On Wed, Dec 18, 2013 at 6:32 PM, Luc Verhaegen <[email protected]> wrote:
> I tried to order myself one of those cheap Q88 tablets with an A13 just
> now. Big was my surprise when i got it and popped it open, as i was
> staring at an A23.
>
> Bad news all round really:
> * fully locked down android, no root, no adb. I will give another root
> exploit a try tomorrow.
> * our fel utility does not work.
> * we of course have no code for u-boot or linux yet.
> * nothing on the serial port.
>
> This device is a really serious GPL violator. They even went as far as
> removing all open source licenses from the About section under android
> settings.

Before jumping to conclusions we need to ask Allwinner for the A23
Android source. I suspect they will provide that as soon you are able
to locate someone who can fulfill the request. They've released the
source for all of their other chips so I wouldn't expect this one to
be any different.

Many people have been bugging Allwinner to put up a public git repo
instead handing out tar balls. I also wish they's do a unified Android
release that works on all of their CPUs. Will we ever get Kitkat for
the A10?

So the GPL violator here is likely the Q88 motherboard manufacturer.
First you will need to identify who it is. That is not a simple task
since it is unlikely to be the company that did final assembly.  After
you find them you'll need to explain the GPL to them since they
probably don't understand it.  I'd also be suspicious that this
company shipped a beta from Allwinner which wasn't really ready for
release.

Once the Allwinner A23 SDK is located it shouldn't be too hard to load
it and replace whatever this Q88 vendor did.

This is just a long education process for these vendors. Allwinner
appears to understand the GPL and seems to be trying to comply with
it. Now Allwinner needs to work on educating their customers on how to
comply too.


>
> What we do know:
> * two obvious serial pads (which are not sending out anything atm)
> * it tries to boot off SD when a likely candidate is there
> * it has a 3.4.39 kernel, and the /proc/config.gz was world readable
> (this is where the string sun8i was found).
> * HW is an A23 which is a bga, with an AXP223 companion
>
> Board picture is available at the device page:
> http://linux-sunxi.org/Ippo_q8h
>
> Luc Verhaegen.
>
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-- 
Jon Smirl
[email protected]

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