I have an MK802 (http://ibnlive.in.com/news/a-74-micr...259644-11.html)

It comes default with android pre loaded on it, but I want to have ubuntu, not android. The MK802 has a microSD card slot that I have put a bootable copy of ubuntu on, but am not sure how to boot to it so I can install. Any ideas?

Thanks!

I ordered one as well and have the same question. While I've been waiting for my MK802 to arrive, I've been doing some research. The best I've found so far is a site that talks about how to setup an SD card image for the Allwinner A10 processor that the MK802 has. Since I just registered to make this post, I can't post the link, but I can probably reply with it.

---------- Post added 06-06-12 at 03:24 PM ----------

http://rhombus-tech.net/allwinner_a10/a10_image/

Yeah I just found that post last night. Looks like a pain in the butt... Was hoping it would be easier, especially for the fact that they advertise this as running ubuntu/android. There is a small button that you can push with a paper clip near the "power on" light. I can't figure out what this does? Also I've noticed if you go into the android settings you can boot to recovery mode. Once you do that it takes you to a screen with a few options. One of them says update via external drive. I was hoping I could select that and try to boot to the micro SD card that has ubuntu on it. However you can select up and down on the recovery boot screen (with a keyboard) but I can not figure out how to actually choose an option.

Hopefully someone on here has had some luck, if so please share your knowledge.

The button you can push is the 'reset' button I believe. I saw a youtube video yesterday that had a MK802 disassembled and showed it. Doing a little more research, there is a produce with the same CPU called the Mele A1000 that has booted Ubuntu, the image is linked off this mailing list post: http://lists.phcomp.co.uk/pipermail/...il/003129.html

You could try DD'ing it to a microSD and then it (in theory) should boot from it.

What do you mean by DD'ing it?

dd is a linux/unix command for doing an exact bit for bit copy of a file or device. The image file from that post was likely created using dd and so you could use dd to copy it back onto another microSD of the same size (its 4GB when uncompressed). Once copied onto the microSD, it may be bootable and the MK802 might be sufficiently similar to run off it. I'm not certain since the post was light on details.

EDIT: rereading the mailing list port, it say, "It's a dd of 4G sd card", so if you have a microSD, its worth a shot.

EDIT2: If you are actively working on this and would like help, feel free to contact me via gTalk or email at bettse@gmail.com

Ok guys, thanks to EricBetts we were able to make some progress tonight. We were able to get ubuntu up and running on the MK802 android Mini PC. Here is what we did:

1. Download ubuntu image here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/download.my...lucid.img.lzma
2. uncompress the .lzma file after you've finished the download. (I used The Unarchiver for mac)
3. Insert a microSD card into your computer (I used a microSD to SD adapter so it fit in my macs SD reader)
4. Open terminal and create a bootable ubuntu SD card. Directions for different platform can be found here: (http://nookdevs.com/Nookie_Honeycomb...otable_SD_card)
5. Once thats finished eject the microSD card, unplug power from the MK802, insert the microSD card and power back on.

Your MK802 should automatically boot to ubuntu.

When it asks for which user to use select other and try user name: root, password: ubuntu

As of now everything works except I cannot access wifi network (probably because the ubuntu image had the wrong wireless card) So if anyone can help with this that would be great. Also I am unable to get bluetooth to work with my usb bluetooth dongle. Any insight would be great.

Good luck!

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Sweet, im still waiting for mine to arrive in the mail but ive already set up two microsds using the image posted above, can you speak any on the performance of the unit with ubuntu? Did it take a long time to boot? Are the menus laggy/snappy? Are things running decently at the least? I have a million questions lmao

The performance is decent. It won't break any speed records. It boots up surprisingly fast though. So yes I would say things run decently for sure. Although at this point not having wifi or Bluetooth makes this useless for me. Hopefully we can solve this issue fast.

Have you tried directly plugging into via usb or is it through a hub? also if you have a regular RF usb dongle you might wanna give that a try as well.. and Honestly you are the first person I have seen run linux on the mk802 most ppl havent even received theirs yet so im sure as time goes along and development progresses for a mk802 specific ubuntu image all the little kinks will be worked out

Hi everybody.
Michaelfisk, congrats for your work. I agree with alwayzbless, I think that you are the one of the firsts who has done this.
Just a thought about wifi, do you have any idea of the chipset that it has for wifi in order to look for the drivers for it? Did you try a wifi dongle?
Also, I would like to ask you if you had the change to try a usb stick and/or and external hard drive. I'm asking because I'm thinking in buying one of these a I would like to use it with ubuntu/debian and connect a enternal hard drive to it (at the same time you could copy the drivers if you found them thru a usb stick).
What about 1080p playback?

Thanks!

Yes, I have tried a USB thumb drive and it works great. I am still trying to figure out what drivers I need to get wireless up and running. I think for now I am going to go buy a Ethernet to USB adapter and use that.

I have not been able to get the device to do 1080p yet. Both android and Ubuntu default to 1280x720 with no option for 1080.

Strange, there are a lot of places where it says that it can do 1080p.
About USB capabilities: did you have change to try an USB hard drive? Did you need an external power source for it?

So I picked up a USB to Ethernet adapter today but I still am unable to get internet to this through ubuntu. When I go to system>administration>hardware drivers it opens up and says No proprietary drivers are in use on this system... dang

I will test a full external hard drive soon.

OK, thanks!
Just in case you didn't know, mele a1000 media player has same CPU+GPU than mk802 and ubuntu can be run there. So, maybe you can find some info regarding 1080p and maybe also about wifi in pages related to it running ubuntu! Just a thought!