New Device howto

This page contains a clear guide for bringing up a previously unsupported and unknown device, and for getting support into the sunxi repositories.

=Step 1: Find out all you can=

Before you rush into things, it really pays to find out all you can about your device. Bringing up a new board is not rocket science, but it is non-trivial and time consuming, so it pays to spend a few hours on google and on our wiki to find out what is publicly known about your device.

When googling, it pays to visit some android forum posts, as you will find a treasure trove of badly dispersed information. This ranges from basic android usage information all the way to device disassembly and pictures of the mainboard. If you are really lucky, someone will have posted information on how to expose the UART (serial).

As for the sunxi website, it is a really good idea to investigate similar specced devices with the same SoC. It often happens that devices get rebranded, which could mean that your device is already supported. In other cases, you might find similar hardware with only minor changes, which might ease the job at hand.

=Step 2: Create a wiki page=

If you have determined that your device is unique, then go ahead and create a new page

=Step 3: Retrieve hard data from the stock OS= =Step 4: Get a serial console (optional)= =Step 5: Add support to u-boot= =Step 6: Add support to sunxi-boards= =Step 7: Get your changes upstream=