i.MX6Q Android Release 13.4 - Beta

This is just a quick note describing the new Android release (R13.4 - Beta) from Freescale.

We've just pulled down the sources and are happy to report that the images just work on both Sabre Lite and Nitrogen6X.

I had a Nitrogen6X and 1024x600 panel on my desk, and being impatient, I simply copied the uImage file into my /tftpboot directory, extracted the Sabre SD android filesystem into /imx-android-r13.4-beta and added this into my /etc/exports file.

/imx-android-r13.4-beta  192.168.0.0/255.255.255.0(rw,no_root_squash,no_subtree_check)

After forcing a reload of my nfs-kernel-server, I was able to boot over NFS by the following U-Boot-foo:

U-Boot> set bootargs console=ttymxc1,115200 video=mxcfb0:dev=ldb,1024x600M@60,if=RGB666
U-Boot> set bootargs $bootargs video=mxcdi1fb:off
U-Boot> set bootargs $bootargs ip=dhcp root=/dev/nfs
U-Boot> set bootargs $bootargs nfsroot=192.168.0.95:/imx-android-r13.4-beta
U-Boot> set bootargs $bootargs init=/init rootwait
U-Boot> dhcp 12000000 192.168.0.95:uImage-imx6
U-Boot> bootm 12000000

Doing just this bit, I had a working Android with a USB mouse.

I wasn't able to bring up a browser, but the answer for that was mostly in the release notes.

Adding these two lines into /init.rc fixed that:

setprop ethernet.clear.ip no
    setprop net.dns1 204.130.255.3

Both of these are needed because Android isn't performing the DHCP when booted over NFS.

After fixing that, I was able to browse the web, and a quick test of Google Maps showed that the system was very responsive.

I also tested video playback through the Gallery app. This also required a minor tweak to /system/etc/vold.fstab, telling Android where my media partition is.

dev_mount sdcard /mnt/sdcard 4 /devices/platform/sdhci-esdhc-imx.2/mmc_host/mmc0

This corresponds to the bottom (full-sized) SD card on a Sabre Lite or the top slot on a Nitrogen6x

Audio didn't work on Nitrogen6X, but the reasons for that are known.

We've posted the kernel sources to the imx-android-r13.4-beta branchof our linux-imx6 project. We'll add full Nitrogen6X support in the boundary-imx-android-r13.4-beta branch in the coming days.

Because there are roughly 550 patches since the imx-android-r13.2 release, it may take a day or two. (We have some reading to do.)

This is the first time that I've ever attempted to boot Android over NFS, and I was pleasantly surprised. I highly recommend it as a first step toward crafting an SD card. Keep an eye on our blog for additional updates regarding this kernel and also the new LTIB release.