Microsoft Surface Pro 2 Marvell 88W8797 Wifi is working in lollipop-x86

[Mario Holzinger]

Hi everybody!

Only want to say that finally I got my internal Wifi working on my SP2

Only need to replace the firmware with the newest from marvell (git.marvell.com),+

and change the mwifiex kernel modul by replacing the automatic generated interface name from mlan0 to wlan0 in main.c (only one entry to modify)

regards

Mario

[Shogun Rua]

What about rotation and the G sensor?

[Mario Holzinger]

Issues so far
Type Cover 2 not working
Rotation not working
GPS not working
Bluetooth not working
YouTube Videos not working (working over chromecast)
OpenGL not working
...

I'm a noob, so this is the first time building something from source and fixing something.
I will see if I can get also a few other things working :-)

[Mario Holzinger]

Add Info for developers

 

Only need to replace the firmware with the newest from marvell (git.marvell.com) ==> 

mrvl/usb8797_uapsta.bin

and change the mwifiex kernel modul by replacing the automatic generated interface name from mlan0 to wlan0 in main.c (only one entry to modify)

    

change

wdev = mwifiex_add_virtual_intf(adapter->wiphy, "mlan%d",

NL80211_IFTYPE_STATION, NULL, NULL); 

to 

wdev = mwifiex_add_virtual_intf(adapter->wiphy, "wlan%d",

NL80211_IFTYPE_STATION, NULL, NULL); 

regards

Mario

[Chih-Wei Huang]

Thank you for the solution.
Will update the driver and firmware in next release.

[Mario Holzinger]

Great!

In the meanwhile I try to get more things working.

btw. 

Wifi is as stable as in my ubuntu installation, that means that sometimes the connection get lost and can only be reset by rebooting.

I don't know why at the moment but I think it has something to do with powersaving settings for the component

regards

[Mario Holzinger]

Got the Type Cover 2 working [Keyboard, Touchpad, Mouse Buttons]
Its a dirty hack but it works for now. 

So now I can hack without any external USB devices.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2183946&p=12844865#post12844865 

[Mario Holzinger]

Is here someone who is familiar with iio sensors (rotation, light, ...) ==> /sys/bus/iio/devices/...

And maybe also with the Surface Pro 2.

I can see/use the sensors in Ubuntu but do not know how to port needed drivers/modules to android.

thx

[Chih-Wei Huang]

Thank you for the info.
Will check that in next release.

For the post permission, it should have been fixed.
Please try again.

For those who just joined the group recently but can't post,
that's due to a default config error. Sorry for that.
Please drop me a private message, I'll correct it for you.

2015/2/10 上午2:47 於 "Belén Cebrián Sánchez" <bcs.d...@gmail.com> 寫道：
>
> Hi, Chih-Wei:
>
> First I want to thank you for all the work you've done with Android-x86. It's amazing, and it works so smooth even in live usb mode that it doesn't even compare with most solutions out there.
> I'm using a Surface Pro 3 as my main computer and I have a couple of things I want to ask you:
>
> 1) I think that what Mario Holzinger did for the Surface Pro 2 can be done for the Pro 3 as well. It differs in the chip that it's used, in the SP3 it should be the 88W8897 (I haven't confirm it 100% because I haven't found any number mentioned anywhere on Windows, but Anandtech said maybe it's a 88W8897, and I've also found that number being referred on the SP3 kernel done for Ubuntu). So if it's that instead of the mrvl/usb8797_uapsta.bin file it's the mrvl/usb8897_uapsta.bin.
>
> 2) That file, the mrvl/usb8897_uapsta.bin or some other in that mrvl folder has to be the file needed for the Bluetooth to work in the SP3 as well as the Wifi. Because in Ubuntu, doing this:
>
> git clone git://git.marvell.com/mwifiex-firmware.git
> mkdir -p /lib/firmware/mrvl/
> cp mwifiex-firmware/mrvl/* /lib/firmware/mrvl/
>
> Is how you get to work both the Bluetooth and the Wi-fi. There's this complete guide on how to get Ubuntu properly installed on the SP3 if you're interested.
>
> 3) The keyboard works perfectly well in Android as it is now. Inclusive the ñ key if you change the layout to Spanish =) If I recall correctly all keys work minus the function keys (brightness, etc). Backlight works also, but I don't remember if the backlight levels can be changed (increased and decreased), I would let you know later. That may change with the new Linux kernel 3.19 since they have added the drivers for the SP3 Type Cover as you can see under the 2.9 section of the changes.
>
> 4) I tried to install the last released image on a pendrive, but so far no luck. This UEFI thing it's a pain. Anyway, what guide should we follow to get an image installed manually? The guide titled (Guide) Install Android x86 4.4 on GPT UEFI computer (working ARM!).
>
> 5) Oh, I almost forgot. It is normal that I can't publish or reply to any message on the forum? I only see the option to reply privately, like I'm doing now. I remember that I had to request to join the group, and then I received a confirmation, clicking on the link opened this forum and I think I could reply and post then, but now every time I enter the option it's gone.
>
>
> Thanks!

[Mario Holzinger]

After reset my local modifications and switching to kernel 3.18 I mentioned that also sensors (rotation + light) and openGL is working great.

Time to focus on bluetooth and camera

[Mario Holzinger]

Am Montag, 23. Februar 2015 12:09:15 UTC+1 schrieb Mario Holzinger:

After reset my local modifications and switching to kernel 3.18 I mentioned that also sensors (rotation + light) and openGL is working great.

Time to focus on bluetooth and camera

Here is a iso image for testing

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B43N_UcsJhpjUHNaVEJLcmlXQ1U&authuser=0

now switched to efi images for future testing, because it makes my life easier. :-) ==> make efi_image -j4  

[Mario Holzinger]

I'm a complete noob so I have no clue why you can't boot.

I only build the source without modifikations, only replace the marvel Wifi/BT firmware with the latest one.

here is an other test with efi loader (not grub) maybe this works for you.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B43N_UcsJhpjWFp0QmRfWENwS2s/view?usp=sharing

[Mario Holzinger]

Am Donnerstag, 26. Februar 2015 21:36:39 UTC+1 schrieb Calle:

This is only for Surface pro 2 , it wont work for SP3.

This is not completely correct!

I build the sources which should fit to most of the x86 Arch's but the only optimization is the Marvell Firmware directly included for the usb8797 WiFi/BT adapter.

BTW: the firmware could also easily be changed by simply copy the bin file into the system/lib/firmware/.../mrvl folder and replace the old one there.

[Belén Cebrián Sánchez]

Hello everyone:

It's the same with my Surface Pro 3 and that iso image (the one called android_x86_3.18_Wifi+Type+rotation.iso). Everything seems to work well when you boot into the Android loader because you can see all the options there, but booting in a Live sesion doesn't work. You only get whole black screen without any messages, as Ludovic said. In fact, it happens with all the options: in debug mode and in instalation mode as well.

But the last iso works! And wow, it boots faster than any other Android-x86 image I've ever seen: maybe 2-3 seconds from I clicked on Live mode until the boot Android logo and straight to configuration mode where you first select what language you want to use. Aaaand, it gets better: Wi-Fi is working in the SP3!! Yay! =D I'm checking it as I type this and:

What works on the SP3:
1) Type Cover (touchpad also, but since I can't see the mouse it's not easy to use it)
2) Touchscreen
3) Surface Pen (as a mouse would, it evens do long-click)

What doesn't work on the SP3:

1) Automatic battery detection (it always shows 0% percent and it should be around 80%).
2) Bluetooth (I can't get it to switch on at all)
3) Rotation (nor with the TypeCover nor without it)
3) Physical buttons (Windows, Volume, On/Off button*)

The On/Off button would work if you want to shut down the tablet, but it won't show the On/Off menu with the options to change to shut down, change to airplane mode, etc.

And, well, the system as a whole is a bit unstable right now. It was working perfectly, and I was using the Browser to surf the Internet a bit and check how stable the Wi-Fi was and boom! It has completely freeze over. Now Android isn't working at all, I would have to force it to shut down. So in short, what I found that it's working now with this build instead of with 4.4-r2 one it's the Wi-Fi. Thanks for that though!


El jueves, 26 de febrero de 2015, 1:15:22 (UTC+1), Ludovic Petonnet escribió:

Hi, thank you for your work on Surface Pro tablet.
I have a Surface Pro 3 and when i test your iso, i start from USB and i select an option to start Android but after, i have a black Screen with nothing write.

I have just copy the contenant of the ISO on my USB key.

Have you got a solution for this problem ? :)

[Belén Cebrián Sánchez]

Hi again:

Not sure about what it's happening. If it serves, I disabled Secure Boot after installing Ubuntu 14.10 along my Windows 8.1 installation, so the boot order now is (if I recall correctly): Ethernet -> USB -> SSD.   And I also disabled on Windows the option to fast start-up, since it can cause problems when you try to dual boot Windows and Linux on the same machine. And how do you tried that img? I simply unzipped thewhole image in a clean pendrive and that was all, just rebooted and booting from the usb using the hardware keys combination.

A tip: try to remove any device that you have attached to your Surface minus the device in which you have the Android files, as I think it may search for a system in places you don't want it. I mean, if you have a wired Internet connection through an adapter, the Surface might not boot at all until you remove it and reboot without it being attached. It can happen similarlly with the Android boot process: I found it stucks booting up because sometimes it doesn't find the Android files needed to boot up all the way into the graphic UI and it hangs up in the part when it says Searching for an Android installation... (or something like that, I don't remember exactly).


Greetings.

El sábado, 28 de febrero de 2015, 14:41:01 (UTC+1), Ludovic Petonnet escribió:

Hi,

I haven't the same results as you with the second img file.

When i start the live mod, i'm blocked on the Android logo and after 1 minute, i have the message "Unfortunately, System UI has stopped.".

When i try to install, i select my hdd for partition and i have the message "Warning !!   Unsupported GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected. Use GNU Parted.

I have make a free partition on my hdd...

Cordialy,

Ludovic

[Mario Holzinger]

Hi!

At the moment I can provide you with 2 EFI images (I thing gapps are included in both)

make efi_img -j4 ....

for KitKat 4.4.4_r2

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B43N_UcsJhpjNHFyS2hUbWRBSFU&authuser=0

and Lollipop

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B43N_UcsJhpjWFp0QmRfWENwS2s&authuser=0

you only have to extract the content to your USB-Drive and boot from it

if you get that strange 

Searching for an Android installation...

unplug and replug-in the USB-Drive

It also happens to me randomly (dont know why)

[Mario Holzinger]

At the moment I'm sorry no new HW support from my side.

I'm investigating on the Marvell Bluetooth issue but have to start from the beginning how BT is working on Android.

I've found out that Android uses BlueDroid as BT-Stack not BlueZ like in older days.

The source code mentioned that the kernel modules (btusb, bluetooth and rfcomm) which I need to get a bluetooth device (HCI0) registering in the system are not compatible to Bluedroid and are blacklisted

Also the btusb.c stated our chip as blacklisted

when I manually start the modules I get an hci device in /sys/.../bluetooth/

But Android UI always switches bt on/off without establishing a connection

also the logcat output didn't geve me a hint so far what is really crashing

In Bluedroid sources I found a comment that the hci devices are automatically inserted from btusb but wehn btusb is really incompatibly to Bluedroid than I need to find the problem with that.

Extremely difficult for a noob like me. :-)

2015-03-16 21:59 GMT+01:00 Ludovic Petonnet <ludovic....@outlook.com>:

Hi,

Any news for surface devlopment?

Thanks

Ludovic

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android-x86" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to android-x86...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to andro...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-x86.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[Thomas B. Prost]

Am Mittwoch, den 11.02.2015, 14:43 +0800 schrieb Chih-Wei Huang:
> Thank you for the info.
> Will check that in next release.
>
> For the post permission, it should have been fixed.
> Please try again.
>
> For those who just joined the group recently but can't post,

... just for a test of it.
--
pardon me
Thomas

[yixi liang]

Hello!

I have try the latest image(lolipop) on my Surface pro 3.

what's work:

Wifi(But often broke without disconnect so I must reconnect it frequently)

brightness

sound

touchscreen

opengl

broke:

all sensor

all buttons

hope this will help you.thanks for your work very much.

在 2015年2月2日星期一 UTC+8上午2:46:45，Mario Holzinger写道：

[Mario Holzinger]

At the moment it is difficult to debug on the Problems with my surface because after the source changes to lollipop 5.1 I'm not able to build a working image anymore.

system is starting but the UI did not load. Only a black screen.

It is possible to switch to console by pressing ALT+F1 but the root cause for the UI issue is not found yet.

[Thomas B. Prost]

from android it worked :-(

[rbg]

Welcome to google's AUTOMERGER, appears to be without verification's yet that's hard to believe.......

[Mario Holzinger]

What does that mean?

Am Freitag, 27. März 2015 14:42:21 UTC+1 schrieb rbg:

Welcome to google's AUTOMERGER, appears to be without verification's yet that's hard to believe.......

Can I do something against my black scrren issue or is this something related to the sources that needs to be fixed on various places (comming from the 5.1 merge into 5.0.2)

I'm still not able to build a booting image and at the moment also http://git.android-x86.org/manifest seems to be unavailable.

==> repo sync not working because it cannot resolve the host (also on chrome error 404) 

[Chih-Wei Huang]

2015-03-27 21:48 GMT+08:00 Mario Holzinger <sandma...@gmail.com>:
>
> I'm still not able to build a booting image and at the moment also
> http://git.android-x86.org/manifest seems to be unavailable.
> ==> repo sync not working because it cannot resolve the host (also on chrome
> error 404)

Yes. I just noticed that too.
Asking the administrator to check it...

[rbg]

checked earlier today and there was major gateway outages on both east-west coast of US....tracert got to android-git ok but

not with browser...

[rbg]

wow...major overhaul or what....still down!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.currentlydown.com/git.android-x86.org

[Liao Ssin]

Hi!

I'm able to live boot Lollipop image but stuck on boot animation when I install it on SP3's SSD

kitkat image works fine on both live or installed

I'm now using grub2 from ubuntu 14.10

Do I need to do some extra stuff to get it work?

Mario Holzinger於 2015年3月5日星期四 UTC+8下午8時05分55秒寫道：

[Mario Holzinger]

Hi Liao Ssin!

I'm sorry but we are on the same page at the moment.

The current Lolipop 5.1 image I built also hangs before the boot animation starts on the SP2

I'm not that experianced to fix it at the moment but you can give it a try on your SP3 maybe there it is working.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B43N_UcsJhpjbkFDX2dzR09PWTg/view?usp=sharing

For me its bad because android-x86 is down at the moment and I cannot test different kernels,...

So I am on hold as long as I cannot sync my sources

Also the alternative source is not working, did anyone know if there are other mirrors I can use??

[Liao Ssin]

Sure, I'll give it a shot

Still I'm really impressed you fixed the wifi problem

Now I use Android x86 more than Windows as main OS
 

Let's hope the server will back online soon

Will report the result soon,cheers!
Mario Holzinger於 2015年4月3日星期五 UTC+8下午6時09分19秒寫道：

[Liao Ssin]

Seems like not working on both Live and Installed

But I'm able to get to bootanimation though

Mario Holzinger於 2015年4月3日星期五 UTC+8下午6時09分19秒寫道：

[rakan rabayah]

Did you happen to install Android-x86 using the type cover with the Surface, or would I need to buy one of those multi-usb ports and a keyboard ?

Thanks

[Liao Ssin]

I can confirm type cover works on Android x86

But sometimes it won't respond on grub menu if you connect it after boot up
rakan rabayah於 2015年4月16日星期四 UTC+8上午9時27分33秒寫道：

[rakan rabayah]

Thanks, got it to boot live. Just running into a few problems with the installation now. *sigh*

[Liao Ssin]

Haha,I truely expect every new Surface users will run into problem on the first time trying this

It just doesn't work in the same way as other PCs

Well,if you need help feel free to ask o

[rakan rabayah]

Well, while I'm trying to install Android on the Pro 2 I run into the problem that while prompted to which hard drive I can install it to, I only see sdb (flash drive) and not any sda# for some reason. I have a 9.8GB partition for Android on the hard drive as well, Ntfs formatted. Same problem while its fat32 formatted. I tried the detect drives option but it still doesn't find sda. Do you happen to have any suggestions on the installation process ? Should I format it to ext3?

[Mario Holzinger]

At first you need to create partitions on your USB drive and install it to the USB drive.

After that you can copy the whole partition to the ssd.

I know its confusing but as long as the installer do not work on the internal ssd partition and also formating is not that stable for EXT4 partition types we need to do this workaround to get ist installed on ssd.

There is a great tutorial here in google groups

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/android-x86/D85Jq02cLrE

Am Freitag, 17. April 2015 03:24:25 UTC+2 schrieb rakan rabayah:

Well, while I'm trying to install Android on the Pro 2 I run into the problem that while prompted to which hard drive I can install it to, I only see sdb (flash drive) and not any sda# for some reason. I have a 9.8GB partition for Android on the hard drive as well, Ntfs formatted. Same problem while its fat32 formatted. I tried the detect drives option but it still doesn't find sda. Do you happen to have any suggestions on the installation process ? Should I format it to ext3?

Since yesterday I got Android 5.1 booting into GUI.

new GApps are required and Kernel 4.0 is up and running but it seems only iso images are bootable at the moment (no efi loader so far)

Also Wifi is broken (authentification problems in live mode)

[rakan rabayah]

Keep up the amazing work man.

As for me I tried the method you sent me, got Android to start installing on the usb drive but then after it finished nothing was happening, just stuck on a blue screen with a terminal below it. By the way, was this the method you used to install Android on your SP2?

Thanks.

[Mario Holzinger]

Not exactly but it was the basic to get it work on my SP2

I rewrite it and posted it on xda-developers

http://forum.xda-developers.com/windows-8-rt/microsoft-surface/running-android-x86-surface-pro-t2989461

you can use this modification of the upper tutorial if you like

btw. the microSD method is not working any mor since the last Microsoft EFI firmware Update

[Mario Holzinger]

If someone like to test a 5.1 image with 3.18.8 Kernel:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B43N_UcsJhpjNXZHQVVJaXJaWjQ/view?usp=sharing

Kernel 4.0 breaks WiFi authentification

see Kernel 4.0 Thread if you like to test it also

[rakan rabayah]

I just got 4.4 installed on the Surface Pro 2, followed through all the instructions, ran into a problem with Grub booting to the wrong directory for the kernel, and here I am posting this post on my Surface Pro 2 using Android.

Thank you so much for the help, and yes I would like to test the 5.1 image.

[Liao Ssin]

Seems like stuck on the boot animation on live

Will try install later



Mario Holzinger於 2015年4月17日星期五 UTC+8下午11時35分39秒寫道：

[rakan rabayah]

Have you seen the Android-IA builds by intel? I tested one for the surface and it didn't have WiFi but it did have better screen resolution, for some reason everything seemed sharper and better.

[Liao Ssin]

Probably you should set the DPI in build.prop higher

Add this script in the /system/build.prop

#DPI

ro. sf.lcd_density=320

default dpi is too low for 2K tablet like Surface,320 is perfect for me

rakan rabayah於 2015年4月19日星期日 UTC+8上午8時41分53秒寫道：

[rakan rabayah]

I did but nothing changed, odd.  

[Mario Holzinger]

#DPI
ro.sf.lcd_density=206

That's the max dpi possible on the sp2 panel according to my quick Google search

[Liao Ssin]

Sorry for confusion

The lastest 5.1 build actually works on Surface Pro 3

I just pasted the grub files you provide on xda over my Ubuntu preinstalled

And damn! It finally works!!!

I have no idea why the ubuntu grub didn't work but at least I now can enjoy 5.1 on my SP3

Just a bit curious where is your grub files source from

Anyway,thanks for your hard work as always

Cheers!

Mario Holzinger於 2015年4月21日星期二 UTC+8上午4時24分48秒寫道：

[rakan rabayah]

I got my grub from Ubuntu 13 following the installation instructions by Draco in the other forum.

[Mario Holzinger]

strange!!

I also have this problem after android-x86 merge 5.1 sources,...

It takes some time for the devs to found out that a special commit creates the black screen.

BTW Android is loading completely, but the screen didn't show anything after the console starts the gui.

Console is still working (ALT+F1)

after reverting that commit I got an normal booting 5.1/5.1.1 image again.

My images has only 1 difference between the original source (the commit above) + the firmware file that enables the WiFi chip to work on androd.

everiting else was allready integrated into the original sources.

Am Donnerstag, 30. April 2015 23:32:35 UTC+2 schrieb Ludovic Petonnet:

Hello,

When i start live mod of Lollipop 5.1 with kernel 3.18.8 or Lollipop 5.1.1 with kernel 3.18.8 on my SP3, i have a black screen and nothing...

I can see that you haven't this problem.

Do you have an idea? :)

Cordialy,

Ludovic

[rakan rabayah]

I was wondering what other issues there seem to be in the 5.1 builds? I haven't upgraded yet and reading from the recent posts I don't think I should.

Thanks

[Matt Parnell]

What commit did you have to revert? I am encountering the same issue with my own builds for the SP3.

[Mario Holzinger]

cd frameworks/native/ 
git revert -n 6747be9fa 
cd .. 

[Matt Parnell]

Many thanks! I will give it a try.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the Google Groups "Android-x86" group.
To unsubscribe from this topic, visit https://groups.google.com/d/topic/android-x86/Rga96GUY7mM/unsubscribe.
To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to android-x86...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to andro...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-x86.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.