SDK build howto A31

Allwinner usually provides device manufacturers with a complete SDK that includes the matching u-boot and kernel sources (with some odd binaries), Android packages, buildroot, build scripts and a matching Linaro toolchain.

Development board vendors share the SDK with hardware owners to customize. This howto assumes you have such an SDK. This document is based on the A31 SDKs.

= Warning = This howto is not complete and the intention is to merge it into the original SDK how to.

= Contents of the SDK = The SDK is split into several parts, but the build scripts requires them to be complete.


 * android-4.4
 * lichee
 * build.sh -- main build script
 * buildroot -- rootfs, toolchain, and build scripts
 * linux-3.4 -- linux kernel
 * brandy -- boot related stuff
 * build.sh -- simple build script for u-boot
 * u-boot-2011.09 -- Allwinner's port of u-Boot
 * out</tt> -- build intermediaries and results. toolchain is also in here
 * tools</tt>
 * tools_win</tt> -- LiveSuit/PhoenixSuit tools and drivers
 * pack</tt> -- tools and configuration related to firmware packing
 * chips</tt> -- chip specific files (boot0/u-boot binaries, fex files)
 * common</tt> -- common config files and tools
 * out</tt> -- work directory for firmware packing
 * pack</tt> -- firmware packing script

= Android Build =

Once you have unpacked the SDK (the lichee directory in particular), you can go in a do a straight full build, which results in a LiveSuite image.

Configuring the Build
The SDK can build android or linux flavor images, and may target different boards. Running ./build.sh will list the options.

lichee$ ./build.sh -p sun6i_fiber

I found that this failed silently when generating the rootfs(see gen_rootfs_log.txt). The reason for this was that the treat warning as errors flag was set in makedevs.mk. By removing this then everything worked as expected. Running build.sh will produce binaries and images under out/ /{linux,android}.

Building Android
android4.4$ source build/envsetup.sh including device/asus/tilapia/vendorsetup.sh including device/asus/deb/vendorsetup.sh including device/asus/grouper/vendorsetup.sh including device/asus/flo/vendorsetup.sh including device/lge/mako/vendorsetup.sh including device/lge/hammerhead/vendorsetup.sh including device/softwinner/fiber-a31stm/vendorsetup.sh including device/softwinner/fiber-3g/vendorsetup.sh including device/softwinner/fiber-a31st512m/vendorsetup.sh including device/softwinner/fiber-w02/vendorsetup.sh including device/softwinner/fiber-common/vendorsetup.sh including device/softwinner/fiber-a31st/vendorsetup.sh including device/generic/x86/vendorsetup.sh including device/generic/armv7-a-neon/vendorsetup.sh including device/generic/mips/vendorsetup.sh including device/samsung/manta/vendorsetup.sh including sdk/bash_completion/adb.bash

android4.4$ lunch

You're building on Linux

Lunch menu... pick a combo: 1. aosp_arm-eng 2. aosp_x86-eng 3. aosp_mips-eng 4. vbox_x86-eng 5. aosp_tilapia-userdebug 6. aosp_deb-userdebug 7. aosp_grouper-userdebug 8. aosp_flo-userdebug 9. aosp_mako-userdebug 10. aosp_hammerhead-userdebug 11. fiber_a31stm-eng 12. fiber_a31stm-user 13. fiber_3g-eng 14. fiber_a31st512m-eng 15. fiber_a31st512m-user 16. fiber_w02-eng 17. fiber_w02-user 18. fiber_a31st-eng 19. fiber_a31st-user 20. mini_x86-userdebug 21. mini_armv7a_neon-userdebug 22. mini_mips-userdebug 23. aosp_manta-userdebug

Which would you like? [aosp_arm-eng] 13

=
=============================== PLATFORM_VERSION_CODENAME=REL PLATFORM_VERSION=4.4.2 TARGET_PRODUCT=fiber_3g TARGET_BUILD_VARIANT=eng TARGET_BUILD_TYPE=release TARGET_BUILD_APPS= TARGET_ARCH=arm TARGET_ARCH_VARIANT=armv7-a-neon TARGET_CPU_VARIANT=cortex-a7 HOST_ARCH=x86 HOST_OS=linux HOST_OS_EXTRA=Linux-3.2.0-68-generic-x86_64-with-Ubuntu-12.04-precise HOST_BUILD_TYPE=release BUILD_ID=KOT49H OUT_DIR=out

=
===============================

android4.4$make This should create the image files that are needed for packing.

Packing the Image
Run the following command to pack the final LiveSuit image.

lichee$ ./build.sh pack

I found that the packing script was looking for the CRANE_IMAGE_OUT variable to be set. I know this is done by vendorsetup.sh in android4.4/device/softwinner/fibercommon but I haven't worked out what calls that. In the end I added this line to lichee/tools/pack_brandy/pack

CRANE_IMAGE_OUT=../../../../android4.4/out/target/product/fiber-3g

The resulting file that can flashed using LiveSuit can be found lichee/tools/pack_brandy. In this case it's called sun6i_android_fiber-3g.img