[Freedombox-discuss] Introducing the MK802 FreedomStick

[Rob van der Hoeven]

> One question about booting. You say...
>         Apart from all the hardware features its boot process is also
>         interesting. Booting goes as follows:
>         
>              1. Check if the reset pin is pressed. If so, load new
>                 firmware from the USB port.
>              2. Check if there is a SD card present. If it contains a
>                 bootable image, boot from the SD card.
>              3. Boot from the internal NAND storage (boot Android).
>         
>         Step 1 can recover a “bricked” device. Step 2 makes loading an
>         alternative OS possible. Very hacking friendly! 
>         
> So when there is a power interrupt and the SD card contains a bootable
> image, the MK802 will again boot into the alternative OS. But if the
> SD card has no bootable image, the device will boot into Android from
> NAND. Correct? 

Yes.

> Is it possible to flash Debian/Ubuntu into NAND also?

Yes, but remember that all A10 boot-loaders and kernels are
experimental. If you write the boot configuration to NAND and it (or the
boot-loader) has errors, you end up with a bricked device. De-bricking
is possible, but only from Windows at the moment.

a10linux.org has a multi-boot u-boot version:

http://forum.a10linux.org/read.php?5,42

De-bricking:

http://liliputing.com/2012/06/how-to-re-install-mk802-firmware.html

Rob.
http://freedomboxblog.nl