Ask Us Anything

Yes, besides, now there is a new revision of vim3

:heart_eyes:

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As for FAQ, also I’d love to put the basic software knowledge into one place
eg.
what is mainline and 4.9 and what are the differences
what is uboot and what are the differences for booting 4.9, mainline etc
what is android vs androidtv? (this one would be great to get google hits point to khadas faq, as I couldn’t find clear explantation :stuck_out_tongue: )

also going back to booting I find it unclear in docs (but yeah lets say im newbie who expects it to be written in a simpler way perhaps) :smiley:

  • booting from sd/emmc what to do to switch
  • android booting into recovery etc

@xmesaj2 let me clarify some of these things for you :slightly_smiling_face:

p.s don’t get scared by this huge wall of text, just take your time to read through it

4.9 kernel or (currently) known as the BSP kernel, this is the board support package, or the version of linux the linux kernel which is provided by the board/chip manufacturer (Amlogic or Rockchip) and contains the most necessary or basic software packages needed for the SoC to Run, you will find that almost every accessory “just plain works” when using a linux Image with this kernel

Mainline linux or Upstream kernel, is the latest and greatest of what current software provides, it is a sort of Unstable or Beta kernel as not everything will Run in this kernel, but those that do Run will be quite optimised.

the mainline kernel takes development from made at the moment from various gropus communities around the world and is managed by maintainers and also Linus Torvalds (founder and creator of linux kernel) himself, every patch that is is accepted and sent upstream must go through him.

whenever a Linux kernel is released for us here, it also is released with its respective version of uboot,
das u-boot (the uboot) (or) Universal bootloader is a free and open source bootloader for many embedded device (or unanimously known as SBCs- single board computers)

many devices run uboot as their bootloader of choice as its free and open source and fits right in with the GNU ecosystem.

more can be read about uboot from wiki pages and their own website.

Android is the one of the most widely used mobile operating systems, as one would know, millions of devices run android as their primary operating system, its most commonly found on mobile phones.

Android TV is a port of Android which is optimized and made for TVs, this version of android is for Android TVs and Tv boxes or anything that is used for video playback, streaming purposes, and general media consumption.

hope that solves you questions :wink:

This is something that requires a bit more practice in my opinion, even after doing this process for many times now I still miss the mark and boot into recovery sometimes :smile:

basically if you hold on the power button for longer than intended when doing the keys upgrade mode, you’ll end up in android recovery (depicted by the green android “droid”),

but you can follow my step above which refers to seeing the screen, and what logo appears on the screen, check the booting process, just remember to undershoot the button press removal (releasing just it before khadas logo comes on) and you will surely get into Upgrade mode

I’ve explained it quite carefully I hope, any other questions you can ping me :slight_smile:

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I would not risk it :rofl:

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I hope I’m not too tedious with those questions as I could probably google it, thanks a lot mate, guess the main point why I ask for it is simply because I find docs unclear at some points or lackluster, I usually get back to forums eventually, so this in regard to new users to find things easier maybe :stuck_out_tongue: just an entry threshold and how well things are explained, then we can dethrone rpi when its easy to adapt for noobs :smiley:

for android tv question I was more thinking about the differences with pure aosp for tvbox (as you may already know I plan to use vim3 as open alternative to cheap tvboxes)
this information isn’t as easiely described, eg. tv uses tv version of apps, when aosp does not, thus they have different UIs, requirements etc. also controls are bit different, eg settings menus, but this is probably good for separate article and said Khadas provides only AOSP and TV are 3rd party eg superceleron or the one @Vladimir.v.v suggested me, I don’t really expect it to see here but would be a nice blog post to get more page hits for someone wondering :stuck_out_tongue:

for uboot/mainline question this is mostly clear for me now, although let’s say, what happens when I use manjaro with 5.8 on SD and ubuntu with 4.9 kernel on EMMC, or the storage booting the OS actually will use the own uboot and that’s it.

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Android TV - is a special version of the Android OS kernel that is designed for TVs and smart set-top boxes. Provides all devices with the same features: support for video playback, audio playback, standard launcher and voice search. On Google Play, users can only find apps and games that are fully optimized for TV.

Android (AOSP - Android Open Source Project) is an operating system that supports devices from various manufacturers. It can be installed on smartphones, tablets, TVs, TV-boxes, smart watches, fitness bracelets, game consoles, laptops.

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Hello, I am not a huge fan of ATV, but, to each his own. Developer @superceleron offers an ATV for the VIM3(and others), so you can give it a go and draw your own conclusions. Many people love the ATV.

Can you tell me why? :slightly_smiling_face:.

well i like both lol, it all depends on the mood of the day :stuck_out_tongue: :smiley:

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ATV is convenient to use under the remote control :slightly_smiling_face:

No. I’m afraid that isn’t possible at this time. :grin:

I kid of course. While superceleron’s ATV is a credit to the breed, I just don’t prefer ATV. I don’t care for the launcher and other GUI aspects.

Yes there is a place for ATV,
Always ask nicely for sc to make a normal rom, sometime we get lucky…!
Other times we just have to like what we get…

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wow 11

so while we’re at android, vim3 has 9 and edge has 10, what’s making vim3 unable to upgrade, upstream drivers/source missing or something else?

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Hello! I would very much refrain from admiring Android 11 right now, I’m sure it should take enough time to get it working, it’s a very, very early product right now!
:wink:

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we never received a Android 10 SDK, so Android 10 isn’t coming to the VIM3 anytime soon, until amlogic provides that.

but we did get introductory AOSP support,

you do know, beta testing exists :slight_smile:

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well that is actually an ATV 11 build i did for my work(job) and is working in an s905x2/x3, that is pure ATV and not AOSP converted to ATV.
And yes it is in beta at the moment, but we’re nearly at the final version.

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Yes, I also think that everything has its time.
Good luck to you!
:+1:

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Hmm, I always thought that an ATV build was more of a stripped down build with a different launcher for the most part…

What exactly is the difference between an ATV build and a Tablet build? Is AOSP what I am calling tablet build?

Thanx

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well is a bit more complicated that just stripped AOSP.
Ye it as some functions stripped, but also as lots of other stuff that is not present in the AOSP, must changes to be more TV(remote) friendly.
I can’t tell you all the changes from one to another, but there a lot of changes but main ones are what i told you above.
What i make is using AOSP(khadas source) and “convert” the best a i can to real atv, but will never be true ATV, like the one you see in Robert screenshot above.
Also true atv source is private and is only present in google servers to what google call “ATV partners”, in this case companies that need to sign contracts with google, and are subject to many rules and NDA’s.
There is a lot i know, that i can’t tell you guys, most of their emails always start with “Google Confidential/Under NDA”.
Ye complicated…

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Does the Khadas team plan to make any embedded development boards with microcontrollers, CPLDs or FPGAs ?
I am impressed with the existent product quality and am willing to see what can be provided in that frontier.

one of the most underrated things in an open source community, is a simple microcontroller board, and hence I ask this question,

cheers