More Linux developments ....

By -
Over at Booboo's forum, there is news, all good:
* new Kernels to solve the alternative LCD controller problems posted on Google Code
* Dual boot making excellent progress; information on Google Code as well
Go Booboo!
Click here to learn more!

Comments

  1. AnonymousJune 10, 2009 at 2:52 PM

    Lets here it for BOO BOO.....yyyeeaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

    I grabbed this from dingoo-digital.com/forums


    Dual boot working !!!
    Just a quick post to tell that dual boot is working now.

    I'm not making a release right now, but I will most likely this weekend. The reason is that this is something people will be actually flashing in their consoles, so before making a release, I need to:

    Test some corner cases.
    Clean up u-boot code and commit it to google code.
    Write detailed instructions for end users.

    For the tech-oriented, this is how it works:

    Only the first NAND block is modified. NAND is treated as if it was 2KB page size (it is actually 4K), because that is how the ROM IPL treats it.
    u-boot SPL is placed in pages 0-3 (0x00000000-0x00001FFF).
    u-boot is placed in pages 32-127 (0x00010000-0x0003FFFF).
    u-boot has been modified to support A320 hardware and to understand the non-standard way in which error correction data is stored in the area where the original firmware system loader lives (pages 128 and up).
    If SELECT key is not pressed, u-boot loads the original firmware system loader from NAND offset 0x40000, size 0x80000, into DRAM address 0x80E00000. Then jumps to 0x80E10004.
    If SELECT key is pressed, u-boot loads linux from the miniSD.

    UPDATE: for those that just joined, and answering user comments:

    Yes, this means you can boot and use Linux on your A320 without a PC.
    Yes, you still need some menu application. I don't provide that since I have limited time and want to focus on the kernel, but someone will (there are plenty of very skilled programmers turning their attention to the A320).

    Hardware support is still limited to video, sound and keyboard, that is, just what you need to play emulators (can you spell mame?). Now that dual boot is working I'll focus on improving hardware support.
    Lack of full hardware support means linux won't replace the original firmware anytime soon (but will eventually, that's my goal). So we have to get along with the original firmware and that means linux must run from the miniSD. Altering the internat NAND flash was necessary though in order to tap into the boot process and launch linux from the miniSD.
    Work on the x760+ will start as soon as I get my hands on it. There's almost enough donated money (thank you very much again for you support) as to purchase both a newer LCD A320 and a x760+. I'm still trying to purchase the newer LCD A320 from someone who can guarantee I'll get one of the newer models, and regarding the x760+... can you suggest where to buy it?.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dingoo A380 Review

By -
Image
The nice folk at isharegifts gracefully sent me a sample Dingoo A380 for review. Having declared my pecuniary interest, in truth though, after playing with this new Dingoo, bribery and graft is strictly unnecessary for its promotion.  IMHO, the product does stand on its own merits.  It remains a testament to the original A320, and its rabid, passionate community (hey, that’s us dudes) that even in 2011, some 3 years after the word “Dingoo” became somewhat a part of the English language,  that it still remains the best Dingoo-type device.  This is because it is still the best supported, thanks to Booboo’s original Dingux, and now OpenDingux.  Dingux means access to emulators and software other than those that came with the original A320’s native uCos firmware.  Dingux allows for ports of games like Doom and Duke Nukem.  Dingux is what turned the A320 from a glorified media player into the device we know and love. It’s still necessary to put Dingux onto a stock standard A320 thoug
Read more

Idiot’s Guide to installing Dingux using Windows released

By -
Image
With the release of FAT Dingux, it is now possible to install Dingux using only Windows!  As promised, here is The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Installing Dingux – Using Windoze Edition.  Grab the guide here in PDF , zipped here , or here for HTML . 18 October 2009 Update:   The above links will always contain the latest version of this guide . While the guide was written in July 2009, the technique shown in it remains the same as at the update date shown in green.  However, the guide refers to toddler’s or warped flash’s “local.zip” files, and contains links to these files, which are outdated. The links used to point to the A320 freeforums, until the dastardly Dan deleted them ! Grab the latest version of the critical local.zip file, referred to in the guide here: http://boards.dingoonity.org/index.php/topic,32.msg80.html#msg80
Read more

Mancala for Dingux released (Mandingoo was released in 1975)

By -
Image
A somewhat new game for Dingux from ZX-81: Dingux-Mancala: A Mancala Game v1.1.0 for Dingoo/Dingux Hi All, Mancala is a board game familly, originated in East Africa. The word "Mancala" came from arabic word "naqalah" that means literaly "To move". Dingux-Mancala is the "Awari" variant, and even if the rule of this game is simple, the complexity can be compared to chess Game. The AI is based on the source code of H. Huseby & G.T. Lines, for their implementation of the classical Minimax algorithm. How to use it ? Everything is in the README.txt file. Sources are included, and this package is under the GNU public license, read COPYING.txt file for more information about it. How to play ? Here is the rules available from awari.cs.vu.nl : Awari is played on a board where each pla
Read more

The Dingoo-Scene JXD S7800B (Rockchip 3188 SoC) Android Gaming Console Review

By -
Image
1. Introduction      Since the introduction of the somewhat venerable Yinlips YDPG18, Android handheld gaming devices have been released pretty much continuously, by any number of Chinese manufacturers.      They’re not released with retrogaming in mind however.  Dedicated Android handhelds with physical controls for the consumption of nostalgic childhood memories are simply not in great demand in China, and accordingly, these devices have never been well supported by their makers, as far as the multitude of little tweaks and twerks that the Western retrogamer demands in the quest for ultimate emulation fidelity are concerned.  The view of China based manufacturers seems to be that the physical controls are an adjunct to the primary function of the device – hey, it’s an Android tablet, what else do you want?  Foremost among such frustrations has been OASS: “ornamental analog stick syndrome”, which sadly afflicts many of the devices released to date. What use are any physical cont
Read more

Tauon PC-1 review

By -
Image
You should give this a chance. It deserves one. Welcome to the Tauon PC-1. A Tauon is an incredibly  geeky sciency thing , as it happens, and has nothing to do with the  Great Eastern Philosopher . You won't find it for sale anywhere other than on Tauon's website , and on ebay so far as I can see,  and then only if you're a regular visitor of the ebay "vintage computer hardware" category.  It won't even turn up on ebay if you search for the product name: "Tauon PC1"  - you'll just stumble upon it one day, when you're looking for a replacement floppy drive, or a C64.  So, what is it? It's a computer in a dinky little case! Hardware wise, it has: Allwinner H3 Quad Core SOC [1ghz to 1.2ghz/1gb RAM/8GB internal NAND storage] SD slot USB slot,  HDMI and composite out Ethernet Wifi UART (send/receive signals through terminal commands) I2C (drivers aren't ready yet, but promised).   Inside the case - y
Read more

Dingoo representative at a320.freeforums.org !

By -
Sofia, a representative of Dingoo, is now available at http://a320.freeforums.org/ ! This is her post: Hello every one, Good day there! This is Sofia from Shenzhen Dingoo Digital Product Company. Thank you all of you have so much interesting on our Dingoo A320 firstly! And , I'd like to be your friend helping you to know this item well. Our company is really a leading manufacturer of 3D game consolers in China. I guess all of you already knew this ,right? ^_^ Thus, I hope I can do as much as possible to lead you feel easy on A320. Also, I expect to discuss and share with all of you in order to improve my professionality. If , any of you need to buy this for try or wholesale, it will be my greatest honor to service for you ! P.S:My email address is : sofia@dingoo888.com " Have fun ! This is an excellent development! Any other questions for Dingoo? Join the discussion at this thread: http://a320.freeforums.org/hi-let-me-introduce-myself-t15-10.html#p63
Read more

How to show all your 17,083 c64 games from the c64 romset (archive.org) on the C64 Mini or C64 Maxi loader

By -
Image
Update 4 January 2020: ================================================================== New, much friendlier GUI version released - see this post: https://dingoo-scene.blogspot.com/2020/01/gui-version-of-gadgetmisers-c64-romset.html ================================================================== Hello, friends, it's been awhile.  A happy 2020 to you all. If Santa was kind this year, he may have brought you one of these:   If Santa did, you'll have worked out by now that 64 built-in games, classics though some of them are, is simply  not enough .   Your travels may have led you to this c64 romset:  https://archive.org/details/C64Romset , which contains 17,068 games. If you pop them on a USB stick and slip it into your c64 Maxi/Mini, only the first 256 games will appear.  This is because there is a limit of 256 items per folder that can be displayed on the c64 mini/maxi loader. So you need to split the games into individual folders, each containing n
Read more

An interview with the creator of the Tauon PC-1, Volodymyr Mishin

By -
I'll bet you don't roll out of bed and think about making your own PC before breakfast.  Even you do, I bet you haven't actually  shipped . Here's someone who has.   I reached out to the creator of the  Tauon PC-1 , Volodymyr Mishyn who kindly took more than a little time to answer some detailed questions about the PC-1, how it came to be, the challenges of a project like this, his future plans for Tauon OS and what is clearly a very personal labour of love.   Many thanks Volodymyr.   Your  news blog  suggests 30 days to prototype, and 6 months to ship! If that is right, it is very impressive, given the technical and logistical activities that had to occur.  Is there more to this story? I was looking for available options before I started the project. I got myself a couple PI (3B, Zero) OrangePi, C-SKY. And tried to build some kind of educational PC for my kid. Unfortunately, the performance was awful, using Linux was too complicated even for me (I h
Read more