups

If you have Google Nexus 7 (2012) or ASUS Transformer you should perform backup using this guide (download links are dead but files can be found here). You should have a set of images (bricksafe.img and other) which ensure that original bootloader can be restored. Otherwise restoring original state of device is extremely complicated. Additionally backup all valuable data from your device.

Step 1: Building and preparing U-Boot

Preferred source is the master branch of mainline U-Boot repo

U-Boot documentation contains most of stuff needed to prepare it to be flashed onto device as primary last stage bootloader and covers use of re-crypt, but it does not touch fusee gelee exploit.

In order to correctly use re-crypt you would need to get SBK of your device. For this purpose Fusee Gelee exploit is used with fusee tools. Refer to this section to get SBK of your device.

Step 2: U-Boot flashing

Once you get repart-block.bin or split images from re-crypt it can be flashed using nvflash or using U-Boot fastboot interface. To check if U-Boot correctly boots on your device you can refer to this section of fusee tools readme to pre-load U-Boot into RAM. If everything is correct you can flash processed U-Boot as described in board U-Boot documentation.

Step 3: Installing postmarketOS

For devices with microSD available preferred method of installation is flashing to microSD. In case of emmc only devices listallation can be performed using pmbootstrap install --disk /dev/sdX when exposing eMMC to the host with U-Boot.

There are also prebuilt images at https://images.postmarketos.org/bpo/edge/nvidia-tegra-armv7. Use xzcat xxxxxxxx-xxxx-postmarketOS-channel-ui-nvidia-tegra-armv7.img.xz | sudo dd of=/dev/sdX status=progress. Where /dev/sdX is the block device exposed by U-Boot. You can also flash with GUI tools like gnome-disks.