Flashing Updated U-Boot on Android

[tophneal]

RE u-boot: The script to patch u-boot on the eMMC is simple enough that it should just work, I don't think it's doing anything that would fail on chromeOS.

If for some reason it does fail I hacked a copy so I could flash to a specified device instead of the detected root; I used this to patch loopback mounted copies of ayufan's images so they're ready to use again if I need them. Just edit DEVID to point at the device you want to flash updated u-boot onto: https://pastebin.com/raw/EeK074XB.

You don't want to be working in crosh, either switch to the debug shell (ctrl+alt+f2) or drop to a proper shell from crosh by running "shell" and then switch to root. I usually just "sudo -i bash" as cronos (default password is "cronos") and away you go.

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I tried the ChromeOS build out for a bit last night and it seemed to work well. Netflix video playback seemed significantly smoother compared to Linux, is there better support for hardware accelerated video here vs the Linux builds? My only real gripe with the experience was the touchpad, otherwise the PBP makes a pretty decent chromebook.

I'm toying with the idea of running Android from my eMMC (might circle back to Chromium if we get an updated release,) but first I was wondering if anyone could tell me if the method above should work to update u-boot if performed through a terminal emulator with root. Obviously, I don't want to lose the ability to boot SDs.

[brent.thierens]

Did you manage to do this?

[tophneal]

I did not, though it should be possible in a few different ways, both I don't have the entire info required to do, though. But it should be possible if using a Linux on SD to write Android to eMMC, if you write a different u-boot after writing the Android image. Alternatively, it should also be possible to the same if writing Android to an SD instead.

[brent.thierens]

I did not, though it should be possible in a few different ways, both I don't have the entire info required to do, though. But it should be possible if using a Linux on SD to write Android to eMMC, if you write a different u-boot after writing the Android image. Alternatively, it should also be possible to the same if writing Android to an SD instead.

I tried this. However, it seems that the updated uboot doesn't work for Android. The active LED goes on shortly and then goes back out after flashing to the eMMC. Any suggestions?

[tophneal]

Which u-boot did you try to use?

[brent.thierens]

Which u-boot did you try to use?

The one from the default Debian repo, the same I use to fix the other images.

[tophneal]

I’m guessing you were probably able to find the correct addresses of the card to flash the uboot from one of the many uboot posts up here...

I’ll see if I can try on my PBP. Luckily I recently got a small usbc Dock, so I might be able to write to SD (my Linux currently lives on sd, which kept me from being able to try anything like this.)