CX-01 "Android Cloud Stick": is this Linuxable?

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starhawk

[H]F Junkie
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Hay guys. What's going on in this thread is this:

I have a CX-01 "WiFi & TV Cloud Stick". The box makes these preposterous claims (I've corrected the atrocious spilling,grammer mistakes all over the place):
DDR3 Memory
3D GPU Inside (Mali 400)
1.0 GHz (max.) CPU speed
HDMI 1.4 Compliant
HD video decoder (1080P @ 60FPS)
HD video encoder (1080P @ 30FPS)
PMU (Power Management Unit)
Support for 802.11b/g (maybe n?) within the 2.4GHz frequency band (internal adapter that can't find it's own ass, let alone an actual network, to save its life)

Here's some information that's actually useful:
http://www.cnx-software.com/2012/06...v-box-powered-by-telechips-tcc8923-cortex-a5/

Here's why I'm posting all of this information. I have a special loathing for Android with keyboard and mouse. The cursor is the size of my mother's best meatloaf (not a slice, but the whole pan). The UI is generally awkward (right-click to go back? What the FUCK.). I can't figure out how to get to the 'shut this fucking thing off' menu (CTRL+ALT+DEL semi-fortunately provides a reset, during which the power cord can be yanked. Thanks guys.)

Etc.

What I do love is the power consumption, believe it or not. I had, as my test setup earlier today: the CX-01, an HDMI->VGA+Audio converter from eBay (it works!), and a USB hub with a compact keyboard and boring Targus wired mouse. (I usually avoid Targus, the way I avoid copperhead snakes and tuberculosis and that sort of stuff, but someone up and gave me this a couple months ago and it hasn't died yet, so I guess the brand might be improving a little.)

Oh yeah, and I was running this whole thing off a USB-Micro wall wart which puts out a maximum of 5.5W. I really don't think I was using much of that... I didn't smoke the adapter and it's one of those "does this have anything inside the case" sort of things so it probably couldn't handle more than 3.5-4W outside the imaginary world of the people who write the labels for these things. Came "Free!" with a MiFi 4620L that isn't any better. (I'll save that lecture for Verizon. They've earned it, as usual.) I will never use the adapter that came with the CX-01 because it states that it is a "USB ADARTOR" that must "Be use only at home". Sounds perfectly safe :rolleyes: (Well, maybe for use as the firestarter for my woodstove, next time we have an actual winter around here. It's been two years without one of those, so far...)

So I want to put a real PC operating system on this doohickey, by which I mean LINUX. I know that my favorite distro (Puppy) has been made to work on the RasPi and the first-gen MK802, both of which have a different chip entirely from the CX-01. The chip in the RasPi is IIRC a Cortex A6, and the chip in the MK802 Original is Cortex A7 I think.

The CX-01 is Cortex A5. Whoopsie.

So what distros are there that might support this little ray o' sunshine? I'd sort of like something that's fairly speedy, not a total resource hog, and doesn't require a 30 petabyte download or some shit like that. One other thing... this contraption doesn't have a MicroSD slot. I've got to actually flash the firmware in the CX-01 to install a new OS. (I don't mind, I know how to do it. I think.) I do have backup firmware for it, though.
 
Sorry, but this forum isn't exactly teaming with a lot of Linux users. That, and you're zeroing in on a specific niche that not a lot of Linux users themselves have embarked on.

Off the top of my head, I would look into possibly considering using a Gentoo crossdev environment to build your own OS environment for the device. I can't speak from experience though. Just some stuff I have read on Raspberry Pi's.

Check out www.linuxquestions.org forums. You'll get a lot more hits there.
 
That would be sort of useful if I wanted to build my own distro... it's got the starting stuff there. But even simple humble make does some very horrible things (interesting things, but horrible things) in my presence...

EDIT: the above was in response to Shambler. I didn't see Ion Silverbolt's post until I posted, and I was about to reply when my laptop decided to freeze solid for the 2nd time in an hour. *sigh* it just got home from the compy shop, too...

@Ion Silverbolt -- I really would prefer to avoid being anywhere near Gentoo. I don't have good internet and my understanding of Gentoo is that it's a from-source distro so an update requires the system to spend literally hours rebuilding itself... no thanks.
 
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I still would like to avoid Gentoo. I'm familiar with Puppy, but aside from that I've only used Ubuntu -- and the Ubuntus I've used are oooooooold. Think 7.xx and 8.xx ;)

Also, as I say, even make does bad things around me :eek: proper compiling is way out of my depth.
 
You'd probably need to wait for someone to port some flavor of Linux to the device if you want it for general use. The other problem is porting software packages and any missing drivers for the SoC.

You're squarely in a complicated DIY phase at this point since there is little else available for the CX-01 but the Linux kernel source code. http://www.pandawillforum.com/showthread.php?12712-How-to-Building-the-Linux-Kernel-3-0-8-For-CX-01

Have you tried maybe tweaking the Android interface to your liking or installing a shell theme instead?

tl;dr fuggedaboutit until someone makes a linux distro for the CX-01, which may not happen.
 
I'll talk to my tech shop friend. I think he compiles his breakfast with gcc... dunno if he knows arm stuff tho.
 
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