SlackwareOnMt6582Tablet
Specifications of the Tablet PC which was used here
Processor : Arm Cortex A7, 1.3 GHz dual core.
: ARMv7 Processor rev 3 (v7l),
Hardware : MT8312
SOC : mt6582.
Memory : 512MB RAM
Storage : 4GB Built in storage.
Micro SD : Slot for upto 32GB
Display : 7" WVGA 800x480
OS : Android 4.2 Jelly Bean
GPU : Mali?
External Links
Slackware for arm
Screenshot of X windows with fluxbox and wbar. And another one.
SlackwareOnMT6582 page at github, includes StartX apk.
Rooting the Tablet PC
I used Framaroot-1.9.3.apk to root the device.
Installing Linux - Slackware 14.1, sort of.
With the problem of not having kernel source for the SOC, and no no bootloader unlock possible yet, next best option was to use a chroot environment.
So far, command line mode works fine. Here is the description of how Slackware was installed on to external micro SD Card. Was able to do some basic tests on the frame buffer display. Since there is no VTs available was not able to test Xorg, though could get Mali module compiled and loaded. More details below.
Preparing SD Card on host computer
Use fdisk to create one or two partitions, one for ext4 and other ( optional ) swap partition. Once these are created, assuming the device on host is /dev/sdc,
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdc1 sync eject sdc eject -t sdc mkdir slack mount /dev/sdc1 slack cd slack mkdir sl cd sl
If you don't have Slackware installation files, Get Slackware Arm first.
mkdir slackware14.1 cd slackware14.1 (cd /path..to../slackware14.1 ; tar cfz - *) | (tar xfz - )
initrd-kirkwood.cpio contains the setup program, but since I couldn't boot with custom initrd, sdc1 /sl area is prepared to have the installation files.
cpio -id < initrd-kirkwood.cpio sync umount slack
Now that the sd card is ready for installation:
eject sdc
and plug it into the device. Once that is done,
Getting installer ready
Now plug the card in tablet pc, boot, from host computer,
starting a adb shell with su
adb shell su
chroot to installer
cd /data/local/tmp mkdir slackware mount /dev/block/mmcblk1p1 slackware cd slackware/sl export PATH=/data/local/tmp/bin:$PATH mountpoint proc || mount -t proc none proc/ mountpoint sys || mount -t sysfs sys sys/ mountpoint dev || mount -o bind /dev dev/ export PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/lib/setup:$PATH pushd /dev ln -s /dev/block/mmc1blk* . popd chroot . /bin/bash mount -t ext4 /dev/mmcblk1p1 mnt
Running setup
Install Slackware onto mmcblk1p1, from pre mounted directory, sdc1 : /slackware14.1/slackware
setup
Proceed and select /dev/mmcblk1p1 as target, no format
For source, select pre mounted directory option, /slackware14.1/slackware
Complete installation, and configuration
Once the complete installation is done,
umount proc umount sys umount dev sync cd ../.. umount slackware
Getting into installed Slackware:
Running slackware su shell
adb shell su mount /dev/block/mmcblk1p1 slackware cd slackware mountpoint proc || mount -t proc none proc/ mountpoint sys || mount -t sysfs sys sys/ mountpoint dev || mount -o bind /dev dev/ test -d system || mkdir system mountpoint system || mount -o bind /system system export PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/lib/setup:$PATH chroot . /bin/su -
From here you can do "normal" Slackware activities, sort of. Main things that were lacking in my case were VTs (ttys). Compiling programs and running programs. I ran couple of frame buffer tests too. Fortunately, removing the VT requirement from Xorg was pretty simple. Here is how it was done.
Getting Xorg up and running - kind of
Getting Xorg compiled
Ecept for Pointer ( touchscreen ) failure, Xorg seems to be working fine. evtest, xinput tests are showing touchscreen activity, but the cursor seems to be not moving. But if a window like xvkbd or xterm or so is launched, you can move the window using the touch screen!. And kvkbd input also works.
lnx_init.c patch
Compiling xorg-server-1.12.2
Download xorg-server-1.12.2,
tar xf xorg-server-1.12.2.tar.bz2
Also make changes to xorg-server-1.12.2/hw/xfree86/os-support/linux/lnx\_init.c so that VT / console related code is disabled. See the patch section.
cd xorg-server-1.12.2 export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/opt/local/sw/share/pkgconfig:$PKG_CONFIG_PATH export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/opt/local/sw/lib/pkgconfig:$PKG_CONFIG_PATH export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/local/sw/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH export PATH=/opt/local/sw/bin:$PATH ./configure --prefix=/opt/local/sw --enable-kdrive --enable-kdrive-evdev --with-xkb-path=/opt/local/sw/share/X11/xkb --with-xkb-output=/var/lib/xkb --with-xkb-bin-directory=/opt/local/sw/bin --with-default-xkb-rules=xorg --with-default-xkb-model=pc104 --with-default-xkb-layout=us --disable-xnest --disable-dmx --disable-xquartz --disable-xwin --disable-xephyr --disable-config-udev --enable-tslib --disable-docs --disable-devel-docs LDFLAGS=-L/opt/local/sw/lib CFLAGS=-I/opt/local/sw/include make -j 3
If all required packages are not on the system, compilation will fail. Download each of the requiered packags , untar, configure and install.
./configure --prefix=/opt/local/sw make -j 3 install
Once xorg-server-1.12.2 compilation is succesfull,
make install
Compiling additional drivers required
fbdev
xf86-video-fbdev-0.4.2 export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/opt/local/sw/lib/pkgconfig:$PKG_CONFIG_PATH ./configure --prefix=/opt/local/sw
In src/fbdev.c xf86-video-fbdev-0.4.2/src/fbdev.c, comment:
// #include "mibstore.h"
make -j 3 make install
evdev
xf86-input-evdev-2.7.0 ./configure --prefix=/opt/local/sw
src/Makefile: evdev_drv_la_LIBADD = $(MTDEV_LIBS) $(UDEV_LIBS) ( if not done, causes evdev_drv.so: undefined symbol: udev_new when Xorg is ran)
make -j 3 make install
Once installed make an xorg.conf [ see xorg.conf section ] in /etc/X11/ and run startx as described below.
xorg.conf
Copy this file to /etc/X11
Running X
In the final setup, these manual steps to switch between X and Android is not required, StartX app and wbar button "Back to Android" does these tasks.
make sure display is on, From slackware chroot environment in adb shell [ see section ]:
/system/bin/stop startx -- /opt/local/sw/bin/Xorg :0 Try disown / nohup to keep X running when disconnected from PC.
Or
Touch and run "StartX" app.
Once Finished,
run:
/system/bin/start
Or touch the "back to android" icon on wbar. to return to Android.
Virtual Keyboard
xvkbd
Download xvkbd from xvkbd-3.5.tar.gz, and install:
xmkf make make install
Run:
xvkbd
An application launcher
wbar
Download wbar from wbar-2.3.4.tgz at wbar downloads at code.google.com
.wbar
Copy this file to /root/.wbar :
Android app to launch X Windows directly from Android
Create StartX projec
Check SlackwareOnMT6582 project at github
Create a project:
android create project -n StartX -k com.startx.android -a StartXActivity -t 1 -p .
Copy StartXActivity.java to src/com/startx/android
If required,
keytool -genkey -v -keystore gv.keystore \
-alias gv_ks -keyalg RSA -keysize 2048 -validity 10000
Add to project properties:
key.store=./gv.keystore key.alias=gv_ks
Build and install:
ant release install
StartXActivity.java
Copy this file to StartX/src/com/startx/android
chroot2slackware.sh
Copy chroot2slackware.sh to /data/local/tmp/
exitfromslackware.sh
This file is called when "Back to Android" wbar button is touched.
Copy exitfromslackware.sh to /data/local/tmp/
Running some tests
Testing the framebuffer
For these tests, I stopped android "SurfaceFlinger" and freed up /dev/graphics/fb0. by running "stop" command. Before running stop, make sure that the display is on ( not blank ).
Stopping android - sort of
Here is how to stop the SurfaceFlinger and get framebuffer free:
From Slackware shell in adb:
stop
Now the display goes blank, with backlight on.
Get one of these tests. fbtest or Paint-pixels-to-screen- via-linux-framebuffer or qtopiacore-testingframebuffer All these tests worked on the Tablet. Transfer the tests to tablet using adb push command.
from Slackware shell, running under adb shell:
gcc fbtest.c ./a.out
Getting back to android
Once done, go back to Slackware shell in adb, and:
start
After few seconds android display will be back on.
Running evtest
Download evtest.c.
gcc -o gcc -o evtest evtest.c ./evtest see evtest.log for sample outpu
evtest.log
Running xinput
xinput --list
â¡ Virtual core pointer id=2 [master pointer (3)]
â â³ Virtual core XTEST pointer id=4 [slave pointer (2)]
â â³ mytouchscreen id=6 [slave pointer (2)]
⣠Virtual core keyboard id=3 [master keyboard (2)]
â³ Virtual core XTEST keyboard id=5 [slave keyboard (3)]
xinput log
xinput test 6
motion a[0]=53 a[1]=58 a[2]=0 a[3]=1 a[4]=0 button press 1 a[0]=53 a[1]=58 a[2]=0 a[3]=1 a[4]=0 button release 1 a[0]=53 a[1]=58 motion a[0]=513 a[1]=91 a[2]=0 a[3]=1 a[4]=0 button press 1 a[0]=513 a[1]=91 a[2]=0 a[3]=1 a[4]=0 button release 1 a[0]=513 a[1]=91 motion a[0]=659 a[1]=436 a[2]=0 a[3]=1 a[4]=0 button press 1 a[0]=659 a[1]=436 a[2]=0 a[3]=1 a[4]=0 button release 1 a[0]=659 a[1]=436 motion a[0]=624 a[1]=152 a[2]=0 a[3]=1 a[4]=0 button press 1 a[0]=624 a[1]=152 a[2]=0 a[3]=1 a[4]=0 motion a[0]=577 a[1]=174 motion a[0]=501 a[1]=203 motion a[0]=457 a[1]=219 motion a[0]=411 a[1]=232 motion a[0]=371 a[1]=240 motion a[0]=341 a[1]=245 button release 1 a[0]=341 a[1]=245