Dingoo A320 forum

Okay, after a lot of reading all over the net I've finally managed to fix my problem.

I had to create /dev/console on my rootfs with the following command:

mknod -m 0600 /media/A320_EXT3/dev/console c 5 1

where /media/A320_EXT3 is where my rootfs has been mounted in linux.

I'm still new to linux, but I'm enjoying these kind of challenges as its helping me learn.

All I get is a white screen when flashing.

- My 4 GB SDHC is formatted with the first partition as FAT32 (unsure how to check if it's 0x0b or whatever) and the rest as ext2.
- Put a file renamed to zImage of my lcd (9331) in the fat32 partition.
- Untar'd Booboo's rootfs to the ext2 partition, using sudo nautilus in terminal. Note that some files didn't like being copied such as the tty ones, even as root.
- Flashed on Windows. The LCD stays white all the time. When running the last command it complains of an error (1f?) and the Dingoo disconnects (unplug sound). Screen remains white until I reset the device.

What am I doing wrong? I untar'd the files using Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.04.

How large of an SD card do you need in order to do this? I don't need any more space on my Dingoo and am only going to buy a card in order to install Dingux.

Hmm. I just had a thought. Is there any reason that we can't partition the SD card into 3?

partition 1: fat32 - 16 megs for the zImage. Hell, it could be smaller if needed.. Or could it be on the ext3 partition?
partition 2: ext3 - 256 megs for the rootfs + room to grow (if needed)
partition 3: fat32 - remainder of the SD card. mounted in Linux as /apps, fat32 so that windows can read it.

I'm not sure, but would that affect the running of apps if they're stored on a fat32 volume?
Because if it won't affect that, I'll sit down and create a 4g image tonight that does just that.

At that point, it'd just need a menu system that auto-reads the /apps dir. Maybe it just looks for files named XXXX.app, so it knows what are apps and what's not? The apps like snes9x would need to have a file picker added, though.

You dont need another fat32, just make the first fat32 very large. Thats what i have done since the beginning of development because the original stock firmware can see that first fat32 partition. So you can put whatever you want in it and the original firmware can see it and you can also put the zImage in there.

Fair enough. But the million-dollar question, and prompted the 3-partition question, was "can that fat32 partition be mounted by Linux since it boots off it?". I'm assuming that's actually a yes.

Yea it should be able to, I see no reason why not since its just another device and just has to be mounted somewhere. Just have to find out what device it assigns to that fat32 partition on bootup and mount it, and as long as the kernel has fat32 support, which I would think it does. If it doesnt that would need to be added anyway for a usable system for users to load things that arent on linux.

Okay I managed to install Dingux but every time I press select to boot into Dingux the flasher boots again. Any way to change that?

I have 2 questions.

1 - Does it look as though this may be able to be installed anytime in the near future without a minisd card.
2 - What is the exact function of the minisd card? Does it hold just the linux OS, The Linux OS as well as applications, or what?

If someone were to answer I would be very grateful.

Twyst wrote:Fair enough. But the million-dollar question, and prompted the 3-partition question, was "can that fat32 partition be mounted by Linux since it boots off it?". I'm assuming that's actually a yes.

Yes, it is possible.
Add this into your /etc/inittab file:

Code: Select all

::sysinit:mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /mnt/fat


Then create folder fat in /mnt. Your fat partition now is in /mnt/fat

If you manage to run vifm, then you can run any script and app from fat partition very easily.

You can find a lot of info here: the-official-linux-development-thread-t413-320.html and on DingooWiki: http://opendingoo.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page