GoClever Tab A73

GOCLEVER TAB A73 is a 7-inch tablet with Allwinner A10 chip sold by Goclever. It has 3400mAh Lithium battery (3.7V) and 371g of weight. It became very popular due to low price (90-150€), Linux support and some bargains in supermarkets.

Hardware

 * FEL/LiveSuite button in microphone hole
 * AXP209 power management unit
 * Realtek RTL8192CU WiFi
 * FocalTech v5 capacitive 5-point touchscreen (ft5x_ts), with extra touch buttons (Back/Menu/Home)
 * Elpida RAM chips (2 * 256 MB)
 * Samsung/Hynix NAND chips (1 * 4 GB)

Different hardware versions
There were 3 hardware versions (HwvX) released by GOCLEVER. They have different PCB, camera or g-sensor:

GCTA731207XXXX is made with the parts that were in stock - there are some components from HWv2. and some from HWv3. There are problems with choosing correct Android version for them.

Taking apart
To get access to PCB, you have to remove four screws on the ports side and then from opposite side. For detailed informations, watch this YouTube video (Polish language).

Linux
This tablet has big Linux ARM developers community in Poland. There are tested images of:
 * Ubuntu by Miniand (after changing script.bin to GOCLEVERs ones)
 * Debian (there is precompiled version specially for A73)
 * Cubian (there is huge tutorial how to setup it on this tablet)
 * Fedora (runs with A10_whitelabel_MID settings and GOCLEVERs script.bin)

Here is available kernel compiled for A73 HWv2 (cameras should work with guvcview/Cheese, but g-sensor needs packages and modified Xorg drivers that fully supports xrandr).

Android
Official firmware is available here

There is 4.0.3 MOD by Fatum, with zRAM, external Bluetooth dongle suppport, external GPS support, performance fixes, etc. for HWv1 and for HWv2.

Android 4.1.1 Firmware from LY-F1 is 98% compatible with HWv1 - only G-sensor works bad, and touch buttons (Back/Menu/Home) are not responding).

This tablet also supports Android 4.2.1 from Sumvision Astro+ (on HWv1 only gsensor and touch buttons are not working)

Increasing RAM
There is possibility to increase RAM memory to 1GB, but then we need to edit script.bin to detect full size of memory. This tutorial is both English and Polish translated. Also we can try to increase NAND to 16GB, but usually this makes system unstable.

Touchscreen driver
In most situations, there is need to recompile kernel with working FT5X touchscreen driver (commenting out CONFIG_FT5X0X_MULTITOUCH in drivers/input/touchscreen/ft5x_ts.h). Kernel for HWv2 have working driver OOTB.

Recovery
When using Android 4.0.4 or newer, after rebooting to non-stock recovery, tablet will hang on bootloader stage, and it will never boot. Only one solution is reflashing FW with LiveSuit.

It's unknown behaviour, only on 4.1.1 (port from LY-F1) there is possibility to use TWRP. Older Androids (2.3.4/4.0.3) support CWM without problems.

Linux problems

 * Pengpod images may work not correctly (graphical glitches and kernel panics after starting Xorg).
 * The same problem is when trying to access NAND memory in Fedora.
 * For now, only Cubian nand-installer works correctly, other tools causes kernel panics (this is also weird behaviour)

Modules list
/system/vendor/modules: 8188eu.ko 8189es.ko 8192cu.ko 8723as.ko Module.symvers RT2870STA.dat RT2870STACard.dat ar6003.ko ar6302.ko asix.ko ath6k bcm40183.hcd bcm40183_dhd.ko bcm40183_fw.bin bcm40183_nvram.txt bcm4330.bin bcm4330.hcd bcm4330.ko bcm4330_nvram.txt bma250.ko cedarx.ko dm9620.ko dmard06.ko ekt2201.ko es8388.ko example.ko ft5x_ts.ko gc0308.ko gc030809.ko gc0309.ko gpio_sw.ko gps.ko gt2005.ko gt811.ko hv2605.ko ldt6124.ko mali.ko mcs7830.ko mecs.ko mic-keypad.ko mma7660.ko mma8452q.ko mw269v3_fw.bin mw269v3_nvram.txt mxc622x.ko nand.ko nano_if.ko nano_ksdio.ko pktgen.ko qf9700.ko rlt8723a_chip_b_cut_bt40_fw_asic_rom_patch.bin rt5370sta.ko rtl8150.ko scsi_wait_scan.ko sichuang.ko sndi2s.ko sndspdif.ko ssd253x_ts.ko stk8312.ko sun4i-i2s.ko sun4i-i2sdma.ko sun4i-ir.ko sun4i-keypad.ko sun4i-sndi2s.ko sun4i-vibrator.ko sun4i_csi0.ko sun4i_csi1.ko sun4i_sndspdif.ko sun4i_spdif.ko sun4i_spdma.ko sunxi-ps2.ko sunxi-reg.ko tea5761.ko ump.ko usi4329_dhd.ko usi4329_fw.bin usi4329_nvram.txt videobuf-core.ko videobuf-dma-contig.ko x_mac.axf zet6221.ko

/system/vendor/modules/ath6k: AR6003

/system/vendor/modules/ath6k/AR6003: A31_Script.psr hw2.0 hw2.1.1

/system/vendor/modules/ath6k/AR6003/hw2.0: athtcmd_ram.bin athwlan.bin.z77 bdata.SD31.bin data.patch.hw2_0.bin otp.bin.z77

/system/vendor/modules/ath6k/AR6003/hw2.1.1: athtcmd_ram.bin athwlan.bin athwlan_mobile.bin athwlan_router.bin athwlan_tablet.bin bdata.SD31.bin data.patch.hw3_0.bin device.bin otp.bin

Memory informations
dram_clk = 384 dram_type = 3 dram_rank_num = 1 dram_chip_density = 2048 dram_io_width = 16 dram_bus_width = 32 dram_cas = 6 dram_zq = 0x7c dram_odt_en = 0 dram_tpr0 = 0x30926692 dram_tpr1 = 0x1090 dram_tpr2 = 0x1a0c8 dram_tpr3 = 0x0 dram_emr1 = 0x4 dram_emr2 = 0x0 dram_emr3 = 0x0

lsmod
8192cu 699270 0 - Live 0x00000000 dmard06 9846 0 - Live 0x00000000 stk8312 11299 0 - Live 0x00000000 mma7660 6918 0 - Live 0x00000000 bma250 7806 0 - Live 0x00000000 rtl8150 9913 0 - Live 0x00000000 mcs7830 7396 0 - Live 0x00000000 qf9700 9353 0 - Live 0x00000000 asix 24267 0 - Live 0x00000000 sun4i_csi0 32032 0 - Live 0x00000000 gc030809 15525 1 - Live 0x00000000 gt2005 16886 0 - Live 0x00000000 gc0308 15833 0 - Live 0x00000000 videobuf_dma_contig 5979 1 sun4i_csi0, Live 0x00000000 videobuf_core 19095 2 sun4i_csi0,videobuf_dma_contig, Live 0x00000000 cedarx 12607 0 - Live 0x00000000 mali 137075 12 - Live 0x00000000 ump 34655 19 mali, Live 0x00000000 ft5x_ts 47785 0 - Live 0x00000000 sichuang 12140 0 - Live 0x00000000 gt811 12536 0 - Live 0x00000000 ssd253x_ts 10017 0 - Live 0x0000000

init.sun4i.rc
import init.sun4i.usb.rc

on early-init export EXTERNAL_STORAGE /mnt/sdcard mkdir /mnt/sdcard 0000 system system # for backwards compatibility symlink /mnt/sdcard /sdcard mkdir /mnt/extsd 0000 system system mkdir /mnt/usbhost1 0000 system system mkdir /databk 0700 root system

on fs   mount ext4 /dev/block/nandd /system wait noatime nodev barrier=0

wait /dev/block/nande mount ext4 /dev/block/nande /data wait noatime nosuid nodev barrier=0 setupfs /dev/block/nande umount /data exec /system/bin/logwrapper /system/bin/e2fsck -y /dev/block/nande exec /system/bin/busybox mount -t ext4 -o noatime,nosuid,nodev,barrier=0,journal_checksum,noauto_da_alloc /dev/block/nande /data
 * 1) try to mount /data

mount ext4 /dev/block/nandh /cache wait noatime nosuid nodev barrier=0 setupfs /dev/block/nandh umount /cache exec /system/bin/logwrapper /system/bin/e2fsck -y /dev/block/nandh exec /system/bin/busybox mount -t ext4 -o noatime,nosuid,nodev,barrier=0,journal_checksum,noauto_da_alloc /dev/block/nandh /cache format_userdata /dev/block/nandk SEBY wait /dev/block/nandi mount ext4 /dev/block/nandi /databk wait noatime nosuid nodev barrier=0 setupfs /dev/block/nandi umount /databk rmdir /databk
 * 1) try to mount /cache
 * 1) try to format /databk

on boot

insmod /system/vendor/modules/zet6221.ko       insmod /system/vendor/modules/ssd253x_ts.ko        insmod /system/vendor/modules/gt811.ko        insmod /system/vendor/modules/sichuang.ko        insmod /system/vendor/modules/ft5x_ts.ko
 * 1) insmod key & tp driver
 * 2)        insmod /system/vendor/modules/sun4i-ts.ko
 * 3)        insmod /system/vendor/modules/sun4i-keyboard.ko

insmod /system/vendor/modules/ump.ko       insmod /system/vendor/modules/mali.ko
 * 1) insmod mali driver

insmod /system/vendor/modules/cedarx.ko
 * 1) insmod video driver

insmod /system/vendor/modules/videobuf-core.ko       insmod /system/vendor/modules/videobuf-dma-contig.ko        insmod /system/vendor/modules/gc0308.ko        insmod /system/vendor/modules/gt2005.ko        insmod /system/vendor/modules/gc030809.ko        insmod /system/vendor/modules/sun4i_csi0.ko
 * 1) csi module

insmod /system/vendor/modules/usbnet.ko       insmod /system/vendor/modules/asix.ko        insmod /system/vendor/modules/qf9700.ko        insmod /system/vendor/modules/mcs7830.ko        insmod /system/vendor/modules/rtl8150.ko        insmod /system/vendor/modules/bma250.ko        insmod /system/vendor/modules/mma7660.ko        insmod /system/vendor/modules/stk8312.ko        insmod /system/vendor/modules/dmard06.ko
 * 1) network module
 * 1) gsensor

insmod /system/vendor/modules/cdc_ether.ko       insmod /system/vendor/modules/cdc_eem.ko        insmod /system/vendor/modules/cdc_subset.ko
 * 1) usb tether function

chmod 0777 /dev/dmard06 mkdir /system/dmt/ 0777 system system
 * 1) set dmard06 attribute

chmod 0660 /dev/ttyS1 chown bluetooth bluetooth /dev/ttyS1
 * 1) bluetooth related permissions

chmod 0660 /sys/class/rfkill/rfkill0/state chmod 0660 /sys/class/rfkill/rfkill0/type chown bluetooth bluetooth /sys/class/rfkill/rfkill0/state chown bluetooth bluetooth /sys/class/rfkill/rfkill0/type write /sys/class/rfkill/rfkill0/state 0 setprop rw.bluetooth.status "0"
 * 1) change rfkill permissions for bluetooth power management

service dhcpcd_bnep0 /system/bin/dhcpcd -ABKL class main disabled oneshot
 * 1) PAN, Bluetooth ReverseTether Dhcp service

service iprenew_bnep0 /system/bin/dhcpcd -n class main disabled oneshot


 * 1) NOTICE: just for test git merge
 * 2) broncho zhongguomin at 2012-10-08


 * 1) wifi related service
 * 2) service wpa_supplicant /system/bin/wpa_supplicant -Dwext -iwlan0 \
 * 3)        -c/data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf -e/data/misc/wifi/entropy.bin
 * 4)        class main
 * 5) socket wpa_wlan0 dgram 660 wifi wifi
 * 6) group system wifi inet
 * 7) disabled
 * 8) oneshot

service wpa_supplicant /system/bin/wpa_supplicant -Dnl80211 -iwlan0 \ -c/data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf -e/data/misc/wifi/entropy.bin socket wpa_wlan0 dgram 660 wifi wifi group wifi inet disabled oneshot
 * 1) realtek wifi: support sta/softap/wifi direct

service p2p_supplicant /system/bin/wpa_supplicant \ -iwlan0 -Dnl80211 -c/data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf -N \ -ip2p0 -Dnl80211 -c/data/misc/wifi/p2p_supplicant.conf -e/data/misc/wifi/entropy.bin -puse_p2p_group_interface=1 class main socket wpa_wlan0 dgram 660 wifi wifi disabled oneshot
 * 1) wifi sta p2p concurrent service


 * 1) realtek rtl8723as bt hciattach
 * 2) service hciattach /system/bin/logwrapper /system/bin/hciattach -n -s 1500000 /dev/ttyS1 bcsp 1500000
 * 3) user root
 * 4) group bluetooth net_bt_admin
 * 5) disabled
 * 6) oneshot


 * 1) --- used for usi bm01a 3in1 module's bluetooth attach
 * 2) service hciattach /system/bin/hciattach -n -s 115200 /dev/ttyS1 bcm4329 1500000
 * 3) user root
 * 4) group bluetooth net_bt_admin
 * 5) disabled
 * 6) oneshot


 * 1) --- used for huawei mw269v2 3in1 module's bluetooth attach
 * 2) service hciattach /system/bin/brcm_patchram_plus --enable_hci \
 * 3) --baudrate 1500000 \
 * 4) --patchram /system/vendor/modules/bcm4330.hcd \
 * 5) --enable_lpm /dev/ttyS1
 * 6) user root
 * 7) group bluetooth net_bt_admin
 * 8) disabled


 * 1) --- used for samsung swb-a31 2in1 module's bluetooth attach
 * 2) service bccmd /system/bin/bccmd -t bcsp -b 115200 -d /dev/ttyS1 psload -r /system/vendor/modules/ath6k/AR6003/A31_Script.psr
 * 3) user root
 * 4) group bluetooth net_bt_admin
 * 5) disabled
 * 6) oneshot
 * 7) service hciattach /system/bin/hciattach -s 1500000 /dev/ttyS1 bcsp 1500000 flow
 * 8) user root
 * 9) group bluetooth net_bt_admin
 * 10) disabled
 * 11) oneshot
 * 1) oneshot


 * 1) service abtfilt /system/bin/abtfilt -d -z -n -v -b -s
 * 2) disabled
 * 3) oneshot


 * 1) bluetooth related services end

service stk831xd /system/bin/stk831x_set_offset class main user root group root disabled oneshot
 * 1) add by gandy

on property:sys.boot_completed=1 start stk831xd

build.prop from Android 4.0.3
ro.build.id=IML74K ro.build.display.id=crane_evb-eng 4.0.3 IML74K 20120504 test-keys ro.build.version.incremental=20120504 ro.build.version.sdk=15 ro.build.version.codename=REL ro.build.version.release=4.0.3 ro.build.date=2012年 05月 04日 星期五 18:33:28 CST ro.build.date.utc=1336127608 ro.build.type=eng ro.build.user=weny ro.build.host=Ingen-cross ro.build.tags=test-keys ro.product.model=GOCLEVER TAB A73 ro.product.brand=GOCLEVER ro.product.name=crane_evb ro.product.device=crane-evb ro.product.board=crane ro.product.cpu.abi=armeabi-v7a ro.product.cpu.abi2=armeabi ro.product.manufacturer=unknown ro.product.locale.language=en ro.product.locale.region=US ro.wifi.channels= ro.board.platform=exDroid ro.build.product=crane-evb ro.build.description=crane_evb-eng 4.0.3 IML74K 20120504 test-keys ro.build.fingerprint=GOCLEVER/crane_evb/crane-evb:4.0.3/IML74K/20120504:eng/test-keys ro.build.characteristics=tablet
 * 1) begin build properties
 * 2) autogenerated by buildinfo.sh
 * 1) ro.build.product is obsolete; use ro.product.device
 * 1) Do not try to parse ro.build.description or .fingerprint
 * 1) end build properties

ro.com.android.dateformat=MM-dd-yyyy ro.config.ringtone=Ring_Synth_04.ogg ro.config.notification_sound=pixiedust.ogg ro.config.alarm_alert=Alarm_Classic.ogg dalvik.vm.heapstartsize=5m dalvik.vm.heapgrowthlimit=48m dalvik.vm.heapsize=256m ro.kernel.android.checkjni=0 persist.sys.timezone=GMT+2:00 persist.sys.language=en persist.sys.country=gb wifi.interface=wlan0 wifi.supplicant_scan_interval=15 debug.egl.hw=1 ro.display.switch=1 ro.opengles.version=131072 persist.sys.strictmode.visual=0 persist.sys.strictmode.disable=1 hwui.render_dirty_regions=false persist.sampling_profiler=1 persist.sys.usb.config=mass_storage,adb ro.sf.lcd_density=120 persist.service.adb.enable=0 ro.product.firmware=1.1.1 ro.setupwizard.mode=OPTIONAL net.bt.name=Android dalvik.vm.stack-trace-file=/data/anr/traces.txt
 * 1) ADDITIONAL_BUILD_PROPERTIES
 * 1) ADDITIONAL_BUILD_PROPERTIES

script.bin
Contents from bootloaders (4.0.3 and LY-F1 4.1.1) can be found here.

There are also decompiled script.bin files (in FEX format).

Similar devices

 * Texet TM-7025 (1:1 clone of HWv1)
 * Vedia X7 (1:1 clone of HWv1)
 * Bmorn V11 (1:1 clone of HWv2)
 * Eken T02 (clone of HWv2/HWv3)
 * Saycool A720
 * etc.

Additional informations

 * Platform name: sun4i_crane
 * Build product: crane-evb

External References

 * Specs from GOCLEVER site (unfortunately, new GOCLEVER site doesn't contain any infos about A73, we need to use archives).
 * All about GOCLEVER A73 (PL) - for example HW versions, cameras and g-sensors
 * ROMs and MODs for A73 (PL)
 * Android 4.2.1 from Sumvision Astro (PL)
 * GCA73 ICS Mod V1.4 2012-05-20 HWv1 and HWv2 (PL)
 * Problems with booting Linux - photo