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Starway Andromeda S8 (starway-andromeda-s8)

From postmarketOS Wiki
Starway Andromeda S8
Manufacturer Starway
Name Andromeda S8
Codename starway-andromeda-s8
Released 2013
Hardware
Chipset Rockchip RK3188
GPU Mali-400 MP
Storage 16 GB
Memory 2 GB
Architecture armv7
postmarketOS
Mainline
Instead of a Linux kernel fork, it is possible to run (Close to) Mainline.
no
Unixbench score
Unixbench Whetstone/Dhrystone score. See Unixbench.
551.2
Features
Flashing
It is possible to flash the device with pmbootstrap flasher.
Partial
USB Networking
After connecting the device with USB to your PC, you can connect to it via telnet (initramfs) or SSH (booted system).
Works
Battery
Charging and battery level reporting works
Untested
Screen
Display works. Ideally with sleep mode and brightness control.
Broken
Touchscreen
Untested
Multimedia
3D Acceleration
Untested
Audio
Audio playback, microphone, headset and buttons.
Untested
Camera
Untested
Connectivity
WiFi
Broken
Bluetooth
Untested
GPS
Untested
Modem
Calls
Untested
SMS
Untested
Mobile data
Untested
Miscellaneous
FDE
Full disk encryption and unlocking with unl0kr.
Untested
USB OTG
USB On-The-Go or USB-C Role switching
Untested
Sensors
Accelerometer
Auto screen rotation works in desktops e.g. Phosh or Plasma Mobile
Untested

Contributors

  • faveoled

How to enter flash mode

Turn the device off. Press volume up button (the rightmost button on device) and connect to computer via USB. You'll have this line in lsusb:

ID 2207:310b Fuzhou Rockchip Electronics Company RK3188 in Mask ROM mode

Flashing

rkflashtool can only be used for flashing smaller partitions such as boot and kernel. Flashing system partition results in NAND read errors even though device's NAND is fine. Successful flashing of NAND system partition was done using Windows 7 32bit VM with RKDeviceManage v1.7. While system partition is used by stock ROM, the device's NAND isn't supported by mainline Linux. Linux rootfs installation is done to SD card.

Flashing rootfs to SD card (your block device could be named differently):

pmbootstrap install --disk=/dev/mmcblk0

The device uses kernel and boot partitions to load kernel and ramdisk respectively. You can create flashable images and flash this way:

cat zImage dtb > zImage-dtb
mkkrnlimg -a zImage-dtb pmos-kernel.img
mkkrnlimg -a ramdisk.gz pmos-boot.img

rkflashtool w boot < pmos-boot.img
rkflashtool w kernel < pmos-kernel.img
# reboot to system
rkflashtool b

Also known as

There is a device with the same hardware called FNF ifive X2.

See also