Intro

superbird (Spotify Car Thing) should and could be a brilliant device with a compact package, good enough I/O and a soc better than Raspberry Pi 2 W (although without WiFi and ports). Please keep in mind that this is an embedded device, don't expect it to solve any complicated tasks!

Anyway, if you still think this will become e-waste for you, you can for sure support this project by sending it to me :)

TRY EVERYTHING BELOW AT YOUR OWN RISK!!! If you don't know what you are doing, STOP.

Kernel repo: https://github.com/alexcaoys/linux-superbird-6.6.y

For notes on my kernel tweaks as well as support matrix, please refer to BUILDING.md.

Release

RELEASE_NOTES.md

Compiled Kernel will be available on Kernel Repo release section.

The only major issue now is the display refresh rate is not considered as 60Hz within the system, not sure what is the actual refresh rate though. Please refer to this issue for details.

My Buildroot rootfs is available on this release page. But Buildroot is pretty much a customizable system so do try it out on your own. It's amazing!

TL;DR

Beaware of all the consequences and you can get started.

Dualboot (Just to try it out)

Please follow the section Boot using stock partition table below.

Use the whole eMMC

Please follow the steps in PARTITIONING.md to repartition and restore the system image.
send env/env_full_custom.txt to the device. Please refer to the section Boot using custom partition table below for details.
after login using ssh, /root/first_login.sh to run some additional touchups.

Please read BUILDROOT.md for additional tips/details, etc.

Boot

pyamlboot: https://github.com/superna9999/pyamlboot (For pyusb to work, please check)
Restore partitions using superbird-tool:
- https://github.com/Car-Thing-Hax-Community/superbird-tool
- https://github.com/bishopdynamics/superbird-tool (maintainer seems MIA)
kernel params: https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/v6.6/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.html

In order for the display color to work properly, we need to bypass init_display within u-boot, you can either

restore uboot_envs/env_full_dualboot.txt using superbird-tool --send_full_env feature, or
enter from USB mode and then enter superbird-tool --burn_mode

Thanks @Fexiven for noticing this (our discussion here).

I took parts from superbird-tool and wrote the script for booting custom stuff: Please check amlogic_device.py.

Boot using initrd

All in one tarball is available on Release page. cd into the folder and ./initrd.sh to boot into initrd.

I created an Buildroot uInitrd image in case anything need an in-RAM system (repartitioning for example), please find it in Release and use initrd/env_initrd.txt in this repo to boot. You will need this often when you are working to build an embedded system (ie. Buildroot)

Please use python amlogic_device.py -i ENV_FILE KERNEL_FILE INITRD_FILE DTB_FILE to boot kernel + dtb + uInitrd from host. Please check initrd folder.

Boot using stock partition table

set active_slot=_b and clear dtbo_b partition. Otherwise custom dtb won't be loaded.

Create empty dtbo_b and boot_b partitions by dd and restore to device.
Restore new buildroot partition to system_b.
Use uboot_envs/env_b.txt in this repo to boot. (python amlogic_device.py -c ENV_FILE KERNEL_FILE DTB_FILE to boot kernel + dtb from host)

Boot using custom partition table

After repartitioning and restoring the rootfs as PARTITIONING.md.

Use uboot_envs/env_p2.txt in this repo to boot.

python amlogic_device.py -c ENV_FILE KERNEL_FILE DTB_FILE to boot kernel + dtb from host, OR
Send env/env_full_custom.txt to the device. Button 4 for burn mode, Normally it will load envs from bootargs.txt within mmcblk2p1 and then boot into mmcblk2p2 using Image and superbird.dtb from mmcblk2p1.

Partitioning

PARTITIONING.md

Buildroot

BUILDROOT.md

alexcaoys / notes-superbird