Cubietech Cubietruck

Cubietruck is the third generation of the famous Cubieboard, and is the most full-featured board to date.

= Identification =

The board helpfully states "CUBIETRUCK".

There are two revisions of the A20. Since Feb 2014 it is RevB. The Rev state is not printed on the board and is not retrievable from the SoC. There is also no information regarding the differences of these revisions. There is evidence of different behavior and boot problems with older kernel on RevB cubietrucks.

= Sunxi support =

Current status
Mostly supported. See Tips, Tricks, Caveats below for more details.

Images
Go here to download

Android http://docs.cubieboard.org/tutorials/cb3/installation/cubietruck_android-4.2.2_releases

Lubuntu

Desktop http://docs.cubieboard.org/tutorials/a20-cubietruck_lubuntu_desktop_releases

Server http://docs.cubieboard.org/tutorials/a20-cubietruck_lubuntu_server_releases

Manual build

 * For building u-boot, use the "Cubietruck" target.
 * The .fex file can be found in sunxi-boards as cubietruck.fex

Everything else is the same as the manual build howto.

= Tips, Tricks, Caveats =

Fel mode
There is a button marked 'FEL' next to the full-size usb ports, which triggers FEL mode.

VGA
The Cubietruck is the only board to date that has a properly implemented VGA connector with DDC. Load-detection is also reliable. In future kernel versions (with sunxi-kms), VGA and the attached monitor will be detected properly and will require no intervention.

For now though, you need to edit the FEX file still.

There is one issue with VGA though. Due to bad PCB placement, there is some crosstalk between Wifi and VGA in certain videomodes.

kernel
stage/sunxi-3.4 supports GMAC, patches are pending to let GMAC talk to MII PHY as well, see here, review is pending.

U-boot
Patches for GMAC in U-Boot are submitted to ML, review pending.

u-boot does not work with gigabit ethernet

DRAM frequency
 arokux: 432MHz. that's the speed at which my board runs with sunxi bootloader, too. but look here:http://dl.cubieboard.org/software/a20-cubietruck/common/ct-v101_sys_config.fex  arokux: I simply do not know why 432MHz if the hardware can do 480... they downclocked it for security purposes in the first batch? tomee^: sorry, I have no idea.  arokux: I've heard somewhere that someone complained about overheating of the prototype tomee^: Turl may know.  dunno, we should ask benn

See this conversation on memory frequency problems.

Wifi
There is an AMPAK AP6210 Wifi+BT chip on board with PCB antenna, but it is not clear what exactly is inside:
 * Broadcom BCM43362 + BCM20710
 * Broadcom BCM4330 / BCM40183 Based Chipset
 * Cubietech says it is BCM4329/BCM40181

If your're using the Cubietech's kernel, you can enable the module with

modprobe bcmdhd

There is a parameter op_mode, which allows you to enable AP mode, for example

modprobe bcmdhd op_mode=2

For the linux-sunxi's 3.4 kernel, you will need a special driver, instructions to integrate and compile the driver with the sunxi-3.4 source code are avalable here.

Networkmanager
The Lubuntu Desktop images has NetworkManager running. It spawns its own wpa_supplicant, which is respawned once you kill it. This wpa_supplicant will also interfere with yours, if you want to configure WLAN Adapter by yourself. I have removed NetworkManager and was able to successfully configure WiFi.

wpa_supplicant -D nl80211 -B -i wlan0 -c <(wpa_passphrase YOUR_SSID YOUR_PASSWORD)

Bluetooth
This is a new or differently wired chip, status UNKNOWN, please test it!

Huang Benn said here (the cubietruck chipset AMPAK) ap6210 is a combo of wifi(bcm40181) and bt(bcm20710). the firmwares can be found here: wifi/bluetooth driver


 * Here is some info on how to get the bcmdhd compiled with workarounds / ideas how to overcome problems

 arokux:  CC [M]  drivers/net/wireless/bcmdhd/dhd_linux.o drivers/net/wireless/bcmdhd/dhd_linux.c: In function ‘dhd_os_prealloc’: drivers/net/wireless/bcmdhd/dhd_linux.c:5192:2: error: implicit declaration of function ‘wl_android_prealloc’ [-Werror=implicit-function-declaration]  arokux: I guess you should ifdef the DHD_OS_PREALLOC option for non-android builds... or I did something wrong  arokux: it comes from the bcmdhd driver compilation  arokux: when I disabled buffer preallocation for it, it went through  arokux: CONFIG_DHD_USE_STATIC_BUF=y broke the compilation. CONFIG_DHD_USE_STATIC_BUF=n made it work. maybe this flag should depend on android or some other build environment

Battery
Tha battery backups the power supply. It alows an uninterruptible operation. Depending on the battery capacity sveral hours of operation are possible.

The battery will be charged during operation. A 3.7 Volt Lithium polymer battery is needed. The connector is near the ethernet port (see frontside board pictures).

For kernel 3.4:


 * The battery capacity in mA has to be set in the fex file.
 * The current voltage can be read here /sys/class/power_supply/battery/voltage_now
 * The current status charging/discharging can be read here /sys/class/power_supply/battery/status

Cubietech Kernel source
There are kernels developed by Cubietech, they are supposed to have all features workin.


 * Kernel: https://github.com/cubieboard/linux-sunxi
 * fex and kernel config: https://github.com/cubieboard/cubie_configs

Reportedly AP mode does not work with the WiFi driver in this kernel.

This kernel is abandoned by Cubietech, but can still have something interesting, such as: https://github.com/cubieboard2/linux-sunxi/tree/sunxi-3.4-ct-dev/drivers/net/ethernet/allwinner/gmac

Expansion Ports
The cubietruck exposes 2 2.0 mm pitch connectors with lots of expansion possibilities.

= Adding a serial port = There is a nice 0.1" connector behind the USB ports, just plug in your UART adapter.

= Pictures =

= Also known as =

The cubieboards are a well known brandname nowadays and there are no rebadgers.

=See also=


 * FAQ
 * Cubieboard
 * Cubieboard2


 * cubieboard.org - official homepage
 * docs.cubieboard.org - cubie's user manual
 * Cubietruck schematic
 * cubie's download site