Android Pie 9.0.0 release for i.MX8MQ

Published on May 23, 2019

Table of Contents

  1. For the impatient
  2. What's new?
    1. Android Pie OS updates
    2. Linux Kernel 4.14.x
  3. Source code access
Nitrogen8M SBCNitrogen8M SOM

We are glad to deliver the latest Android Pie 9.0 GA release for our i.MX8MQ Nitrogen8M platform.  This image is an evaluation image which demonstrates the main functions of the board.  Thanks to our Android software partner, Kynetics, for their help in releasing this evaluation image.  Kynetics has also posted their own evaluation image for the i.MX8MQ boards.  Please contact BD or Kynetics for help creating a production-ready version of  Android for your embedded project which includes security patches, field upgrade, and performance improvements.

For the impatient

You can download the Android Pie images from here:

Update 20191205 changelog:

  • Bug fixes

Update 20190927 changelog:

  • Fixed a bug that caused hwclock to point to a wrong place

Update 20190903 changelog:

  • Fixed a bug that caused all camera captured images to have the exact same size of 8.39 MB

Update 20190812 changelog:

  • Added better support for displays

Update 20190605 changelog:

  • Added support for Bluetooth

Update 20190601 changelog:

  • Increased partition size from 4gb to 8gb

Update 20190524 changelog:

  • Added support for som boards
  • Added support for higher memory

This archive includes all the files to be flashed using fastboot. First you need to enter fastboot mode: From U-Boot prompt, enter the following command: 

=> fastboot 0

Once the platform is in fastboot mode, you simply need to call the flashing script: 

~/$ unzip p900-nitrogen8m-*.zip -d p900-nitrogen8m
~/$ cd p900-nitrogen8m/device/boundary/scripts/ 
~/p900-nitrogen8m/device/boundary/scripts$ sudo ./flash_fastboot.sh nitrogen8m

Note that it is recommended to use a standard USB2.0 mini-USB cable for fastboot to work, it has been reported that U-Boot has some issues with USB3.0 OTG cable.

What's new?

This section will only describe the changes brought either by the OS update itself or modified/added features.

Android Pie OS updates

Google provides a list of notable changes for developers:

Linux Kernel 4.14.x

This Android Pie release is based on a 4.14.x kernel. It therefore benefits from all our latest drivers/fixes. Just like our other branches, we will include latest security updates to it.

Source code access

For the newcomers, please make sure to read our "Android Getting Started Guide" since it contains all the information you need to download, build and flash an Android image.

For those already familiar with our releases, here is a condensed version to get the Android Pie source code: 

~/$ mkdir myandroid
~/$ cd myandroid
~/myandroid$ repo init -u git://github.com/boundarydevices/android-manifest.git \
       -b boundary-imx-p9.0.0_1.0.0-ga
~/myandroid$ repo sync

After that, you need to get NXP vendor package from here:

Then please extract it: 

~/myandroid$ tar xvzf imx-p9.0.0_1.0.0-ga.tar.gz

and then do as the following: 

~/myandroid$ cp -r imx-p9.0.0_1.0.0-ga/vendor/nxp/ vendor/ 
~/myandroid$ cp -r imx-p9.0.0_1.0.0-ga/EULA.txt . 
~/myandroid$ cp -r imx-p9.0.0_1.0.0-ga/SCP* .

Then you can safely remove the nxp package sources using the following commands: 

~/myandroid$ rm -rf imx-p9.0.0_1.0.0-ga/
~/myandroid$ rm imx-p9.0.0_1.0.0-ga.tar.gz

And finally you can build the android using the following commands: 

~/myandroid$ source build/envsetup.sh
~/myandroid$ lunch nitrogen8m-eng
~/myandroid$ make 2>&1 | tee build.out

As always, let us know your experiences (both good and bad) when you test out this image.  Contact us for any questions.