Dingoo A320 Guide

Updating the Dingoo

Software

It turns out that some version of the Dingoo, specifically the versions with a serial number that ends in HK, have problems running community developed applications and simulators. Luckily somebody figured out how to fix this issue and created a zip file with all the commonly used emulators with the fix applied.

I made a backup of my Dingoo "Games" directory before I copied the updated version over just in case but the updated simulators worked great. There is a sound blip when some of the emulators fire up but other than that I have found no problems. Before I found the "fixed" version of the emulators whenever I tried to run a game the Dingoo would just lock up in the browser window and I would have to hit the reset button to get it going again.

If you are trying to identify if you have an HK version simply look for the imprinted serial number near the USB port connection and see if it ends in HK. Its not all that easy to see as the lettering is about a millimeter high.

Firmware

There are both "official" and community based firmware upgrades available. The process is pretty simple: download the file, copy it to the Dingoo root directory and then reboot the Dingoo. The unit will see the file and start the upgrade process. Make sure the battery is charged up before you start upgrading and don't interrupt the update while its in progress or you could corrupt the operating system. I think there is a way to recover if you do this but try to avoid interrupting the update process.

I updated to the CFW-1.20-pof.zip firmware. I had no problems with the update and thus far it has ran fine. The only thing I think updating bought me, besides some cosmetic changes, was the Y-X button fix. Evidently the stock Dingoo firmware will not allow both buttons to be pressed at the same. This is an issue for some games like Super Mario World on the SNES. You would be able to pick up a turtle shell and jump without letting it go automatically.

The Reset Button

When I first got the Dingoo and started tinkering it seems to lock up regularly. At first I was alarmed by the frequency of the lockups but after the first week I was numb to it. The lockups have become less frequent since I updated to the HK fixed emulator but don't be surprised if you experience a lock up or ten.

One source of lockups was that my desktop runs Windows7 64 bit and initially I found the normal "eject USB device" functionality did not seem to work for the Dingoo. Later I figured out that I should click on the "Eject USB Mass Storage Device" text rather than the individual "Removable Disk" text on the task bar sub menu. Anyway, at first whenever I disconnected the device from my computer it would lock up and I would have to reset it. Also if there was any problem with a particular emulator or rom I was trying out the default action for the Dingoo seemed to be to lock up. Once you start putting native emulators and other community apps on the device plan on frequent resets until you know which programs are stable.

Dingoo Versions

There seem to be several versions of the Dingoo floating around on the market. They all look the same and have the same functionality but some seem to be lower quality and some have compatibility issues with the community developed emulators.

In general the particular Dingoo hardware version you want to avoid is the HK version. HK versions can be identified by looking at the serial number etched on the Dingoo near the USB port. HK versions end in the letters HK. From reading on the web the early HK versions had quality issues and all HK versions seem to have compatibility issues with the community developed emulators.That being said the Dingoo I have is an HK version. It did have the compatibility issues, which there is a work around for. As far as quality issues I have dropped mine rather violently three times so far and it keeps on ticking.

Dingux (Dingoo Linux)

There is a community based port of Linux for the Dingoo A320 named Dingux. If you have a spare mini SD card (or micro SD card with a mini adapter) you can create an image to make your Dingoo dual boot between the native operating system and Dingux. Once you have Dinux installed there are more emulator options available such as SNES9X and Stella, the Atari2600 emulator, and several shareware games like Doom and Hexen that have been ported to Linux.

Dingoo Dual Boot Installer

Step one in getting Dingux up and running is to install the dual boot firmware loader. There is a How To Install Dingux Guide floating around on the web that I basically followed. It's setup like a "Complete Idiots Guide..." and all the basic instructions are there but it is somewhat out of date:

1. Find the files you need - dual boot installer (I used dual_boot_installer_20090628.zip) and Dingux file system (I used local_pack_0.34_2k10_beta1.7z)
2. Figure out which LCD you Dingoo has via the instructions in the guide. If its not the ILI9325 or ILI9331 you are probably out of luck as far as installing Dinux. Odds are you will have the ILI9331 display if you bought your Dingoo recently.
3. Put the Dingoo in USB mode (reset while holding B) and plug it in. The display will go blank.
4. Manually install the JZ4740 USB Tool driver and run the commands in the install guide.
5. Click through the flash script on the Dingoo which should appear automatically after the updates via the USB Tool.

There are few issue I ran into while I tried this with my Dingoo.

Windows 7 Driver Signing

In the install instructions you will be asked put the Dingoo in USB mode by resetting with the B button held then plug it into your computer. Windows 7 will not recognized the device and the USB driver install will simply fail. To install the driver you can navigate to the device manager via the control panel and manually update the driver. When you try to manually update the driver in Windows 7 it will inform you the JZ4740 Dingoo driver is not digitally signed and Windows will refuse to install it.

To work around the unsigned driver issues this there are a few options not all of which are supported under Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit. The easiest option I found is to reboot then hit F8 repeatedly during the windows boot up screen. This will bring up a menu were you can load windows with the driver signing disabled. You will need to disable the drivers on bootup each time you wish to connect to the Dingoo via the USB tool.

Updated hwinit.bin Version for Newer Dingoos

The next issue that I ran into occurred while trying to follow the USB tool commands. Specifically the commands:

1. usbtool-win 1 hwinit.bin 0x80000000
2. usbtool-win 1 zImage_dual_boot_installer_ILI9331 0x80600000

After you run these commands the Dingoo is supposed to show you the flash script screen. When I ran these commands the display just remained blank. It turns out that the hwinit.bin file is out of date for some of the newer Dingoos. After a bit of searching on the web I found an updated file for step one hwinit_2_9331.bin. The new commands were as follows:

1. usbtool-win 1 hwinit_2_9331.bin 0x80000000
2. usbtool-win 1 zImage_dual_boot_installer_ILI9331 0x80600000

Note the the ILI9331 text would be replaced by ILI9325 if your Dingo has the alternate LCD display. Once I used the updated file the LCD came to life after the above commands were run.

Dingux Image File

There seem to be several different Dingux images from alternate developers. I found the most popular ones were from Toddler and Warpflash. I used the latest local zip from Toddler which seemed to work well enough. This file is in 7z format. I downloaded and used 7-zip to extract the files.

The guide will tell you to install the SD flash card in your Dingoo, reformat, and copy the files. Additionally the instructions say to use FAT32 when you format the card but they do not mention what the allocation size should be. Dingux seems to run with any allocation size but I looked around on the web and it seems like the native firmware will not recognized a memory card formatted with 32kb allocation size. 4kb seems to be recognized however. I wanted the native operating system to recognize the card so I could play music files on the memory card while using the native firmware. There are reports of Dingux running faster with a 32kb allocation size so you might want to consider sticking with the larger size.

After copying over the image files to the SD memory card you will find two zImage... files in the top level directory. Rename the one for your specific LCD to just zImage. To boot into Dingux hold the select button while you reset the Dingoo. If it all worked you should see Linux fire up and then an application manager launch. To play games you will need to copy over some roms while the unit is plugged into your PC as the Dingux images don't come with roms.

Using Dingux

Dingux Game File Locations

The mame roms for the classic arcade games (Pacman, Donkey Kong, Dig Dug, etc...) should be placed in \local\emulators\mame4all\Roms.

The Super Nintendo roms go into \local\games\snes\. You may need to create this folder as it was not in the image I installed. You can put these roms anywhere in the file system and browes to them but this seemed like a good place.

I the doom wad files go into \local\ports\prboom\. You will need to get the wads from a retail copy of the game if you want the full versions but the shareware Doom I wad is available all over the web. Version 1.9 is the most up to date version.

ScummVM (DOS Virtual Machine)

One of the ports installed in the version of Dingux I put on my Dingo was ScummVM. What ScummVM does is replace the executables of a bunch of old PC games with a new version that can run on multiple platforms (such as the Dingoo). The updated executable uses the original game data files to run the games.

The result is you can play classics like Sierra's King Quest series and other golden oldies on your Dingoo. I tried out King Quest I and realized I had forgotten how hard and unforgiving those games were compared to modern standards.